Europe 2017: The Tour of Five Senses: Rome

When our friend Ryan called Nate to suggest a babysitting swap with their two sweet little girls while we both went to Europe as couples, we were pretty excited. Cheap tickets to Europe - plus sky miles made the offer impossible to turn down. These friends of ours here in Charlottesville have become our family here - and we would trust them with our lives if we had to. Nate told me the night before Ryan called "I just want to go on a trip with you sometime. Can we?" The next day, Ryan called - and the rest is history.

I have been to Italy once before with 4 of my sisters and my Mom as part of a trip to pick up my sister Ramona who was studying cello in Austria, and it has gone down in my history books as one of the best vacations ever. While there I fell quickly in love with Rome - its ancient ruins, its beautiful sunny skies, its food, and the people.

Nate is a master trip planner. Its something he really enjoys. Have I ever mentioned how much I love that about him? Travel just brings us both so much happiness - and helps get us through the the more challenging parts of life. He planned so well all our hotels, booked our car and travels, and scheduled five classes to take while we were there. These classes correlated with the five senses: taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell.

So here's a summary of our trip:

Flew into Rome over the beautiful alps and the French Riviera

We arrived after a nice flight (I slept most of it), pulled out some euros out of an ATM, got our car, went back a couple of times to get the right GPS system for our car.

Somehow we miraculously made it (literally running after finding a parking spot finding our tour) to the underground of the Vatican complete with ancient 2000 year old tombs, one the Catholic Church believes is the tomb of Peter. It was such a fascinating tour. We later went to St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum with the Sistine Chapel. It was a perfect and beautiful sunny day - and we somehow managed to stay (mostly) awake until the evening.

Afterward we checked out the Galleria Borghese. Beautiful.

We drove our car to our hotel through very narrow pebbly streets with plenty of pedestrians. We laughed at how narrow the streets were in some places, or how on the main roads there were sometimes no lanes, and people just sort of driving wherever they wanted :). There was no method to the madness - but we couldn't stop laughing. That is, when I wasn't focussed on trying to drive without hitting anyone :). Out little charming hotel was in a part of Rome (across the river from the Ruins) called Trastevere. We had dinner there (pizza of course) and them some gelato, then walked through the streets to the bridge.

The next morning we enjoyed a nice Italian breakfast, then walked 30 seconds away to our cooking class. It was so much fun to meet other tourists from Hawaii, China, Australia, Israel, and the Philippines. It was a class of 8, and for three hours we laughed and cooked together with some instruction, then ate lunch. We felt like friends by the end. Our Chef Andrea was so funny - and great.

After our cooking class we found a taxi and then walked around the Colosseum and Ancient Ruins. We couldn't stop gawking over its amazing beauty and history. It was fun to be there with my Classics Major Nate - because he would explain the history of the Roman Empire to me. We also had fun with our good friend Rick Steves :), via our app on Nate's new ipod, and our splitter head phones.

After walking along the Forum, we continued our walk. It brought back such sweet memories for me of being there with my sisters and Mom. Unforgettable.

After walking by the beautiful Trevi Fountain and throwing a coin in, we walked to the amazing Pantheon. I didn't get to go inside last time with my sisters because it was closed, so seeing the inside this time was just incredible. I have no idea how they were able to build that - so long ago. It's still an architectural phenomenon. 

Nate and I were constantly talking to people (well he was...THANK YOU Nate for learning Italian those two summers you lived there), asking them to take pictures of us or asking them for directions (we are still holding strong without an iphone :). It was the best though when Nate asked the police for the best gelato in the area and then they followed it up with - in Italian "Italian police are the best police" with a smile. After we went right next store though to these gelateria we actually felt the same way. This place was so charming and the gelato was the best ever. If you're ever in Italy we highly recommend it. There's also one we found in Florence.

somehow we even got the place to ourselves. Travel off season :).