Rome, Italy [Day I]

We parted ways with our Peugeot at the airport in Rome.  It was sad leaving the car behind and becoming dependent on taxis and the transit system.  That being said, the traffic in Rome is worse than Barcelona, Paris and Firenze combined.  I am not sure the Peugeot would have escaped Rome unscathed.

We had difficulty finding a hotel in Rome that would allow 4 guests in one room.  Rather than book 2 rooms, we booked a suite at the Hotel Pantheon.  It is quite nice and very close to the Pantheon, Colosseum and several other landmarks in Rome.

 It also has two large bathrooms, which is nice after sharing tiny apartment bathrooms for 5 weeks.

Our first morning in Rome we decided to go for a walk to Trevi Fountain and try and orient ourselves to the city.  By the way, it is incredibly hot in Rome.  The temperature ranges from 38-40.  We are becoming experts at finding shaded areas.

Here are a few photos from our walk:

[I positioned the camera to catch the sun at the head of the obelisk in Piazza Venezia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_obelisks_in_Rome

We found our way to Trevi Fountain, along with about a million other tourists.  We threw our coins in, splashed ourselves with cool water and extracted ourselves from the crowd.

Here is Quinncy performing the perfect toss:

We than walked to the Piazza de Spagna and went into Babington's Tea Room at the foot of the stairs for some refreshments.  After pursuing the menu we decided that the kids did not need a 10.00 Euro glass of ice tea.  We exited the shop much to the embarrassment of Quinncy [for the record, I hated doing this as well].  Instead we walked to the top of the stairs and bought gatorade and gelato [which cost 30.00 Euros.  At this point I was starting to get wise to the prices in Rome].

[Going up the stairs]

[A view from the top]

We walked back to our apartment [after stopping at a specialty bake shop that works with fresh roasted pine nuts, pistachio nuts and almonds.  Here is a photo of 2 pistachio cookies that look questionable, but are amazing.  We have been back twice since]

We were a little hungry and decided to eat in the Piazza Pantheon next to our hotel.  Cristin and I each had a Caprese salad [fresh mozzarella and tomatoes], Ella had a green salad and Quinncy had a plate of fries.  The waiter was quite bad, forgetting our drink order, bringing the tiramisu with the main course [Ella has been sampling tiramisu throughout Italy] and I had to send back a portion on my salad because the tomato was inedible.  The bill came, 106.00 Euro [150.00 Canadian].  Lesson learned.  We have made several adjustments to our food intake, including no meals in a Piazza.  Ella did enjoy the tiramisu [she is pretty easy to please]: