Roma.. the beginning

As Rob mentioned yesterday there really was nothing to Pisa other than the Leaning Tower so we were happy to ride the rails for 3 hours and get to one of our most anticipated stops, Roma. When we got off the train we found ourselves in the Termini Station, so large it has its own mall and series of restaurants. The station in itself was more interesting than Pisa. After a 5 minute walk and navigating a sea of pubcrawl fliers, we arrived at The Yellow, our home for the next 3 days. The Yellow gives a feeling of home as the majority of the people staying here are American. After getting our room all set up we decided that we would infact take a pubcrawl.

The crawl we chose included an hour walking tour prior to the festivities. We walked the streets stopping at 3 popular spots, Piazza Bernini, the Spanish Steps and the Fontana di Trevi. Our guide Tad was great even though he was not quite authentic (he was from Idaho). After the educational portion of the evening was up we made our way through 3 local establishments and came to realize how small the world really is as we were "crawling" with 4 guys from North York and 1 from Thornhill. It was a great night all around, lots of singing, "dancing" and new friends.

This morning we slept in a little longer than anticipated (insert "I told you so" here). Once we were all ready to go, we started our Roman conquest at the Colosseo. We joined an english speaking tour which was great as we learned much more than we would have walking the building ourselves. We then moved to the Palatino and Roman Forum, both of which were included in our tour. We were able to stand where the emperors throne was and view the forum were athletic competition took place. An outstanding start, even though it was extremely hot throughout our tour.

Once that was over we hopped back on the metro to Yellow for a break, where I showered and Rob and Kristen slept. Once we had our feet under us again we took to the streets to revisit the sites from last night to see them in day light. The Fontana di Trevi was especially spectacular. Looking through small boutiques took up the next half hour before we enjoyed a true Roman dinner at 9pm. We were beside an old Danish couple who were Very well travelled and wanted to know everything about us and express their views on the world as they knew it. A unique perspective to be sure although very entertaining to hear, even if we only got a sentence or two in every 5 minutes!

Now its time to call it an evening and prepare for a full day of sights and sounds tomorrow. The Pantheon headlines the list we hope to get around to before Friday when we have the Vatican lined up!

Ciao Bella!|