It's so European, Part 3: When in Rome ...

By Cyndi
April 8, 2012

We took the train from Florence to Rome and navigated our way to our last hotel of the trip. Rome is triple the size of Florence, at least. We waited a few minutes for our rooms at Hotel Oceania and settled ourselves before we hit the streets for some sightseeing.

Smallest elevator ever -- very European

We saw the changing of the guards at the presidential estate and kept walking. It was tough to navigate Rome as every street went in a non-straight direction and half weren't marked, so almost every block, we had to reference the map. We found the Coliseum and then headed towards the Synagogue. Yup, there's one in Rome too, along with a block of Kosher restaurants, which were very busy because we were there about 4 hours before Shabbat Services.

We made it back to the hotel in time to check email and get our directions figured out for dinner. We headed out early, because if we were to sit at the hotel, we all would have crashed. The non-stop go-go-go was catching up to all of us. We located the restaurant and went looking for a place to have some pre-dinner wine. We found a little square with a  fountain and a little store, bought a bottle, asked the checkout guy to open it, which he did and gave us 4 plastic cups. It was awesome ...

We had a fabulous dinner and headed to the Trevi Fountain. We took a few pictures, threw in our coins and headed to the hotel.

Our last day, we arranged for an all day limo tour. We needed a guide to show us the sights and since we only had one day, we needed to drive to all of them. Let's just say, we saw it all .... Spanish Steps, Coliseum (on the inside), Pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel & the Vatican, and many other sites that I can't remember.

Coliseum

Spanish Steps

Pantheon

Pantheon

St. Peter's Basilica

Swiss Guard at the Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

En route to the Sistine Chapel

En route to the Sistine chapel

Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed, but we had to take one)

Overlook of Rome

Our Last Dinner ...

We woke up on April 1st and headed to the airport. We had slept maybe 5 hours and Mr. Taxi driver was driving like a maniac down streets that the van barely fit. I was thankful when we arrived safely. We checked in, only to find that Matt and I weren't sitting in the same row. Thanks United/Continental merging of computer systems. Once through security, I asked the gate agent about the seat assignments and she said she would page us. We couldn't understand any pages, so as they started boarding business, I went to ask again. I found out that we got our business class upgrade, SWEET!!! When we boarded, we found out we were right behind Michael & Ashley. We had a great, relaxing flight home, hung out in Newark for 2 hours, said our goodbyes to our AWESOME travel companions and made our way home.

It was a perfect vacation. Matt and I needed the time together, since we don't have too much with our different work schedules. Traveling makes me happy. Up next, 5 year anniversary trip with the guys .... South America ... and Southeast Asia. Oh and an African Safari when the guys are older so they can truly enjoy it!


Thanks to Nana & Saba for watching the boys ...... AND making sure we didn't miss the first steps or their first words .... :) Oh and do you want to do it again in 2014? (just kidding ... maybe?!)