Venice to Rome

We came into Roma on Thursday (from Venice on the high-speed train at 155 mph) and had a little time to kill before our friends got off work, so we dropped off our luggage. There’s a luggage storage place in front of the Roma Termini train station. It’s six Euros per bag… well worth it if you want to walk around for a couple of hours. We headed down a street perpendicular to the train station road. After a couple of blocks we went right and wandered down the street until I saw a sign saying ‘Roof Bar.’ It was a high-end hotel with one of those fancy rotating doors. We figured they must be okay with the riff-raff off the street coming in, otherwise why would they have a sign on the sidewalk, right? We went in and the fancy maitre d' pointed to the elevator and said to get off on the eighth floor. What a stunning view! We sat up there enjoying the freezing cold wind and a glass of wine/beer until Gianluca got off work. (La Terrazza dei Papi Rooftop Restaurant, Mecenate Palace Hotel across from Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore)

We took the blue-line metro to Eur Palasport and Gianluca picked us up there. The next day (Friday) he drove us to a different local metro. We had to get off that one at a bigger station where the inner-city metro crossed paths. At first we couldn’t figure out what to do. Everyone got off the metro and left the station. There was no indication of the metro we wanted. Finally we left the station, though we were afraid we’d have to buy new tickets (it was only 4 bucks, but still), and asked someone walking by. They pointed to an entrance twenty feet away. We went in and it was a completely different metro station—it even had a different name. Our tickets worked just fine and we were off to downtown. We took the Circo Massimo exit and walked down the center of this famous athletic field. We ambled up to the Venezia Palace, which we call the wedding cake, and went by the Roman Forum and ended at the Colosseum. 

We finally circled all the way back to the Circo Massimo just in time for a giant protest being held against the Green Pass. I felt like Forrest Gump when he would just accidentally show up at historical events. They were chanting, “Libertad!” We walked right through the middle of the crowd and the camera crews :)

Saturday, we went to the beach with Gianluca (Egle was away on business until that night). The Mediterranean was calm and the water a bit chilly, but it was perfect for walking on the sand. We headed back to the condo and waited for Egle and the dog to show up. Duca is an English Bulldog. Those are the funniest dogs. He was so excited to see Gianluca—he sounded like a pig making snorting and grunting sounds as he raced around the condo chasing Gianluca.

Sunday was a lazy day. We went to a big park and walked around for an hour then sat and had breakfast. It was an American-style restaurant, so the meals were big. I had pulled pork eggs benedict. Then the guys went and had a beer while us girls went window shopping. We ended at a huge fascist-style church built back in Mussolini’s time. It was gorgeous. Egle was saying that all of this area was built in preparation for the World Expo being held here. The World War II cancelled that. That’s interesting to me. It feels poised for something to happen, like it’s still anticipating its days of glory.

Monday we headed to Roma again. We sailed through the metro process like locals. The weather has been perfect. We wandered around for awhile until we found Trevi Fountain. I’m not sure why that was important to us as we’ve seen it before. Then we began the real search… Shamrock Pub Roma. (FYI, make a hard right when you step out of the Colosseo Metro stop—the Colosseo will be looming up on your left. Follow that busy street up to your first right on Via del Tempio della Pace, then make your first left onto Via del Colosseo. Shamrock’s on your right.) We split a hamburger and Joe had a Guinness, but they had the weirdest potatoes I’ve ever seen. We returned through the Jewish Ghetto area, which is really nice and has lots of shops.

Today we decided we’d had enough of Rome and took the metro to the beach. It only took about 20 minutes. We sat and had a cappuccino on the promenade. Then walked along the shore for awhile. Eventually we ended up where we started and went to the Old Wild West restaurant (the same chain as the one in Venice). Such good food and great wine.

Gianluca picked us up from the metro and took us to get swabbed for Covid. We had the results in 15 minutes and the pharmacist gave us the approval form, so we’re good to fly back to the states tomorrow. I’m done packing and every item of clothing is dirty. We brought two small backpacks and two carry-ons for the month. I had to buy socks, a pair of shoes, a sweater, and a jacket for Joe. He left behind a pair of cargo pants that were so old they were tearing at the cuffs. All in all, we packed well.