Arrival in Roma
Rome, Italy, July 6, 23:26
We made it. After nearly 20 hours of planes, trains, subways and walking we finally arrived at our hotel, the Spring House in the shadow of the Vatican walls. And promptly took a nap. It has been a long day and a half. Particularly draining was the flight from Washington DC to Munich, which took nearly 8.5 hours. Sleep was hard to come by, so we've had little of it since leaving Portland at 8A on June 5. Hence the nap. But we limited the nap to two hours so we can more quickly acclimate ourselves to Rome time.
Some may be surprised that we were able to pack everything in our carry-on luggage. Here's Katie in the Denver airport, a mere 10% into our odyssey.
After our nap, we headed out to see the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. We took the scenic route from our hotel and strolled through St. Peter's Square, taking in St. Peter's Basilica from the outside. We arrived at the Pantheon just in time to go inside for a couple minutes before it closed at 19:30. You can see the sunlight just catch the rim at the top in this photo.
Outside, the square was packed with locals and tourists, it's pretty clear that we aren't the only visitors in town! Here is a photo of the outside, as well as one of a horse drawn carriage where the horse is wearing a little hat. We thought our girls would get a kick out of that!
We ate dinner at a little sidewalk cafe in Piazza Navona, spaghetti and meatballs for Katie and homemade ravioli with spinach and cheese for Kevin. It went from daylight to dusk as we ate. After, we picked up our mandatory evening gelato, Kevin went with carmel and cream ("My goal is to have a different flavor every night!"), Katie had cappachino ("It was so good, too!"). And a little kid in town with his folks showed us how it's done when he asked to sample a taste of the tiramisu flavor.
We walked back to the hotel, and on the way got an awesome glimpse of St. Peter's at night from one side of the Ponte St. Angelo bridge, and on the other side the orchestra and opera were giving a performance on the banks of the Tiber River.
A perfect end to two very long days! Welcome to Roma!
We made it. After nearly 20 hours of planes, trains, subways and walking we finally arrived at our hotel, the Spring House in the shadow of the Vatican walls. And promptly took a nap. It has been a long day and a half. Particularly draining was the flight from Washington DC to Munich, which took nearly 8.5 hours. Sleep was hard to come by, so we've had little of it since leaving Portland at 8A on June 5. Hence the nap. But we limited the nap to two hours so we can more quickly acclimate ourselves to Rome time.
Some may be surprised that we were able to pack everything in our carry-on luggage. Here's Katie in the Denver airport, a mere 10% into our odyssey.
After our nap, we headed out to see the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. We took the scenic route from our hotel and strolled through St. Peter's Square, taking in St. Peter's Basilica from the outside. We arrived at the Pantheon just in time to go inside for a couple minutes before it closed at 19:30. You can see the sunlight just catch the rim at the top in this photo.
Outside, the square was packed with locals and tourists, it's pretty clear that we aren't the only visitors in town! Here is a photo of the outside, as well as one of a horse drawn carriage where the horse is wearing a little hat. We thought our girls would get a kick out of that!
We ate dinner at a little sidewalk cafe in Piazza Navona, spaghetti and meatballs for Katie and homemade ravioli with spinach and cheese for Kevin. It went from daylight to dusk as we ate. After, we picked up our mandatory evening gelato, Kevin went with carmel and cream ("My goal is to have a different flavor every night!"), Katie had cappachino ("It was so good, too!"). And a little kid in town with his folks showed us how it's done when he asked to sample a taste of the tiramisu flavor.
We walked back to the hotel, and on the way got an awesome glimpse of St. Peter's at night from one side of the Ponte St. Angelo bridge, and on the other side the orchestra and opera were giving a performance on the banks of the Tiber River.
A perfect end to two very long days! Welcome to Roma!
posted by Katie | 2:12 PM
5 Comments:
Sounds like it's been great so far...love the eating outdoors/wine pics. Looks quite romantic to me...
Just think how different your to-do list must seem from the one of just two days ago!
Ahh...
I'll look forward to following you along!
Enjoy
Glenn wants to know if you two are prepared for wild mayhem and merriment if Italy beats France late Sunday in the World Cup final...
Where will you be then? In the land of far, far away? Or perhaps standing in the middle of the crowd with yet another flavor gelato?
We are planning to find a great place to watch the game along with our Italian bretheran...maybe start some riots...
We'll be here in Rome, and we do plan to find someplace to experience the game with the locals.
I discovered recently that I like red wine if it's on the "sweeter" side... Just in time, as most of the italian red wines are! (chiantis and house wines seem to be fruitier). You guys are funny!
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