1st day in Rome

First off, this is so much better than the "internet TV" in the room! A regular keyboard, that actually works is a relief!

Our first day in Rome was pretty laid back. We were exhausted when we got here. We got to the hotel, took a quick nap and went out to our Valentine's Day dinner. We'd bought our meal ahead of time so there wasn't really any guess work in it. We had a pre-dinner coctail at the hotel bar and walked over to Il Tinello. Tinello was nice, a good mix of locals and other tourists who'd bought the package we did. I had Veal Saltambouca, Delia had mix seafood grill. We finished it with a nice tirumasu. We were pretty tired and didn't really know where we were so we walked back to the hotel and had a glass of prosseco to end the night.

The next morning we had a very, very hard time peeling ourselves out of bed. We had a 24 hour pass for the hop on, hop off bus tour. We hopped on about 11am and rode around Rome, taking in the sites and getting the story along the way. It was then that I realized how close we'd been all morning to the hotel I stayed at last time I was here. Suddenly I had my bearings again. We only hopped off at one stop, the Collesium. We opted to take a guided tour once there that also included the Forum. Much to Delia's chagrin, the cats that seemed to swarm the place when I'd been before were all but gone. We saw one cat at the Forum, unfortunately the cat wasn't interested in playing. We saw the remnants of the amenities....what the tour guide kept calling the "ass washer". I have pictures which might explain that better.

The forum was quite interesting as well. We spent more time learing about the Palatine, the place that all the rulers since the founding of the city by Romulos have lived. There is actually a fairly new building built by Mussolini as his summer home on the hill top today. The remnants of the palace show their size and grandure, even though most of it is just ruins. We learned of a marble that was mined to extinction by the Ceasar's that is valuded at some unfathomable amount. Apparently Nero's bath tub that is on display at the Vatican is worth about 4.5 million Euros!

We asked the front desk for a recommendation for dinner, they sent us around the corner to what was the best meal so far. I can't remember the name but it was amazing. We had a nice bottle of chianti and the best tiramasu I think I've ever had. We then walked down to Piazza Barberini to have a nightcap at Pepy's. I chose lemoncello....when in Rome right?

We made a point of getting some sleep because we wanted to have breakfast the next morning. Delia loves the breakfast here, but that's going to have to wait for the next post.