What? Not in Paris?

I know.  I'm a bit surprised too.  After several trips to Paris and other locations in France, we decided to go to Italy this year.

The travel day turned out to be a debacle.  Due to a cancelled flight we ended up spending 11 hours at Charles de Gaulle Airport.  We arrived in Rome after 10:00 pm and managed to find our hotel after dark, traveling by foot.

Trajan's Forum with the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II in the background

This morning our only agenda item was to find something to eat since we had overslept the hotel breakfast time.  We started out in a random direction and noticed an interesting looking dome in the distance.  It turned out to be a church that we'd never heard of.  But next to it was the Forum of Trajan.  I know.  I'd never heard of Trajan either, but it turned out to be an interesting archaeological site.  Behind the Forum of Trajan was the imposing Monument to Victor Emmanuel II.







By this time it was after

Four Cheese Pizza

noon so we decided to forgo breakfast and go directly to lunch.  Our pizzas were delicious!

Seeing the Trevi Fountain with 2,318 of my closest friends

During lunch we realized we were within walking distance of the Trevi Fountain, so that became our next destination.  We took a serpentine route that led through interesting cobblestone streets and took us past piazzas we'd never heard of.  The crowds at the Trevi Fountain were insane.

The Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps were within walking distance of the Fountain, so that was the next destination.  This was another mob scene, but we managed to climb to the top of the steps.

By this time we were ready for a gelato break.  We were not disappointed.  From there we returned to our hotel.  You may wonder who this "we" that I keep referring to is.  It's my husband Bill, my sister Janet, and her husband John.  Delightful traveling companions, except for the occasional whining.  Although, to be fair, it rained on and off last night and all of today, so some of that whining may have been justified.












For dinner we went to a restaurant near our hotel.  I had some delicious grilled vegetables and gelato while my co-diner had pizza (again!).