48 Hours in Roma
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Originally written September 12th, 2019.
We'd been planning this trip since last year, and had our tickets purchased since February of this year, so processing that this trip is already here has been a little crazy! We flew American through Charlotte to Rome - finding this a much cheaper option out of Cleveland than trying to get to Athens. Greece was always the mission but why not have a few days in another city we all wanted to visit. It was very hard to pick just one Italian city to visit but we ended up with Rome after finding cheap tickets. (Ask Drew to tell you the story about buying our tickets ;))
Anyways, we arrived in Rome at 9:30am and made our way to our hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalari (thanks to Roxy + Michael), and were all majorly exhausted. We grabbed some chairs by the pool while we waited for our rooms to be ready. After getting into our rooms and taking a much-needed nap we grabbed the hotel shuttle to the city center and set off exploring. We walked to the Trevi Fountain which was insanely packed with tourists as it was 3pm, and did not throw pennies in... hoping that's not bad luck!! After seeing the fountain we set off for lunch electing to stop at a restaurant we passed because we wanted to sit down. Drew and I shared the pizza that Roxy ordered and both decided it tasted like Sbarro!! We're still laughing about that. We then headed to the Spanish Steps, and in my cousins Amanda's words, "the Spanish steps are just... steps." From there we headed towards the real good stuff, the Coliseum.
As is always the case in Europe, the evening involved a lot of walking, but seeing the coliseum in person is much like seeing the Eiffel Tower, it doesn't even seem real. I was definitely in awe of a lot of Rome considering how long ago it was built. The size of the Coliseum is unimaginable in how they could've created such an incredible and long-standing structure. We had run out of time to see the inside, so we ventured on in search of a restaurant Amanda had recommended called Ai Tre Scalini. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner of local wine, fresh mozzarella, and ricotta ravioli. Drew and I grabbed a bottle of wine before catching a cab home and enjoyed a glass on our balcony back at the hotel before eventually passing out for one of the most satisfying sleeps I've had in a while.
Waking up was no easy task as I think I might have slept too much, but once we finally got up, Drew and I elected to head to a cafe I had found online for espresso and croissants called Le Levain. We enjoyed walking the Trastevere area for most of the morning and would recommend checking this area out if you're ever in Rome. We eventually headed back to the hotel to lay by the pool and regroup before heading out to see the inside of the coliseum. It was great to see inside of the massive structure and read all about its construction and the features it had. I would recommend learning more before going! After seeing the Coliseum we strolled leisurely to our dinner spot Meridionale. Drew and I spotted a sign advertising local Italian craft beer, so we had to stop! The best part is Rome is open container so we were able to enjoy our beers from Berebene, as we continued to walk to dinner. We enjoyed a great birthday dinner for Michael at Meridionale, finishing the night off with an amazing Tiramisu there. We felt like we needed more Tiramisu + had half a bottle of wine from the previous night to finish off so we settled for wine and a Tiramisu from the hotel. Settled is a joke because the outside patio was fabulous and we had a great time enjoying the weather and the hotels view. Plus the outdoor pianist played Hang on Sloopy and I was the only one to recognize the tune at first!!
Overall, we enjoyed getting to explore Rome but I was very satisfied and ready to leave this afternoon. The city was graffiti and trash-ridden and although gorgeous was kind of sad at how dirty it was. Our cab driver here in Greece explained that Italy has just as many troubles as Greece so I'm left to wonder if they just don't have the funding for a "public works department"?? Whatever the case we liked Rome and would definitely suggest visiting!
We arrived in Athens at 9:30pm and once we got situated in our Airbnb, made our way to dinner. More on Athens tomorrow!
