While in Rome...

... Do as the Romans do! Rome is among the top two favorite places we went to (it's neck and neck with Paris). I don't know if it was the ample time and freedom we had or just the charm of the city, but I loved it.

We spent the morning driving into Italy and looking at the beautiful country side. It's lucky that all of Europe has pretty country side or our hundreds of hours on the bus would have been awful.
We got into Rome in the afternoon and pulled up a gorgeous drive to a nice looking hotel (looks can be a bit deceiving, but maybe that is just par for the course in Europe). It did have a beautiful courtyard out front that opened up into a huge park. Inside, the elevator was broken (or so we thought) so we hiked 3 flights of stairs every time we went to our room. Come to find out later, we just didn't know how to work the elevator.
We set out on the coach to meet up for our walking tour. Driving in Rome is an experience and adventure all on it's own. I can't believe the slightly organized chaos actually works. We passed many old buildings and soon realized that you can't go far in Rome without running into something with a very long historic background.
We met up with our tour guide and started our walking tour. We had to wear these obnoxious "whisper systems" that were sound systems that we could hear our tour guide. With the tour companies name emblazoned all over the lanyard, it was basically the mark of the beast and clearly labeled us as the stupid tourists. I loved it.
Our tour took us past an old palace, an old temple, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Navona Square, and probably some other well known places. Of all the places, Trevi Fountain was for sure our favorite. It is just amazing how you stumble upon it. You are walking down these tiny alley's and all of a sudden there is a big opening and there it is. It's just amazing! Don't worry, I threw in my two coins: one so I can go back and two so I will get married.
We continued our walk and ended with some free time in Novona Square, which was beautiful and held the magical ambiance of Europe with musicians, artists and locals milling about.
After our tour we got back to the hotel and were beat, another long day.

We were grateful for the next morning that we opted out of some of the available tours. We met up with the tour group later, which gave us some time to sleep in. That in and of itself was a novelty on this trip. The Vatican City was the first destination of the day. It was so fun to see. I never realized it was it's own country.

We drove over to the Colosseum. It was SO neat to see that. I didn't have many expectations, but it was so big and grand and old. It was one of those things that you symbolize with Rome and I was actually there seeing it first hand.
The rest of our fun day started here. We ditched the tour group and had the rest of the day all to ourselves. Does being in a new city with lots of free time and a great travel companion get any better? Nope.

The nice thing about Rome was that we could walk to most of the places we wanted to see. We walked past the Wedding Cake Monument (that's what they called it, but I have no idea what it is really) and continued on to the Spanish steps. Just the walk anywhere was fun. We walked past the fancy shops, the cute pedestrian alley's, the old buildings, and were among all the hustle and bustle of the city.

We made our way back to our favorite spots from the day before. We rested our feet as we did some incredible people watching in Navona Square.
And decided to end our time in Rome at the Trevi Fountain and watch it light up. We really did love the fountain and got in some GREAT people watching there. People initiating their own photo shoots is amazing!
We took a cab back to the hotel, exhausted from a long day of walking all through Rome. We ended the day with a little late night snack in bed (which also became a ritual on the trip) and got ready for our departure the next day.

I have nothing to really compare our hotel rooms to in Europe, they are just kind of unique. This one however, had a very interesting smell. We thought it may have been us and all of our wet clothes from Venice, but we soon realized it was coming from the drain in the bathroom floor. It was pretty gross.
Rome will always hold some of my favorite memories of the trip. The weather was beautiful and we got to explore the city Teri Jensen style, which of course is the best way to travel!