Ok. Where do I begin?

Alright. Here we go.

ROME.

First of all, we never intended to go to Rome. Originally when we booked our trip to Paris we had a second trip scheduled for Marrakesh, Morocco. It would have been my second time there and I was so excited to introduce my favorite country to Sophie. Covid, however, had other plans. The entire country of Morocco shut down back in November 2021 and didn’t reopen until earlier this past spring 2022. Our airline cancelled and with no way in or out of the country I had to let our amazing riad and desert travel plans go. I was pretty crushed. BUT. Pandemic travel has taught me to be nimble and I knew that travel within the EU was definitely working. Within 24 hours of our Morocco trip falling through I had us rebooked for four days in Rome, Italy. It was a short two hour flight from Paris to Rome, I was excited to eat ALL of the food and there were sites (particularly St. Peters Basilica and the Pantheon) that I had always wanted to see. Sophie was on board and so it was decided – five days in Paris, four in Rome.

We ended up doing three full days in Rome and a full day trip to Florence because we were able to see EVERYTHING we wanted to see in Rome in just 2 1/2 days. My friend Kelly assured me once I landed in Rome that I would have plenty of time in my schedule to go to Florence because Rome could be done in two days. I initially doubted her but Kelly is rarely wrong and Rome can indeed be accomplished in two days!

Let me get this out of the way first: our first hour in Rome was awful. We had a taxi driver from the airport who 1) spoke NO English, 2) got lost, 3) backed our taxi van up a one way street at full speed AND HIT A PEDESTRIAN, 4) then got out of the car and PUNCHED THE PEDESTRIAN HE HAD JUST HIT WITH THE VAN, 5) continued to yell at me in Italian and finally 6) got pulled over by the Italian polizia. It was basically a total shit show. And super stressful. With a crowd and police and every caricature of angry Italians you can imagine. And for a few moments, flat out scary. My number one concern was keeping Sophie safe and secondly, getting to our hotel. Sophie was really freaked out which made me feel even more aggro. I sternly begged (is that a thing?) a police officer using fragments of Italian, hand gestures and very strong English to PLEASE get us away from this driver and to PLEASE find and contact our hotel. It all worked out, we got away, got into our very luxurious hotel, into our room, all the while shaking and jittery from the adrenaline rush of fight or flight. Fun fact: I apparently do BOTH fight and flight. Good to know for all future altercations. Sheesh.

I sat in a chair in our flat for a good 20 minutes listening to my body and my brain and trying to decide if I even wanted us to stay in Italy. I was quite happy in France, and speaking some French made me feel very comfortable there. This whole Rome, Italy thing? Not so much. I had already done FIGHT and was now ready for FLIGHT. Sophie encouraged me to have us go to dinner and make a decision about Italy after dinner. I was seriously considering returning to the airport and getting the first Air France flight back to Paris…but dinner sounded good and necessary. So off we went, on a three minute walk past the Pantheon and to dinner.

And I decided to stay 🙂

Because 1) Pantheon, 2) fresh pasta and 3) Rome is actually awesome once you get away from murderous, insane cab drivers.

When I was a sophomore in high school I took AP Art History. Over the course of that year I became obsessed with the Pantheon and desperately wanted to see it someday. When we walked inside and I looked up at that perfect circle up to the sky I was overcome. I had wanted to see this view since I was 16 years old and now 30 years later here I was. It was incredible.

We sat down at a table in front of the Pantheon strung with strings of lights and candles on the tables and heaping plates of fresh fettuccine Alfredo. It. Was. AWESOME. Then we settled into our beautiful hotel and ended up having a brilliant time in Rome.

The Argentina Residenza Hotel is so beautiful and old and luxurious. The beds were fantastic, the bathroom was like a spa. I would totally stay here in Rome again. And I SUPER DUPER know how to find it now!

We spent our next day doing and seeing everything in Rome. Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, plus pizza and pasta and gelato and a huge amount of shopping all along the way. We hit it hard and had THE BEST TIME. The weather was perfect (very cool in the morning but sunny and clear and warm enough in the afternoon). Here is what we did and where we went.

First we headed over to Piazza Navona where we found beautiful Italian mosaic crosses and jewelry, then to Trevi Fountain area for more looking and shopping. Crowds were very minimal owing to the time of day and time of year (January is not a busy month for tourism in Europe). One GREAT benefit of being in the EU during January is that everything everywhere is on sale. In Italy you look for the signs that say “Saldi” and have at it.

See those shoes above? These are my favorite Rome souvenir. We were in a beautiful shoe shop right off of Trevi Fountain and I was looking around at boots but not finding exactly what I wanted. Sophie called me over to see these. I didn’t have any shoes like these so I wasn’t sure but once I slipped them on BOOM I was sold! I fell in love big time with these. The leather smelled so good and they are so very Italian. Perfect souvenir, thanks to Sophie’s good eye.

After Piazza Navona and Trevi Fountain we found ourselves a red carpet and headed to the Spanish Stairs.

I had heard stories about how hard it is to climb the Spanish steps but that must be if it is really hot or you are really out of shape. Neither one of those applied to me and Sophie. We enjoyed great views of the city with hardly anyone around. From the Spanish steps we suddenly decided that it was completely feasible to walk to the Colosseum and do a tour right then. So we did. No plan, no tickets, just took off. It was mostly OK. For future reference, there is no actual ticket booth at the Colosseum. You have to buy your tickets ahead of time online. Luckily I just did it on my phone. There were LOTS of very very aggressive ticket seller guys roaming around the exterior of the Colosseum nagging tourists to get their tickets thru them. I HATE being bugged by aggressive guys trying to sell tickets. Finally, I just responded to their constant nagging in Japanese…and completely stumped them. Like…I actually stunned them into silence. They didn’t know Japanese and couldn’t quite comprehend how or what I was speaking. That’s how I got us out of crazy seller guys and into the Colosseum. The end 🙂

The Colosseum is overwhelming from the exterior. It is HUGE. So much bigger than I anticipated. It seems impossible that humans built this beginning in 69 AD without machinery. So impressive. The inside is even more impressive – all of these tunnels and massive arches and stairways – totally amazing.

We severely misjudged how hungry we would be after walking I don’t even know how far or how long from the Spanish Steps to the Colosseum so we set off in search of food. Pizza in Rome isn’t anything to write home about – the pasta IS. But our pizza was fine and it filled us up. We shopped and walked and shopped and walked and happily wore ourselves out.

We spent most of the next day at the Vatican and St. Peters Basilica. You can read all about our incredible day right here. This is a must-do/must-see in Rome and I am so glad that we booked an amazing, well vetted team/tour to do it and left ourselves plenty of time to savor the sites.

The day after our Vatican adventure we spent in Florence; you can read all about that here.

On our last night in Italy, we again sat at a little restaurant in front of the Pantheon, eating fresh pasta with our bottled cokes by candlelight when the BEST thing happened. Two opera singers took to the square, turned on a speaker and began to sing “Nessun Dorma”, my all time favorite opera piece (and really one of my favorite pieces of music in general) from Puccini’s opera Turandot. The twinkling lights, in front of my long awaited Pantheon, fresh pasta on my plate, my beautiful daughter next to me and my all time favorite opera song being sung live RIGHT in front of me? Heaven. Pure heaven. It was my favorite moment and memory of our entire trip. I will never forget it. The whole thing made me cry happy tears. It truly felt like a gift from God.

Something else that was wonderful? The shopping.

Shopping in Rome was SO much fun. Most of my favorite souvenirs came from the Italian portion of our trip. Rome is leather-goods central. I found the perfect wallet in my favorite shade of green…and a ton of other special finds.

So other than the murderous, insane driver that assaulted our first 30 minutes in Rome it was a really perfect, wonderful trip. I miss the food, the history, the pace, the shopping. In short, I am already plotting ways to get back. Also, Kelly was right – you really can see a huge chunk of Rome in just a day 🙂

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