Rome - Day 1 - Getting There is less than half the fun
Day 1 is really about a day and a half since it covers the period from when we left home on Tuesday morning until we went to bed on Wednesday night in Rome.
The plan was to fly to Rome through Dulles (since I try to fly on United). We had a pretty long layover in Dulles but spent most of it in the United Club so it wasn’t really a problem. The problem started at 4PM about an hour before we were supposed to board the flight to Rome. There was a mechanical problem with the plane (one of the crew members told us that a piece of metal fell off one of the engines which doesn’t sound good). So we immediately ran back to the United Club and they routed us on a Lufthansa flight through Frankfurt. So instead of getting into Rome around 8:30 Wednesday morning, we got in around 12:30.
[The flight we were supposed to take actually ended leaving Dulles at 8:30 and flying to Newark to get another plane. They arrived in Rome about an hour after we did.]
For the first three nights we were booked into a B&B in the Piazza del Risorgimento right outside of the north wall of the Vatican. The B&B is on a floor of a six story building. The company that runs the B&B actually runs two of them in the building, A View of Rome (which is the one we booked) and A Touch of Rome (which is the one we actually stayed in).
The building that housed the B&B is the second from the left. (I had to pull this from the web, as I seemed to have accidentally deleted mine).
Our elevator
We took the SIT Bus from the Airport to its Vatican stop which was actually about half a mile from our hotel and from the Vatican. After getting checked in we set out to do two things:
- Get SIMs for our phones (which we got from Vodaphone)
- Buy some food for lunch for our trip to Naples and Pompeii
After the shopping excursion we relaxed for an hour and then walked to the Piazza del Popolo, which meant crossing the Tiber for the first time.
This square was once considered the northern entrance to Rome. It was a 20 minute walk (a little over a mile). The plaza was full of people walking and sitting around the Egyptian Obelisk in the center. Our hotelier recommended that we go there and walk up the stairs to the observation area (Pincio) at the top of hill on the far side (east side) of the piazza — which we did. There were excellent view of Rome to the west (towards the Vatican) and to the main part of Rome south.
The three streets that fan out of the piazza. (Took this another day.)
Views:
Victor Emmanuel Monument.
The Pantheon is that low dome just left of center.
Looking down at the piazza with St. Peters and the Vatican in the background.
After spending some time we walked to a restaurant recommended by the hotelier. It was a family restaurant about two blocks from the B&B, Vito and Dina. Vito and Dina were both there 😃.
We had an excellent meal starting with a mixed green salad and well-cooked artichoke. We had a nice Tuscan wine. For dinner Eileen had spinach ravioli and I had gnocchi with mussels and mushrooms. They were both excellent.
Links:
Dinner: Hosteria Pizzeria “Da Vito e Dina" Via degli Scipioni, 50, 00192 Roma, Italy (06.39723293)
Eileen and Larry - 20-April-2016