Rome, Italy

When in Rome...

We found a quaint hotel to stay at in called Hotel Saturnia.  Our room was on the top floor, and neither of us had experienced sharing a bathroom with other hotel guests until now.  The shared bathroom we are happy to announce was just fine.  The hotel didn't provide breakfast but we enjoyed fresh baguettes and pastries from the nearby grocery. The perk about our hotel was its central location to all of the tourist sites, so we can't complain!

Our cute little Hotel Saturnia

We started off our day in Vatican City.  I loved that the city is protected by the Swiss Guards.  They almost look like circus performers in their uniforms.  I found it interesting that they are required to be of Swiss nationality too.

Jordan and I enjoyed a great half-day private tour of the Vatican City that we set up by our wonder travel stylist Linda Silver.  It was a good idea that we set up a tour ahead of time because the lines to get into the Vatican were very long.  Our tour guide, Chiara came prepared with special passes, and lots of knowledge, so luckily we got to cut the line and learn lots of history.  Note to readers: consider getting "skip the line" tickets prior to visiting tourist locations with heavy traffic.  

The weather was nice and cool for us at the Vatican!

We enjoyed the magnificent Sistine Chapel frescoes.  It was so beautifully painted, and we learned about the biblical stories that Michael Angelo chose in his work.  Even though Michael Angelo didn't get along with his commissioner, Pope Julian II, we were glad he went ahead and painted the Chapel so that we can still enjoy and appreciate his work.  It was very cool to set foot in the same floor that the Catholic Pope is decided on today.  

We found a great lunch stop a stone's throw from the Spanish Steps on Via del Corso.  Pastifico starts serving their homemade pasta at 1PM until they run out.  We suggest arriving before they open, and you'll be able to spot this little hole in the wall by the line of hungry Italians forming outside.  Every day the restaurant offers two different types of pasta, and a generously sized portion for just 4 euro. 

We had the rigatoni and pesto linguini...delizioso!

On our second day in Rome we downloaded the Rick Steves Audio Europe app onto our phones and took tours of ancient downtown.  The app was great, and we highly recommend it.  Rick takes you on a step-by-step walking tour of the downtown forum, palatine hill (location of the royal palace), colosseum (home to gladiator fighting) and the pantheon (one of Romes most ancient churchs).  

We took our Rick Steves audio tours through the Colosseum and Palatine Hill

Of these four places we were most impressed by the pantheon; it is hard to imagine the 50-ton slabs of marble being shipped from Egypt by boat, not to mention constructing a perfect dome and circle! 

Our final tourists destination was seeing Michaelangelos statue of Moses at St. Peters in Chains.  

There were so many historical sites to see in Rome, I now know why they say Rome wasn't created in a day! We enjoyed learning about the an incredible empire was built and were glad we got to see what is left of it!