Detailed Day 2 in Rome

our second day in rome started with a nice breakfast in our hotel. they have interesting breakfast there: there are croissants, jam, these crusty rolls, salami, prosciutto and cheese. so i ate a crusty roll (when i say crusty, i actually mean it in a good way. you know, those rolls that are crusty on the outside and soft inside?) with prosciutto and cheese. interesting but i do love some cheese! we then had to switch hotels because we got one night in this fancy hotel (thanks government!) and then since we were paying for the rest of the nights, we switched to a cheaper hotel. it was super cute though and small, which is something i like because i feel like you get to be friends with the staff. after we got our stuff settled in, we decided to walk toward the vatican. on the way, we saw LOTS of really great architecture.

this was a great tower/statue/thing we saw on the way

when you get closer, you can see all the figures carved into it

this is one of my favorite pictures i took

we walked along the river for a nice view and found some great bridges. this is a view from one of the bridges looking to the vatican.

there was a cute little park type thing that had some little carts selling different things and a carousel and benches all around.

on the bridge there were statues of various saints. i love bridges with statues and this was my favorite- birds landed on his head!!!

lp on the bridge

it's like a catalog shoot- ha!!

before we went to the vatican, we decided to find something to eat (it took a while for us to get there) so we wandered around vatican city before landing on pizza. i had pizza 4 ways- it had mushrooms on one quarter, artichokes on another, zucchini on another and the last had olives (sick!!). lp ate the part with olives. with our lunch we had some delicious wine because why not!

entering vatican city

vatican

lp at the vatican

me at the vatican

funny guys at the vatican

the line to get in was RIDICULOUS and it started raining, so we decided to wait to go inside and picked up an umbrella and walked to the trastevere area. there were lots of cute shops and we wandered in and out of them for a while, but it started raining harder so we decided to stop for a beer. we sat outside and watched the rain in a little piazza area. there were lots of statues (can you tell i kind of have a thing for statues?) so i took some pics.

it finally stopped raining so we decided to head back. we stopped in a few more shops and uh! so much cute stuff!! i also HAD to take a picture of one of the gelato shops. there was so much gelato in these places, it was hard to pick what kind you wanted when you got there. check it out-
yum! so we went back to the hotel and i took another nap. when i got up, it was almost 6 so i started getting ready and we decided to walk to find a place to eat. i had heard of this place that was kind of fancy and was supposed to have good seafood so we ended up heading there. it was soo good! they gave us prosecco when we arrived and amouse busche!! they are those little bites that start a meal- i love when restaurants serve them! we started our meal with oysters and tuna tartare. i had crab linguine for my meal and lp had something with prawns (it was good!). since we had decided to take it easy that night and not go out, we sprang for dessert, which i rarely do. oh. my. goodness. i had the BEST cannolis- the outside was white chocolate!!! lp laughed at me because i was in serious heaven. we rolled, er, i mean, walked home and i passed out soon after! it was a great second day!!!

Thank my mom for my detailed note taking abilities

my mom LOVES hearing about my trips. and when i say "hearing about" i mean a detailed, in depth itinerary including food, weather and clothing choices for each and every moment of my trip. (love ya big, mommy!) so when i go on trips, i take a little notebook and try to write down what all i do so that i can relate each moment as best i can remember for her. so mom, this entry (and the next few) are for you!

ROME: Day 1

i got in around 9ish in the morning. lp and i were a little confused and thought we'd land in different airports, but then when i got there i realized it was the same airport and tried to find him, but it was CRAZY and i finally met him at the hotel

like we planned. (lots of hugs and kisses.....) we decided to walk around for a bit since we couldn't check in to our hotel yet. since we were staying close to the spanish steps, i chose this for our first outing. to let you in on our trip taking awesomeness, i am a HUGE list maker. i don't like set plans, but i LOVE making lists of things to do and for this trip i'd broken down areas and put things to see and places to eat in each area- dork, i know. now, lp doesn't really ca

re for lists but his sense of direction is better than any GPS system i've encountered and so i just give him a map and tell him where i want to go and he is ON IT. so he got us right there.

view from the top of the steps

we had asked our concierge for a restaurant recommendation for lunch and she gave us a WONDERFUL place to eat. before we went, we stopped for a glass of wine because we were both sleepy but excited.

for lunch, i had some seriously delicious spinach and ricotta stuffed ravioli - i was about to lick the plate. so good. and they had this yummy bread. oh my goodness, i was in heaven. it was seriously great. (sidenote: the pasta in italy is so fresh and light and the sauces are not at all heavy, plus they have normal size portions so when you eat, you don't feel all gross and full like normal). after lunch, i was kind of sleepy because of the time difference so we went back to the hotel to take a little nap.

view from our room- another window!

i took a little nap (2 hours is little, right?) and then got up and got ready to go walking around that evening. (mom, i was wearing those skinny jeans with that bright pink/yellow/black sleeveless top that i bought with you- remember? and my cute fold over boots) we walked to trevi fountain and it was craziness. just tons of people and loud and blah! needless to say, not our scene, but we took some pics and walked on.

carts selling stuff on the way to trevi fountain

lp in front of the fountain

me in front of the fountain! we both threw coins in over our shoulders and made a wish. let ya know if mine comes true!

after the crazy tourist fountain, we decided to walk and just see what we saw and find some of the smaller, cute areas. we happened on this park. i thought it was cute and we decided to walk through it on our meandering around.
after checking out some little shops and some cool areas, we stopped and had a drink at a little outside cafe before we went to dinner. we took a cab to dinner and ended up that the place was closed! luckily, our cab driver took us to another place he thought was good and we thought it was pretty good (way to go, cabbie). although usually i do not do appetizers and drinks and dinner and dessert, this trip was totally different. we had an appetizer assortment and ordered a bottle of wine while we figured out what we wanted to eat. i ordered a bacon wrapped tuna steak for my entree (um, YUM!) and lp got a veal dish. after dinner, we were going to try to walk home. as we walked down the street, i saw this:
mmmm-hmmm, big old fish. the waiters inside were laughing at us taking pictures and wanted us to come in, but since we'd just eaten, we clearly couldn't do that. instead, i ran in and got the card so that we could go back later (more on that later). we kept on walking and let me tell ya, the wind was blowing and it felt like it was like 30 degrees so we completely abandoned that idea and caught the first cab we could find, went back and slept. i slept terribly, but it was a great first day in rome!!!!!!

Already?!?!

i haven't written on this thing in a while, have i? in my defense, i was snowbound for a while, which was so boring and gave me absolutely nothing to talk about. i don't really have much today either, but thought of a few things:

1. i thought i was sick yesterday. snotty nose, stuffy head, overall exhaustion. i hit up the nasal rinse with a quickness and let me tell you, it's absolutely disgusting but works like a charm! and it's not all druggy so i didn't have that added grogginess to battle. anyway, i feel much better today, so i'm going with a bad allergy attack. or S.A.D. (you know, seasonal affective disorder) HA!

2. it was GORGEOUS outside today! finally sunny and made me think spring was coming! unfortunately, the temperature did NOT feel like spring. can i tell you how ready i am for spring? got some cute new spring clothes and a cute spring hat and my feet are dying to get out of close-toed shoes. the time is perfect, if the weather would only cooperate.

3. i'm going to rome on wednesday! that's right, the one in italy!!! i keep forgetting that i'm going though, so i probably need to start the packing. yes, i know it's only thursday night but i have to start early so i remember to put in everything i need or i'll run off to italy with no underwear or something. laugh, but it's happened before. twice.