Rome is amazing!

Okay so I am finally going to try to wrap up our trip to Italy that we took in April. Wow how time flies. One of our highlights of going to Rome was that Les had earned an excessive amount of Hilton Honors points form his work in Puerto Rico the past two years. We had an amazing hotel, Hilton Cavaleiri Hotel. We were on the executive floor. Which meant we had an express elevator and an executive lounge that served snacks from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. It was nice to grab a snack before hitting a bakery in the morning, or getting fresh fruit after along day of walking. We stayed at the hotel for 4 nights. It was sort of an ordeal getting to the hotel. We had luggage and the metro was pretty easy to figure out but we had a map quest map to get us from the station. We thought about taking a cab but decided not to. Wow, we should have, it was a long walk up hill and to top it off it was sprinkling. We also had to be adventurous in the route we took because none of the roads went all the way through. Thanks to a wonderful local gal we made it by taking a short cut of sevral large stair cases, at least 100 stairs.

Once we got there and caught our breath, wow is all I can say. It had black out blinds, towel warmers, a double door to block out sound from the hall, and a comfy bed. I slept like a log at this hotel. I am still trying to get Les to install blackout blinds in our room (Ha)!
We tried to break up our days knowing that we had pushed ourselves in Venice and Florence. Our first day we went to the Colosseum and Palatine hill. It was surreal to be at the colloseum. It has been there for so long. Built by Jewish Slaves and we all know about what took place there. I am grateful that I am a woman now and not way back then. That is all I can say. Les had to have a picture although I think we ended up with at 20 pictures in and around the Colosseum.

This is a picture of the back of the Colosseum, obviously, since there are no other tourists in the picture. Rome had a ton of tourists but it was so fun. The streets are much wider then Florence, and the city just seems to be set up better. The metro takes you pretty close to most of the sights, so the walking wasn't quite as excessive as in Florence. The poeple were very friendly, the food again was incredible. There was a freedom in Tibet peace parade and me and Les were seperated for a few scary minutes. Les said go, so I went. Well, he stayed, I had to walk way back up the hill to find him and it wasn't easy. There were people everywhere.

The roman Forum was incredible. We had a "free tour" by an american that had given 1700 tours of Roman Forum. We ended up going on one of his tours later that week. We learned so much. We walked on steps that Julius Ceaser did. Wow can you imagine. So much History. The sights were beautiful too. Rome is much cleaner than Florence. We had no problem with pick pockets although there were a few scary situations. We had to be vigilant and we did talk to other tourists who hadn't been so lucky. We saw the circus Maximus, where chariot races were held and walked through palatine Hill.
We also saw the arch of Constantine, and tried to see the Pantheon. We did see the outside but it was closed for an Italian Holiday. We went back a few days later to see the inside. We went to the Piazza Navona. There were artists and performers all over the long piazza.

This picture was taken at the Triton fountain in the Piazza Navona. This piazza was crowded but had a fun atmosphere and some of the art work was amazing. I am going to skip talking about our second day for another time but I promise to try soon. On the third day we went to a museum called the Borghese Gallery. We had to have advanced tickets by about two months and it was somewhat inconvenient to get to via mass transit but it was so worth it. This gallery held beautiful , happy, artwork. Most of the art in Italy is somewhat depressing for understandable reasons, but the person who put this private collection together liked happy instead of sad (okay he was slimeball, but wow he had good taste in art). It alsohad one of the most amazing sculptures I've ever seen. Below is a picture of the gallery.

After the gallery we went to the spanish steps. Les was having allergies this day (go figure) with all of the flowers. The Spanish Embassy was being cleaned to it didn't look to grand but this attraction was slammed. Infact, we walked up the back stairs and down the Spanish Steps just so we could say that we did. The back stairs weren't crowded at all.

Okay so here comes my plug for the good old Mc Donalds. I know we are in Italy right, so why eat cheesy American food. Well I will tell you it is all about the bathrooms. The public restrooms are few and far between in Italy. Most of them you have to pay to use. But if you can find a McD's there is always a free somewhat clean restroom to use. At a McD's near the Pantheon I waited about 45 minutes to use the restroom. This may be an overshare but this is also when we found out I was most likely pregnant and boy was I glad I wasn't trying to find a restroom every two hours to use. That would have been a nightmare. So hooray for McDonalds. The food was somewhat close to what they serve hear although I did wait 20 minutes at the register when Les ordered a Mc Ckicken Sandwich. Stick with the burgers people. It is easier on everyone.

I made Les stand in this picture at the first McD's built in Italy. Near the Spanish Steps in Rome. By the way, It was huge and decorated beautifully for a McD's. We went to the Trevi Fountain on the third day as well, we also went the first day. It was crwoded no matter what time of day. But it was worth looking at . The aquaduct is amazing and although I have heard you can fill your water bottles all over I wasn't brave enought to drink any thing but bottled water.
We finished our third day in Rome with a swim in the pool. Yep, swim caps and all, then we rested for a few hours, and went out for a nice dinner. Well that is all. Sorry that was a long post and I'm not even completely done. But I will finish the trip recap another day. I loved Rome!