Day 1....well, kind of

Hi!! I am justing posting a little note to say that we arrived safely in Rome! The plane ride was uneventful, but long. I don't think either one of us slept very much. We arrived in Rome at 7:30 AM Rome time, which is 12:30 Nashville time. We arrived at our bed and breakfast, which is great. We are about 3 blocks from the Vatican and have a beautiful close view of the Dome of St. Peter's right out of our window!! It is great.

After getting that taken care of, we bought some oranges and cherries at a market and went to a park to each a snack. Then we started walking....and walking.....and walking. Keep in mind that we have not slept in about 30 hours! We are so tired but want to stay up all day in order to not have jet lag for the entire week. So, we're wandering around trying to keep our eyes open. We found the Spanish steps, but it took us quite a while. We walked around for about an hour, never more than .25 miles away from them, but we couldn't find them. Finally, we found a sign, which led to another sign, which led to the steps. Before walking down the steps, we went inside the Triniti Del Monte Church. It was beautiful! It was just the first of who knows how many churches we'll see this week.

Now we are trying to call some tour places to schedule some tours, but not having much luck. Did you know that people in Rome speak Italian? I don't speak Italian. We're learning, though. You should have seen us with a dictionary trying to find our B&B. It was comical. So, we finally found an American Express office and they are going to help us. However, it is between 1:30 and 2:30, and apparently nobody answers their phones during that hour. So, we found this exchange place and are typing away until 2:30, at which time we will schedule our tours.

I cannot wait until dinner!! We haven't decided what to eat yet, but I'm sure our first meal in Italy will be great. It really doesn't matter what it is...last night was American Airlines dinner. You can't go down from there!

Well, that's all for now. I'm so tired that I cannot think clearly enough to type. We'll update some more tomorrow, and hopefully havee some pictures.

Have a great day!

Katie

Ok, it is now Sunday evening, and I am going to continue with the post above. We ate dinner in the Piazza Navona, it was really good pizza. Rose and I both at an entire pizza! Of course, they are thin crust and meant to be eaten by one person, but still. That’s a lot of pizza. We were so hungry and tired by then. The pizza was great. I’m sure the fact that we were sitting in Italy in a piazza, with someone playing the guitar and singing nearby, helped.

After dinner, we took the metro back to our hotel, took much needed showers, and fell asleep by 8;00 PM. Sleep was sweet. I only woke up a few times that first night, but Rose had a few problems. It was wonderful. Every time I woke up for a second, I glanced out the window, saw St. Peter’s dome, and fell happily back to sleep. We’re in Rome!!!