DAY 4

9/20/2018

WHEN IN ROME

We pinch ourselves each time we travel. This trip represents our third pre/post cruise stay in Rome for pleasure (Keith traveled to Rome on business and we have enjoyed several visits by cruise ship.

In our early years of marriage we never imagined that we would visit this historic city. Rome was one of several places we studied in grade school as part of world history and English classes. We learned about its rich history including the Roman Empire. It is amazing how many buildings survived and new sites discovered through excavation. As we walk the historic sites, we think of the people who lived there in the past and all the history; both good and bad. We also think of the innovation that took place over the years.

When we think about travel, we think about discovery. While travel also provides a nice time to relax it provides a great opportunity to learn about history and culture.

We had dinner in our room last evening as we were very tired, it was late and wanted to unpack. The service has already been amazing. When we arrived to the hotel we were greeted by one of the personnel. She walked us around the hotel, took us to our room and that is where we checked in.

We enjoyed a simple dinner in the room of club sandwiches and salads and lots of water. This is exactly what we needed.

Although we slept for about five hours and we were up early we felt good. We finished getting everything organized and the next challenge was figuring out how to make coffee in the expresso machine in the room. After a couple of tries we have figured this one out. LOL.

With that said, we decided that we needed some Americano coffee. Thank goodness that room service is open 24 hours. Within a few minutes of our call, we enjoyed some of this coffee.

Like many hotels throughout Italy our room includes breakfast. This is available at the restaurant or via room service. We had a feeling we would be awake before the restaurant opening hours of 7:00 AM so we decided on room service between 6:00 & 6:15 AM.

It was raining while we were having breakfast as we could see from our room. When the rain became a drizzle we ventured outside for our first walk since arriving to Rome yesterday.

We walked to an area where we will have dinner this evening and then stopped by to see two different churches. This included the Church of Santa Maria Dei Miracoli. The church was constructed between 1675 and 1679.

After visiting the two churches we walked to the Spanish Steps. The monument stairway contains 135 steps. It was built to link the Bourbon Spanish Embassy with the Trinita dei Monte Church.

We proceeded to a major shopping area that has many high end designer shops along with other stores. By that point in time the rain had stopped making it easier to walk around the area. We stopped in one shop that sells a purse that Anne Marie uses when we travel on the airplane on trips such as this one. She also has a few other accessories from the same company such as a clutch purse.

Cigarette smoking continues to be prevalent in Italy and after awhile the odor can be bothersome. For a moment we enjoyed the smell of chestnuts being roasted on a street corner. It reminded us of New York City for a moment.

We continued our walk for another hour before we went back to the hotel for lunch.

We try to be good about drinking water at home and when we travel. The hotel has been very accommodating.

We each had Caesar Salad entrees with Chicken for lunch but substituted oil & vinegar in lieu of Caesar Dressing.

Following lunch we went back out for another nice walk.

We walked over to the Trevi Fountain which is Rome's largest and most famous fountain which was complete in 1762. When we last visited in 2015 the fountain was in the process of renovation.

Our walk included a visit to a beautiful park which we visited on our first pleasure trip to Rome in 2005.

The weather was warmer than this morning with lots of tourists out and about. There is certainly a vibrancy to this city. Lots of people were having lunch and/or a drink at tables outside many of the restaurants. It was great to get in lots of miles by foot.