Long Day In Rome

Quick update: We made it to back to Paris safe and sound. We couldn't update for the last few days due to lack of internet access.

We got up for day number two in Roma and hit the streets hard on a five hour or so walking tour of the city. Simone was an excellent tour guide and we squeezed in a lot of sights. It was very nice to leave the maps at home and not have to worry about getting lost. We boarded a local bus (not paying the bus fare as Simone told us no one actually pays!) and went to the Vatican first. St. Peter’s Basilica was surely the largest and most lavishly ornate church you could ever imagine. The amount of marble and gold was unbelievable. We payed our respects to St. Peter (the statue of him has almost no toes left because everyone rubs them) and Erin and I decided to make the trek to the top of the large dome. It was 551 crazy steps to the top….round and round in a dizzying spiral…a great work out. The view was worth it though, we could see all of Rome.

Back to ground level we had to by-pass the Vatican museum due to long lines and lack of time. We walked and walked….to the Piazza di Spagna to see the Spanish steps, the famous Trevi Fountain, Piazza Nuvona, (with the Four Rivers fountain) the OLD dome of the Pantheon, and a few stops in some beautiful old churches.

After a good five miles of walking we went back to Simone’s to clean up and rest. Erin and I then went to a Romantic dinner at Edy’s where Simone previously worked. It was a wonderful recommendation and a delicious Italian dinner. I had beef carpaccio and pasta carbonara and Erin had mushroom gratin and veal. We shared a tiramisu and apple strudel….yummmmm!!

We met up with Simone after dinner at Piazza Popollo which was packed with little bars and 100’s of people just out enjoying themselves. It seems it is much more common to hang out in squares and walk around with a beer in your hand than to actually go to a bar to site down. There are no open container laws in the city and you can walk around from café to bar to café. We stopped at one local bar for a drink and then decided to stay up late and go to a dance club.

Simone then took us to a very popular Roman night club. It was quite the scene. We had to wait in a long line outside where they were very selectively letting people enter. Someone we made it in only to find that there was a second line where you had to do the ‘pick-me’ shuffle all over again to be allowed into the actual club. Once we finally got in we were met with a huge outdoor club scene packed with hundreds of well-dressed dancing maniacs. The music was booming. Unlike many American nightclubs people were way more focused on dancing than drinking. In fact, ONE drink was 15 euros (about 22 dollars). The main bar was covered in beautiful Roman girls dressed in all black, standing on the bar showing off their best dance moves. They also had a few Roman men on the bar…one in particular looked like he had been chiseled by Michelangelo himself and was some great eye-candy! We danced and danced and danced. I can say that we pretty much closed down the club…leaving around six AM. That was the party animal section of our trip.