My Italian Adventures

Day 1: We left JFK in New York at 12:30 am and magically arrived on Italian soil at approximately 2:30 pm. We used Quag’s Limo service (West Haven, CT) (https://www.quagslimo.com/).

We flew Norse Airways. Loved them! Booking flights was so easy and even easier to update information on the site, check flight information and get boarding passes. I am not great with technology, but even for me this was easy peasy! On board we were given little goodie boxes with a blanket, pillow, eye mask and ear plugs. They also gave everyone complimentary headphones and a drink if you wanted. YES PLEASE! I had a glass of red wine and it was filled to the rimmmm (see below). We did not follow any suggestions, however, so we all had checked bags…some of us multiple… but we’ll talk about that later…

ROME

Finally 2:30 pm Roma! It was really 8:30 am our time, so we were raring to go!

Our first Airbnb was the Seven Suites B & B Rome (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2355175?source_impression_id=p3_. 1753127811_P3ZefVq5Ewh6Omjm). It was located in the Testaccio district, which was a very cute area. The Airbnb arranged transportation from the airport and our drivers were waiting for us immediately as we left baggage claim (Baggage claim # 13… if you know, you know). It was about a 20 minute drive from the airport at a cost of 170 € (cash) for two vans, 11 people and 15 suitcases. It was so worth it, to not have the aggravation of trying to find transportation upon arrival!

THE COLOSSEUM

Our next move, not necessarily recommended, but for us …. success!! We decided that we would book The Colosseum for an evening tour. We were nervous about timing, but we winged it and we got there on time for a 5:45 self-guided tour. There were a ton of sites to purchase tickets, most at pretty expensive prices (€50 and up), but if you order directly on the Colosseum website (https://ticketing.colosseo.it/en), you only pay €18.00!! Don’t get nervous when the site continuously needs to re-load, it does eventually work.

Included in this price: Entry to the Colosseum (for designated time), 24 hours to visit the following: Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Imperial Flora and Colosseum exhibitions & museums.

Thoughts on the Colosseum: It was vast, historical, beautiful and awe-inspiring. With that said, for us our own self-guided tour was enough to take it all in. We were able to get through the entire thing in an hour and a half. Yes, you could definitely spend much more time, but we all felt this was enough time… perhaps had to do with the 90 degree heat or getting off an 8 hour flight! We walked the full Colosseum at our own pace and were able to read all of the plaques and descriptions of things that we saw… and took a ton of pictures.

EVENING IN ROME

When we left the Colosseum, we decided to just walk and look for food. We made NO reservations at restaurants and had decided that we would wander the streets and look for quaint little spots or take recommendations from locals. This night we were all pretty starving, so we gave into the hype, looked up some places on yelp and landed at Le Tavernelle (https://letavernelle.it/en/). It was a great little welcoming place. The owner was so funny and made dinner about more than just food, but an experience with lots of laughs. The food was very good. We had everything from Swordfish to Spaghetti Carbonara to Linguine with Clam Sauce to Sauteed Artichokes. And to top it off at the end… complimentary Limoncello! We decided to forgo dessert at the restaurant and get some gelato at a little place right across from the restaurant. It was an adorable little place called Glauco-Gelateria (https://www.facebook.com/glaucogelati). The pistachio gelato was the best I have ever had!

At the end of the night we stopped at a cute little bar, La Casetta a Monti, a tiny little house covered in vines in the Monti neighborhood just 5 minutes away from the Colosseum (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d5247541-Reviews-La_Casetta_a_Monti-Rome_Lazio.html). It was adorable, had great drinks and was a great place for a photo-op.