First Day in Rome

Our flight didn't leave too early from Switzerland, so we had a nice relaxing morning, got some good coffee at cafe Nord, and hopped on the 9:30 train to Zurich. Nothing too exciting happened on the journey to Rome, but it was a full day of travel with us not getting to our Airbnb until around 4 pm. Dispute being on the 5th floor, we didn't have any good views, which was disappointing since our Hotel was right next to the Colosseum. We nearly died making it up the 5 flights of stairs carrying all of our luggage, and then we struggled to get the door unlocked because the lock was a little bit sticky. The apartment did have a tiny elevator, but I'm not even sure one of us would have fit in it with our luggage.

We relaxed a little bit and then started thinking about dinner. We wanted to make it to the other side of town to get some dinner since I heard good things about the food in the Trastevere area, and we settled on a place called Dar Poeta that had freshly made pizza. The walk was long and hot, but luckily there was a breeze so it wasn't too terrible. The weather on this trip had been pretty mild and on the chillier side until we got to Rome, where we were hit with heat that we were not prepared for. Once we got to the restaurant, we ordered a liter of wine and some pizzas. While the pizzas were really delicious, we weren't that impressed with the wine.

After dinner we made our way back into the center of Rome to check out the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. The Pantheon was closed by the time we got there, and the Trevi Fountain was as packed as I remember it being the last time I was in Rome.

The sun was getting low so we planned to grab a bottle of wine at a grocery store and head to the Terrazza del Pincio, a park on top of a hill with good views overlooking the city. Our wine options were pretty limited because we didn't have a bottle opener and the grocery store that we stopped at had a limited selection of wine that was in a refrigerator. Still, we settled on a bottle of Prosecco and headed to the park. The sun was getting lower and lower as we made our way to the park and the sun had already set by the time we got there, but I still managed to take a couple of photos, and then Katie and I sat on a bench to drink our wine. We didn't like the wine because it was too carbonated to really hard to drink out of the bottle, but we drank a little bit of it while we watched the sky turn from pink to black.

Despite it being a rest day, I set a record for the most steps in a day, this time surpassing the 23,000 that we did on our "rest day" in London for a new high record of 25,000 today. It's ironic that our rest days have become days where we're walking around more than any of the other days on the trip.

Dinner in the Alley

We at dinner at a pizza place called Dar Poeta in Trastevere.

Dirty River

The Tiber River isn't the prettiest of rivers. We crossed over the Tiber several times during our stay in Rome.

On the Tiber

We stopped on one of the bridges going over the Tiber River in Rome and took some photos. The river itself wasn't all that attractive, but my subject was.

Pantheon

We stopped by the Pantheon after dinner but we got there too late since they were closing right as we showed up.

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain is a gorgeous fountain, and it's no surprise that it was packed with people. Luckily we were high up enough that most of the people stayed out of the shot.

Infront of the Fountain

We tried to take a few selfies in front of the Trevi Fountain, but we were too close and I couldn't get a shot of the entire fountain in the background.

Trevi Fountain

Sunset and Prosecco

We brought a bottle of Proseccoto the park to drink while we watched the sunset. We were a little late and the sun had pretty much set by the time we got there, and the Prosecco was a little too bubbly to drink right out of the bottle. But it was a good thought that had us coming back the next night a little more prepared.

Roman Sunset

We watched the sunset from the Terrazza del Pincio. We got there just a little too late with the sun already setting, but we got a little bit of color.