When in Rome!

I feel like the next couple days could be summarized with the song "I would walk 500 miles" My poor mother was dragged all over the streets of Rome.  One day, we started at the Spanish Steps

where we planned our next steps through the city,

filled our water at the fountains making a major assumption that it is potable,

threw a coin over our left shoulders while making a wish,

took a symmetrical picture at the pantheon

and bellied up to a street side trattatori.

Luckily Romans do not jump off bridges else we might have done that too!

For those that visit here, beware of the charming fellows that give you roses for free and proclaim what a beautiful family, assuring they don't want anything in return....they return asking for just a few coins, and when they do not get it, steal back the roses and look at you as though you are not the most beautiful person as previously proclaimed.  Preying on good ol' fashion catholic guilt.

On the way into the city, we took the train which is an easy system to get around on.  Plenty of signage that even the directionaly challenged could navigate.

Italian lesson of the day: Successo trenno means successful train ride while trenno successivo means next train.  I should preface this with "I think" cause I am purely going off a google search.

On the way home, however, we took the "back way" to our apartment around the Vatican.  3000' elevation change and 3 miles later, we made it home.  The tourist maps don't include gradients, so beware - the city is not flat!  Wine and cheese on our balcony never tasted so good.  

The next day was full of more seeing of the stone structures and more eating of the amazing food.  By the end of the day, I had history, structure, cheese and just general beauty overload. And maybe a little done with the city life.  For me, Rome is kind of like Las Vegas; good to see the sites for a couple days but quickly get overwhelmed.  It is probably terrible that I made that comparison.  Comparison only in the overwhelmed feeling; Rome is not to be compared with Las Vegas on the beauty, interesting, etc scale. One thing that has not gotten old yet is the vino!  However, we are off to the countryside to see if it is possible.