Day 2b: Rome

5/17

We arrived in Rome again late in the evening and upon exiting the metro were shocked at how many people were gathered on the streets. Seemed quite random until we looked to our left and behold: The Spanish Steps. Right there.

We walked to our beautiful little hotel, jumped on the bed and OUCH! Bed was hard as a rock! Seriously, do Europeans not understand the value of a comfortable bed? I do not understand this.


After a quick clothes change and freshen up we headed back out to try and find some food. The surprising thing about Rome is how close everything is. We accidentally found the monument honoring "the unknown soldier" then accidentally ended up at the Trevi Fountain. The thing about them Romans... they GO BIG!


Trevi is fantastic! The fountain itself is beautiful but what is even better about it is the fantastic gelato (seriously! NUTELLA FLAVORED GELATO!! Divine!) and the excellent people watching. We spent a good long while there just sitting and watching. And of course we had to throw our coins into the fountain thus guaranteeing our return to Rome. I was amazed at the amount of water naturally flowing from the fountain. No pumps. Just nature.






Perhaps the greatest thing we saw while in Rome (and forgot to buy dangit!) was a calendar of "hot priests". This is no joke folks. And to be quite honest with you... some of them were actually hot! Update: I just checked and the good news is that you can buy the calendars online. Just search "calendario romano" and you'll find it. You can also see it previewed on YouTube. Hilarious!

We strolled back to the Spanish Steps to get a better look see. This is where we'd learn that Europeans love to sing. You know how at soccer (sorry... football) matches the fans are always singing? They do that on vacation too. Fantastic. There is a small fountain at the foot of the steps that serves as a drinking fountain for many gathering around. My first thought: Sick! We figured there had to be something magic about that water but would later learn that it is just really clean, natural and tasty water.


Finally we went back "home" and roughed a night on the rock hard bed. I'm not even kidding, we had bruises when we woke up.