Rome, Italy

The sun was already setting(around 4:30!) and we had missed lunch that day thanks to our flights, so we had ourselves an early Italian dinner directly across the street from the Coliseum. I mean, the view was okay I guess 😉

We were going to do all of the primary tourist stops on Saturday, so we decided to hop on a bus and go see St. Peter’s since that was the one thing we wouldn’t have time to do the next day.

The next morning we had croissants and cappuccinos for breakfast at a café by our hotel and then headed to our uber touristy 3 hour tour(Gilligan’s Island, anyone?) of the Coliseum, The Roman Forum, and Palatine Hills.

The tour ended up being my absolute favorite part of our trip to Rome. Our tour guide was incredibly engaging and informative. We learned so much about the areas we were walking and it really enhanced the experience!

I was proud to be a good little former Roman History studying homeschooler and got a few obscure tour guide questions right. Nice job, Mom 😉

We made it to the Spanish Steps, which holy cow, SO many people. I think this was possibly the busiest place we ended up. Anyway, it was significant for Jim and I because 8 and a half years ago, Jim was in Rome and bought 3 paintings at the top of the Spanish Steps for me. They’ve been hanging in our kitchen ever since we got married 8 years ago, so it was pretty awesome to get to see where he was then.

He also particularly enjoyed getting to show me all of the places that he visited 8 and a half years ago thinking, “I wish Courtney was here with me.” Dream come true for all parties involved 🙂

We also made it to the Pantheon. Talk about an amazing and huge building!

A few things in this picture:

Jim in a polo and me wearing his jacket. It was warm when the day started. Then it started raining when we were on the Spanish Steps. Romans were walking around in legit fur covered parkas and my husband is in a short sleeved shirt. Lol. He was cold, but he would rather I be warm. Isn’t he the best?

Guy to the left of me- These salesmen were EVERYWHERE and always selling those sticks you can use to hold your phone to take a selfie of yourself. Everywhere you walked they’d be saying, “Selfie? Selfie?” and if you tried to ignore them they’d shine a little laser thing on the ground like you’re a cat or something and maybe I am because you would follow it every single time only to be greeted with, “Selfie? Selfie?”

We also went to the Trevii Fountain only to discover it was basically closed. You could walk around it but all of the water was completely drained and there was scaffolding and construction equipment all around it. They had this tiny little square pool of water where you could make your Trevii Fountain backwards coin wish, but really, not the same at all. Womp womp.

Laura from Tiny Toes, Little Nose told me to go to The Frigidarium for gelato. Holy cow that stuff was absolutely killer. After we discovered it we went back to back nights. It was right off the Piazza Navonna and if there is one food item I will miss from Rome, it is the gelato from this place.

This is a ridiculous and random picture but I just had to include the shower right beside our bed LOL. (Yes, my husband is wearing pants) On the other side of our hotel room is the sink and the toilet had it’s own room with a door, but holy clear glass door shower right next to the bed. Hilarious and well, a funny comparison to Jim’s trip sans Courtney 8.5 years ago.

On Sunday, the rest of our group flew home, but Jim and I stayed one more day. We took it easy in the morning, but then we explored the city for the rest of the day. We decided to go inside St. Peter’s, we tried a few more restaurants, did some shopping, and of course, went to Frigidarium one last time.

Of course, St. Peter’s is completely humongous and mind blowing and all of that. I think it was Jim’s favorite thing that we saw and did.

Our return trip home was infinitely better than our trip to Croatia. No delays, all aisle seats for me! and we arrived in Phoenix late so that we could go straight to bed and get a jump start on curing our jet lag.

Let’s not mention that they lost our bags on the way back and I spent the next day and a half in my Dad’s sweats because I had no clothes, but hey, it’s all good. We were back with Miss A and at my parents house and it was perfect 🙂