In two words...Incredible Italia

(from May)

We just returned from 6 days in Rome. Our Incredible Italia vacation started with 4 days in Sorrento, Italy (with side trips to Capri and Positano) and then ended with 6 days in Rome.

This summer our Incredible Italia experience will continue with several weeks of incredible-ness in Venice, Bologna, Firenze, Tuscany, Cinque Terre and the Lake Como area. 2009 is the year of Italy!

Rome is a wonderful city, rich with culture, history, amazing culinary smells, fabulous food, and cobblestone alleys filled with wonderful music.

Rome is a very 'walkable' city. Home base for us was near Campo di fiori and from there we could walk under 30 minutes and get to just about every site in Rome (Vatican, Coliseum, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Trevi fountain, Pantheon, Villa Borghese....).

Here's what we did...

• Trevi Fountain - it is bustling with hundreds of people from about 9am until late in the evening. If you want nice photos, arrive by 7:30 for some beautiful early morning pictures.
• Piazza Navona - is a wonderful piazza surrounded by restaurants with umbrella covered tables. It is a great place to watch life pass you by; however it is one of the more touristy-locations and thus expensive.
• National Museum (near Piazza Navona)
• Galleria Borghese (art museum in Villa Borghese)
• Pantheon
• Coliseum
• Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
• Campo di Fiori
• Spanish Steps
• Villa Borghese
• Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
• St. Peter's Basilica
• Papal Address
  

Along the way we had a few hiccups in Rome...

• We worked so hard at not getting ripped off in the rip off capital of the world (Beijing), that no sooner did we get to the train station in Rome and get in a cab did we get ripped off. The cabbie had several meters in his car and the 'official' one started at 15 Euro, when it should have started at 5 Euro. A 9-10Euro cab ride, metered at 30Euro. After a heated discussion, he said 25 Euro was good. As I started writing down his license plate number and cabbie number, he came down to 20Euro. My first impression with Rome and Italians was not very positive.


• The apartment we rented 'lost power' for 24 hours (due to the owner not paying the electric bill since NOVEMBER)...I'm not done dealing with that one and will blog more later.

Despite the hiccups, our time in Rome and the surrounding area was amazing. I cannot wait until our 3 week tour of Italy in July!