After a lazy Tuesday at the hotel in Barcelona, we caught an early flight this morning to Rome. We booked the tickets through Travelocity on Iberia Airlines, who farms out this flight to Vueling (pronounced well-ing) Airlines. They are very serious about their boarding and on-time statistics. We got to the gate 15 minutes before departure time (it was at the absolute last gate in the terminal, gate 67) and they already were almost fully boarded. I know the door closed before the scheduled time. Unbeknownst to us, we were in priority class. Picture a Southwest Airlines flight...that's what this plane looked like and they called the first row their premium class. We had leather headrest pillows and didn't have to pay for a croissant and coffee/tea. It was less than two hours and we landed in Rome.
We checked into our hotel, the Albergo Santa Chianta, and went to find the hop on-hop off bus. After quite a hike, we boarded the bus and got a two hour tour of the city. Saw a lot of really, really old buildings. I find it hard to even comprehend that these majestic structures were built thousands of years ago. And the city is built all around them. We are actually staying one block from the Pantheon. We walked through it on our way to get gelato.
Our "old" building and monuments in the US are so often set apart on a large plot with manicured lawns and here the city continues to grow and thrive around and right up to the edges of these amazing examples of history and architecture.
We got off the bus to see the Trevi Fountain. More amazing, detailed sculpture work from, I'm sure, a famous artist. Then wandering down the cobbled streets, we found a ristorante and stopped for the best pasta and pizza we have ever had on Rome. I felt obligated to try the Pinot Grigio....it is an Italian variety...and I am in Italy....and in case you are wondering, yes, it was fantastic!!
Rome wasn't built in a day, but we saw as much as we could in the day we had. And now we are settled in for the night watching Happy Days in Italian. Tomorrow we are off again....stay tuned.
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