When in Rome...

That title should probably say "When in Florence..." because that's where we are, but I'm going to do some back posting to catch up. You may be wondering why I'm choosing to spend any time blogging when I could be exploring? The answer is pretty simple: 1) Our (AMAZING) hotel has free wifi, 2) it's a Sunday evening in a country that favors limited work hours, and 3) the weather isn't too great right now (i.e. rain and wind with spots of sun).

To back it up, we landed in Rome on Thursday in the mid-morning. Our flight from Seattle - JFK - Rome was turbulent and uncomfortable, but we both managed to sleep and/or deal with it. (One ::big:: issue was the lack of entertainment. I didn't realize how normal it was to have a tv in the seat back until we had to try and watch it from overhead TVs in the center of the plane...)

We did get a great look at the Italian coastline as we landed!

Once we got through customs (what a breeze!) and into the train station, we caught the Leonardo Express to the Rome Termini station. Our hotel was maybe a two-minute walk from the terminal.

Quick Story: We had opted to make our train reservations once we got into Italy to avoid spending a lot of extra money to have the tickets UPS'd to the US. I had read that this was a pretty common thing to do and didn't think about it again. I did, however, want to make our reservations ASAP. As soon as we got to Termini, we started the search for the reservation desk. For some reason, the direct train from the airport goes into the most-out-of-the-way-platform-EVER! It took us a good 30 minutes to figure out where we could do the reservations. Part of the issue was that we were looking for the Eurail Aid Office and not the main ticket counter...turns out they're one-in-the-same. Anywho, we waited 20 minutes in the line to make our overnnight reservations from Venice to Paris, only to be told "Sorry, train full" for three different days. We were exhausted, sweaty, irritated and a gamut of other emotions and I seriously almost started crying. Thankfully, Tim kept his cool and we had thought to bring computer along to upload pictures. We headed to our hotel, started searching booking sites and managed to make reservations for a hotel in Milan and a flight from Milan to Paris within 30 minutes. Plus, we managed to do it all for less than what the overnight train was going to cost if we had even tried to book full-price tickets. WIN! Tim later commented on how amazing it was that all of that could be done so easily these days.

Here's an inside view of our hotel (Hotel Palladium Palace) in Rome:

 Gotta love how a "double" is really two twin beds stuck together...with separate bedding.

We took an obligatory nap (seriously the BEST way to cure jet lag...Tim and I adjusted to the time zone without any problems) and then headed for the Spanish Steps. On our way we passed the Santa Maria Maggiore...

 Crossed through the Piazza Barberini and the Triton Fountain (we would see this many times during our trip)...

 And we found ourselves at the Spanish Steps...

 It was a beautiful and relaxing place to watch the sun go down over Rome with the rest of the tourists and some locals.

 After a bit, we headed south to the famous Trevi Fountain or Fontana di Trevi, as the Roman say...

 After needling my way down to the water's edge and tossing a euro in, a woman kindly offered to take our photo...

 That evening we ate our first Italian meal at Il Chianti. Pruciutto with melon and pizza is a great way to end the day!

Once we got back to the hotel we started researching for day #2, but when I looked over, I couldn't help but laugh and take a few pictures...

This will end up being a common theme every evening.

Ciao!