Roma - Day One

We woke up remarkably refreshed after our first night in Rome.  Normally the first night of vacation I don't sleep at all.  I guess all of these short weekend trips have broken me down.  Speaking of short weekend trips, these convenient little weekends away are really pretty remarkable.  We paid under 50 Euro per person round trip for out tickets... which is probably less than what we would have paid for RT Amtrak train tickets to Portland for the weekend.  Plus, the fact that there had been so

many holidays during the previous weekends in May allowed us not only cheaper travel but less crowded.  JFK gets American holidays off as well as German ones and since Marty does as well we have realized this is our best bet to travel.  Cheaper and less crowded is the way to go.
We were all excited that this hotel in Rome included a buffet breakfast.  The spreads at breakfast were always a highlight when we would visit Germany for the summer.  We have missed that

by living here.  So we were excited to try this one out and were taken by the amazing view of the Vatican while we ate our delicious breakfast.  Honestly, I booked the hotel based on the reviews of the breakfast alone. And it did live up to its high marks.  The hotel itself was just OK, totally fine but nothing special.  It was a bit like in the basement but it was fine.  I'm not as picky as Marty is about hotel rooms.  We got a significantly cheaper rate staying at this "Sister hotel" and just going to the main hotel for the breakfast. 

After breakfast we joined up with one of the "Free Walking Tours" which took us around parts of the city, including the Pentagon and ending at the Vatican.  By the end the kids were hot and tired and in need of a bit of a siesta.  So we headed back to the hotel for a bit of down time. 

Afterward we headed out again to see the Colosseum only to arrive just minutes after they shut down the tickets for the day.  We took pics of the outside in the glow of the evening sun and then ventured over to the Trevi Fountain and a bit more exploring before eating a fabulous dinner of caprese salad, gnocchi and pizza.  It was as delicious as Italian food should be in Italy and put our first night's dinner to shame.  We ended the night with Gelato and then headed to bed exhausted after a 20,000+ step day.