We arrived at our hotel around 10pm Friday evening. Once we got our bags up to our room and we got unpacked, we decided to go out exploring. We realised that we had picked a hotel in a great location with so many things to see.
(The place below, is just at the end of the road from our hotel.)
After a short walk about the place we decided that we just had to try a pizza before heading back to the hotel for bed. So Friday evening at 11pm we had our first, real Italian pizza. It was delicious!
So the plan was to be up early and away at the crack of dawn. We would eat breakfast at 7.30am and be on our way by 8.15am!!! After 25 years you would think that we knew ourselves better than that - we are totally not morning people!! So our 8.15am start turned into a 10.15am start. By this time we had eaten breakfast and we were ready to face the world!
The first stop was The Spanish Steps. Our hotel was only a 5 minute walk away from them.
We explored the area around the Spainish steps, there were so many small, beautiful streets with so much character.
It was then on to Trevi Fountain, although we did get waylaid along the way! We kept finding more beautiful and interesting buildings and so off we went to explore them.
We did make it eventually to Trevi Fountain but unfortunately it is being repaired or restored so it just looked like a building site, that was a bit disappointing but we still could see the grandeur of it. We are amazed at the architecture all over Rome!! We can´t get enough of it!
From here we were going to The Pantheon but on the way stumbled across the building below.
There were also wonderful shops along the way. I met a strange but wonderful character in one of the shops but I did get the feeling that he wasn´t being totally honest with me.:-)
Dandering through the small streets with so much architecture makes such an impact on one!
Finally we arrived at Pantheon. WOW - WOW - WOW is all I can say!
From the Pantheon we headed to Piazza Navona but on the way just had to stop for an ice cream:-)
Once again there were loads of wonderful buildings to see.
We had explored one area of Rome by going around in a huge circle.
By 3pm we were exhausted, it was hot (34 degrees) and we had walked miles so we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. It was great having air conditioning in our room!
After resting for a few hours, we got ready to head out again. This time we decided to check out the area over on the other side of the river. We had heard that it was cheaper to eat over there.
What a fantastic atmosphere there was over in this cosy area. It was like something out of a film, but then again most of Rome is like something out of a film!!
We ate at the restaurant in the picture above. The food was delicious although there was a mix up with the orders. It was all rather funny.
First the people beside us got the wrong starter. After a lot of sign language that got sorted out.
Kristian and I had ordered a mixed Bruchetta for our starters. The waiter comes out and gives some Bruchetta to the people two tables away from us. They however have not ordered Bruchetta. The waiter asks who has ordered Bruchetta and off course we say that we have, so we are given this plate with one Tomato Bruchetta on it.
At this point I wondered if this really was our Bruchetta because I thought that we had ordered a mixed Bruchetta made up of 3 different things, but thought I maybe had read the menu wrong, or the waiter hadn´t understood us properly so we cut into the Bruchetta. We both were about to put a piece of what looked liked delicious Bruchetta in our mouth, when another waiter arrives with two plates each filled with 3 slices of bread with mixed Bruchettas on it. It was all sooo hilarious!
He takes away the tomato bruchetta and gives us the mixed one which is made up of one piece of bread with olive pesto on it, one with something I had no idea what, on it and a third one with tomatoes. We had eaten 1½ slices and still had 1½ slices to eat when the waiter appeared again, this time with our main course. We had such a laugh at this!!! Our table was loaded with plates of food! Thank goodness we hadn´t ordered dessert!
What we heard about it being cheap over on the other side of the river was right!!! We had a two course meal with drinks for 10 pounds each!
After we had eaten we wandered about the area and explored the different side streets that were filled with small restaurants and stalls with people selling all sorts of things.
Then I told Kristian that he was getting Silver Envelope nr 20. (I had forgotten my Silver envelopes at home!!) Kristian loves Jazz and so I had read about this Jazz Club that had local talents come in and play. I had found out that it was close to our hotel and so I was taking him there to end our evening.
It was such a cosy wee place. The singer was not that great - I have heard better but the musicians were very talented. Kristian enjoyed listening to the guitar and bass player. It was just his kinda of thing!
We walked back to our hotel via The Spanish steps. All so beautiful and romantic!
Our first day in Rome had been a great success.
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