FUN-travel: Rome, Italy – 2 days
August 9, 2012 by Susan Clarke
Trip Day 25 – Friday, August 3 – Rome, Italy
Piazza Venezia
What I LIKE
Spanish Steps
- another couple shares taxi
- no traffic – everyone’s on vacation
- get to Rome in one hour – to hotel by 11 am
- really, really cute boutique – Hotel Lord Byron @ edge of Borghese Park
- take really long walk to hop on, hop off bus
- on the way see Piazza del Popolo for first time
- 2:00 stop for gelato & cappuccino
- best coffee in the world is in Italy
- 3:00 get on hop on bus
Photo Ops include:
Spanish steps
Trevi Fountain – it is the cleanest we’ve ever seen
Piazza Venezia
the Coloseum
Circo Massimo
- 6:00 stop Piazza Navona for serious people watching
- filled with artists & musicians
- dinner @ Tre Scalini starts with nice cold beer, then really thin crust pizza, buffalo mozzarella caprese salad, Barolo wine
- taxi takes us home for only $10 Euro
Trevi Fountain
What I DON’T LIKE
- taxi to Rome costs $150 Euro (so we’re told by ship)
- have to wait for a taxi
- price is $230 Euro – OUCH!
- then jumps to $280 when we share!
Piazza Navona
- no air conditioning and it’s over 80 degrees already
- $12 Euro surcharge to eat gelato @ outside table – 2 gelati + 2 cappuccinos + water = total bill of $22 Euro
- temp jumps to 100
FF (FUN-fact) – We made it to our 5th New 7 Wonders of the World! We’d both been there in the 90’s – but not together – so it didn’t count.
Not so FF – Beware of scams! Walking in Rome on major road with map in hand a car stopped us for directions. Turns out it was the president of Armani Milano. He was so happy that I could help him and because I was so nice he wanted to give me a purse from his fall collection that was worth $1600. Imagine that! Then he told me he only wanted some gas money. My husband was onto him before me and told me when he drove off, “I knew he was a fake because he wasn’t wearing an Armani tie.”