Rome, Italy

I have been trying to make it to Italy since 2004...10 years later and I am finally here!

Italy was at the top of my list of places to visit when we moved to Europe. Of course my family being warm weather people we couldn't just visit at anytime we had to come when we knew the weather would be ideal (warm, sunny, & absolutely NO SNOW). Even though it was at the top of the list it ended up being one of last places we went because we were being "weather picky." I'm glad we went during this time because the weather was beautiful during the entire trip.

Getting There

We flew RyanAir from Memmigen airport to Rome Ciampino airport; flight took about 1.5 hours.

*Special Note: I purchased the tickets about 2/3 months ahead of time and the price for 3 one-way tickets was 107euro total.  People may have their complaints about Ryan Air because it is a budget airline without any frills but I'm glad it is an option for European travel.  It has afforded a person like me, who is always looking for a good cost saving deal, the opportunity to see so many wonderful places in Europe and the UK. 

Colosseum

Forum

Palatine

Their is so much to see in here beautiful gardens, great views overlooking the the city, statutes, monuments, empires former dwellings, museums, etc. We were in this area for hours and didn't even realize it.

Boni Gardens

playing with a cute little rabbit we found

The Staduim

Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps are surrounded by tons of high end stores.

Trevi Fountain

My favorite!! It was so beautiful & the water was glistening clear. I could have stayed and sat in front of the fountain all day (if it wasn't so crowded; too many people everywhere). I put in a request to my hubby to have a replica of the Trevi Fountain in the backyard of our next home as our swimming pool.

 Tossing a coin in the fountain

*Special Note: the legend is if you toss one coin in the fountain it will bring you good luck. If you toss 2 coins in the fountain you will fall in love with a beautiful Roman girl or handsome Roman boy. If you toss 3 coins in the fountain you will return to Roman and marry that love.

Since I am already married to my handsome love I only tossed in 1 coin...superstitions aside the city regularly cleans out the fountain and donates the money to charity.

Vatican City--St. Peter's Square

Street vendors are everywhere in this area hassling you to be buy something (tons of fake purse vendors) and trying to sell you tour tickets; and they can get pretty aggressive and extremely annoying.

This one street in the same area (the street where McDonalds is) has tons of vendor carts/tables up and down the sidewalk selling all kinds of clothes and shoes for low prices.  They had a lot of nice items (it was so crowded with pushy shoppers and in such a tight space it was hard to see everything) I picked up a pair of cute flats for 6euro.

Around the City

graffiti is all over this city 

Good Eats

For some reason I'm not too certain of I didn't take any pictures of my food during this trip.  However, I have tons of gelato pictures. I did eat the most amazingly delicious seafood risotto at this restaurant directly behind the Colosseum. Packed with clams, oysters, prawns, squid, crab...deliciously rich one of the best things I have eaten in Europe. I think we only sat down and ate at a restaurant twice most of the time it was sandwiches to go or swing by the grocery store and do some cooking in the apartment.

*Special Note: in Italy restaurants, sandwich shops (any place that serves food and has a table and chairs) charge a sitting fee of 2euro per person not to mention the food/drink prices are already so ridiculously expensive.

*Special Note: there are food truck vendors all around especially near the tourist attractions and if you buy a small gelato from them it will cost you 4euro. Just take a few steps to a side street b/c they sell gelato on every corner and the same cone will cost you 2/2.50 euro.

Lodging

We rented an apartment off of airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/825367. It was in an amazing location right across the street from the Colosseum (less then 1 minute walking distance) you could see it from the front door. Very spacious, extremely clean, beautiful secure building, and housekeeping will come and clean everyday.