From Naples to Rome

Friday, April 9

We woke up Friday morning and got a slow start. We went and had breakfast upstairs at our hotel, showered and began packing up all of our bags and goodies. After getting all of our stuff together, we hopped on a bus to take us back down to Sorrento and from there we took the Circumvesuviana train (a metro line between Naples and Sorrento) back to the Naples train station. Once we got there, we got our tickets for the train to Rome and were forced to sit in first class because there were no more regular seats (sweet!). We had about 30 minutes to kill so we went to grab some pizza from a place in the train station that Marty knew of then headed off to our train to grab our seats.

It was about a 3 hour train ride to Rome so we napped, caught up on our bloggin’, showed our moms some pictures, and discussed Spain. We knew that from Rome we needed to be in Barcelona but didn’t know how to get there cheaply and efficiently but knew that we would get there one way or another. Once in Rome, we left the train station and went in search of our hostel. We arrived and found that the owner did not speak a lick of English so Katie got to use her mad Italian skillz. We got to our room and began researching tours in Rome. Katie and Rachael had found some Segway tours that were offered in some cities so we began to look those up only to find that they were not offered in Rome. We did, however, find another tour group called “Rome(ing) Tours” that offered several tours of Rome and Vatican City. Knowing that we only had 2 days in this town, we decided to contact these guys to see what tours we could do with the time we had available. We shot them a quick email then headed out to find the Colosseum.

The Colosseum was within walking distance of our hostel. We took some cute pics and checked to see if it was open for tours - it had just closed 30 minutes before we got there. Nerds! We left there then went off to find the Pantheon and Piazza Navona for dinner. We hopped in a cab and were on our way. Once at the piazza, we walked to the Pantheon (they’re about 3 blocks away from each other). We got there in time to find that it was closed and under construction. Wah-wah. Maybe next time! Our stomachs were starting to get a bit grumbly after this so we headed back up to the Piazza Navona for some grub.

It was packed with artists and tourists and lined with dozens of restaurants. Everywhere you turned were dozens of paintings, sketches, caricatures, and portrait artists. What we’ve noticed about Europe is that when it’s time for dinner, each restaurant has hired a “seller” to stand outside the entrance of each restaurant to entice you to come eat at their place. As you look at the menu and prices, they have about 10 seconds to tell you why their restaurant is better than all of the others. In places like Piazza Navona they all have about the same kind of food for the same price so we went with a guy that could really sell it! After checking out our third or fourth restaurant, the “seller” at Ristorante Navona pulled us aside and gave us his whole presentation and four reasons why his restaurant had the best deal and he promised us prosecco to drink while we thought it over and if we stayed, free limoncello after dinner - free liquor? SOLD! We ended up eating there and it was delicious. While at dinner, Rachael got a call from the “Rome(ing) Tours” company about seeing Rome the next day. We reserved spots for the Vatican Tour that left around 11am and the evening tour of Rome that left around 8pm. This way we could see all of the big things in Rome in one day!

After dinner, Katie spied an artist in the distance doing some fantastic portraits so she headed over there to check on prices and see about getting her own portrait done. After paying for dinner and sipping on our limoncello, Rachael, Marty and JL left to go and find Katie. We found her! She had found the perfect lady to do her portrait and was being drawn as we arrived. JL stayed and waited with Katie while Rachael and Marty headed off to look at some cool Italian art work. They wandered around for a bit then made their way back over to Katie just as the artist was finishing Katie’s portrait. It was beautiful! The four of us then looked around at the different paintings and art work, had some gelato, then eventually made our way to a taxi stand and took a taxi back to our hostel and went to sleep. We were going to see all of Rome in a day and needed our beauty sleep!

XOXO J&K&M&R