Doing Rome the Right Way

This past weekend my sister in law and niece flew in to Naples for a quick visit. One of the issues about living in a foreign country is that MUST SEE AND DO list.

When Marito and I arrived, we quickly went to Rome, saw the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, visited Pompeii and all that jazz.. Well, now that we have done these things, we kinda don't want to do them again. Does that make us bad hosts?

Fortunately this trip worked out great for us. Marito had to work a few days the ladies were here, so while he was working, us girls went out and did the things Marito didn't want to do again.

I took them to Pompeii first. I had only been once, where as Marito has been twice already, so I didn't mind going again. Pompeii is so big, so there is plenty of things I missed out on seeing the first time I went. We had a blast, my niece kept saying that every room was a bed room, a bathroom, a jail cell, or it was a bakery. To her, some of these buildings had 4 bathrooms side by side! Silly kid! She was definitely entertaining us with her teenage imagination- made the trip super funny!

We showed the family what our favorite Italian meals are. If you are ever in Lago Patria, the rotisserie place on Via Staffetta is to die for! You can't eat until 7 PM at the earliest, but the chicken is sooo tasty, it is totally worth the wait. And they put the french fries under the chicken as it cooks and gets the drippings on them. OH EM GEE YUMMO! Don't forget the fritatina pasta- friend mac n cheese!

Saturday morning we had a friend drop us off at the Villa Literno Train Station where we caught a train to Roma for 10 Euros each!!! It was a two hour train ride, not too shabby! You are going to pay 20 euros in tolls each way if you drive to Roma, and this way we didn't have to worry about gas or parking.

When we got to Roma, we checked into our hotel, dropped off our book bags (don't want to carry luggage around in Roma the day we check out), then we headed off to the Vatican.

When you first arrive at the Train Station in Roma, if you want to buy Roma Passes (30 euros) go to platform 24 and find the information desk. If you want the Omni Vatican Pass (85 euros) go to Platform 1. We were going to get the Vatican pass because it seems like the best deal, be we decided not to.

Roma has two train lines, the A train which is the orange line on the map, and the B train which is blue. Both of which intersect at the main Train Station. Super easy to travel on, and find your way. I learned at a young age how to make my way on a metro. My mom taught me in London when I was 13 and I mastered it in DC where she lives. I remember one trip where I ran away from a hotel and went to the Airport in London- boy did that plan back fire! That is another story, for a different blog, but thanks mom for teaching me the ropes.

Quick lesson in metro riding- you want to take the train with the end destination that will pass your stop. For example, the metro runs from A-Z and you are at stop S and want to get to stop M you need to get on the train headed to A. Does that make sense? I sure hope so!

Back to the Vatican! We arrive at the Vatican and get approached by tour guides, they are offering a 2 hour tour through the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and ending in St Peter's Church. The Line to get in was a 2 hour wait, and the price was 35 Euros. So we paid it, waited for the group to get larger for almost an hour. I was getting super ansty! The guide was cool. He told us what to look for in the Sistine Chapel, what each picture meant and who painted it. It was totally worth the 35 Euros. We received head sets so we could hear our guide talking in a microphone, which was nice so we could hang back a bit and not worry about not hearing him.

When we got into the Sistine Chapel, we left the tour group. I wanted to spend more time in there admiring the masterpieces. The tour guide exited stage right and we exited stage left. Stage left took us to the rest of the Vatican Museum. After walking for a bit I turned around and said "I just really want to see Mary holding Jesus." I was then informed that because I left the group I would have to go back and wait in line. WHAT?! So we turned around, went back to the Sistine Chapel and then exited Stage Right (tour groups only). We snuck through this door and pretended to catch up with our group and found ourselves at the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica.

We walked into this massive, beautiful church, and I remember a conversation from the day before where someone told me that you will hear "Oh My God" or "Holy Sh*t" in many different languages from people's first impression of this church. And it is pretty true- that was what my first impression was. of course I thought it, and didn't say it!

To the right was a crowd, and naturally I go to it. Low and behold is the statue of Mary holding the body of Jesus. My mother warned me about this beautiful, realistic statue. The compassion, and love resonating from it touched my heart. I cried. Never in my life did I think I would cry over a statue, but being in this church, staring at the piece of art- I was caught in the moment.

As we left the church, the Swiss Guards were changing, we stopped and watched- it was very uneventful. The best changing of the guards ceremony I've seen is in Athens, Greece- they are entertaining to watch!

The SIL and I maid a postcard home from the Vatican- it's 1.60 Euros for a stamp. Then we headed off to the Trevi Fountain.

When Marito and I went in August the Trevi was under construction (half of it was) and I was shocked to see that the scaffolding was removed! Just 2 or 3 weeks ago it was still up from what I saw from my Enterprise friends who visited in port.

My niece took her one coin and made a wish to come back to Roma. We made our way to the Coliseum, walked around it, and found a great restaurant. I wish I had grabbed the name of it, but we went there before and found our way back, so I know we will return next time.

The next day we got up and headed back to the Coliseum to go inside and check it out. Tickets were 12 Euros, and the wait wasn't too bad. It had started to rain, so all of the street vendors were selling crappy umbrellas for 5 euros. I talked them down to 4 and bought two, just in case it started to pour.

The Coliseum is pretty cool, the stairs a pretty steep, and like a dummy, I wore boots with heals, didn't bring a change of shoes and my feet were KILLING me both days. So naturally, I want to find some new shoes. After the Coliseum we made our way to the Spanish Steps- the widest staircase in Europe. Directly across the street is the high end designer section of Roma.

We went to Prada, Gucci, LV, Versace, Jimmy Choo. It was a girl's dream come true- if only we had a ton of money to blow.

My niece had just turned 14 on her trip out here, so we wanted to spoil her a bit and went into the stores. She had a great time looking at bridal jewelry in Cartier, trying on 600 Euro fur scarfs in Gucci, and then we went to Jimmy Choo and the sales consultant went and grabbed 4 pairs of shoes for her to try on, JUST FOR FUN!

The rain picked up so we left Roma 2 hours early. Amazingly we didn't buy anything to take back with us!

Their last day in Italy, Marito had to work, so I took the girls to Mt. Vesuvius and let them climb it. I have already climbed Vesuvius twice, and I didn't want to pay 8 Euros for a work out, so I stayed in my car and read a book while they had a good time. Afterwards we went to Compania Mall and bought a bunch of accessories, and shirts. That mall has 181 stores!

Before they caught their flight the next day, we went to Auchan to pick up a ton of candy and other goodies for them to take back to the states.

It sucks to see them leave, but I know they had a great time here, and I look forward to my next visitor. Mom wants to come out and go see the Costa Concordia (the cruise ship that bottomed out and is off the coast). Should be fun to take pictures there!