Rome Italy Day 1

Yesterday was another long travel day for Jess and I. we packed up our things once again and headed to the bus station to get to the airport. Our flight to Rome was slightly delayed so we landed a half hour later than planned. Finding our airbnb apartment proved harder than we expected. We had to take a train into the city, the metro and then a bus. We got off the bus one stop too early by accident, but with the help of some not so fluent Italians we found our way. Our host can only speak a few words in English (which seem to have been rehearsed and memorized). Otherwise she explained everything to us in Italian and we just nodded along. We were shown our “Romantic Room” complete with a fake lion on the wall, purple sheets, and a canopy over the bed.

 We were exhausted from our day of travel but we still needed to eat so we headed to the nearest open supermarket. Sadly the two closest ones were already closed. We stocked up on food for the rest of our stay in Rome. We made our dinner and headed to bed. I must not have slept so well since Jessica says I was sleepwalking and talking all through the night.

We got up early on our first full day in Rome so we wouldn’t miss out on anything. On the subway into the city I made friends with an old Italian couple. I smiled and nodded while they spoke to me in Italian…all I understood was “bella senorita” – so they must have been nice!

 

When we arrived we walked along a major street hoping to find some of the famous monuments. We took a detour to see the Spanish steps. We were getting hungry but Jess had read that its forbidden to eat on the steps so our next stop was the Trevi fountain; we figured we could eat there with a nice view. To our surprise the fountain was under construction and we were left with a tiny little pond with a picture of the fountain. Jessica decided to throw her old Croatian Kuna in the mini fountain anyways, and accidentally dropped our map over the railing. Luckily a hotel nearby provided us with a new one for free.

 
We continued on our way and found the Pantheon. We explored the inside, and then sat down outside to eat our homemade sandwiches. We’re slowly getting better at saving money. We continued on our walk and stumbled upon what I will call a beautiful large building. Due to our poor knowledge of Roman architecture we’re not sure what it was but we’re glad we found it. After taking multiple touristy photos we wandered inside and found a military museum.

 

The next thing on our list was the coliseum, something you can’t miss when in Rome. After wandering through the streets a while longer and walking along the Tiber river we found the Roman forum. We were confused about how to enter and so we ended up walking around the whole outside before finding the entrance. For twelve euros each we got tickets to the forum and the coliseum. After looking through the forum we headed to the coliseum. Thankfully our tickets helped us skip the incredibly long line.  After touring through we were exhausted and headed home to make ourselves dinner.