Rome, Italy: First walk around the city

Blogging about our honeymoon in Rome feels a little silly since we were just barely there two weeks ago, but our second trip to the Eternal City doesn't make much sense unless you know about the first. ("You didn't see the Vatican?!" "No, we did. That was last time." See?) So I'm going to stick with chronological order and blast through the rest of our honeymoon before sharing our latest vacation. Just so you know what to expect, that means Rome, Florence, Pisa and Paris from our honeymoon and then London, the Amalfi Coast, the Island of Capri and Rome again from our early anniversary trip. I think I have enough Europe pictures to last me a lifetime! (And yet, you can never get enough!)

I left off in Venice. From there, we took a nice, long train to Rome. Our honeymoon required many, many trains. We passed the time enjoying the scenery, reading, napping and playing cards. I usually won.

Once we arrived at the "Roma Termini," we lugged our bags through the streets, checked into our hotel on Via Cavour, and then set out to explore the city. It was late afternoon at that point so we figured we'd just enjoy the ambiance and get a feel for Rome's layout, and then hit it hard the next day.

A few points of interest on that walk were the Piazza della Republica and the adjoining Basilica Santa Maria:

The Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:

And, of course, the lovely Trevi Fountain:

The Trevi is swarming with people, day or night. Most of them are tourists, but there is a fairly large group of these guys (like the one with the arrow pointing at him) who are neither tourists nor Italians. They walk around pestering tourists to take their picture for them and then demand compensation for doing so. Some have also just run off with the tourists' cameras, apparently. (We didn't take our chances either way and just had a nice-looking American snap a quick shot of us.) Crowded areas like this can also be hotspots for pickpockets. Moral of the story? Be careful.

Matt and I left the Trevi and started heading toward our hotel. When we made it to our street, we were greeted by this view of the Colosseum at the intersection. We weren't expecting to see it just yet and it really takes your breath away--such a magnificent building with so much intriguing history.

We were starving at that point so we ducked into a hole-in-the-wall pizza place and were thrilled to find a little air conditioner by our table. Did I mention before that it was 95 degrees and insanely humid that day? Yeah, that little air conditioner was like a slice of heaven. And so was the pizza! Sometimes those tiny little restaurants can be gems.

Even if the pizza hadn't been delicious, we would have been satisfied by the entertaining pizza box. Matt tried to imitate the lady but our pizza was still so piping hot that the cheese started sliding down and through the corner of the box. It was one of those "you had to be there" funny moments at good ol' Pizza Flu Flu.

At that point, the sun was beginning to set (at 9:30 p.m. I love summer!) and we were exhausted so we took our pizza back to our room and dozed off for the night. The next morning, we were up bright and early to tour the Colosseum!