To Roma

On our last day in Cinque Terre, we decided to give our tired legs a break and take it easy at the beach. The beaches here don’t have the soft sand we’re used to on the West Coast; instead they’re made up of different sizes of rocks. Laying on them with a beach towel feels surprisingly fine, but I could not get used to walking on them. We soaked in the beach time, feeling completely relaxed.

But, as Kyle put it, “If there’s one thing we can do at home, it’s lay on the beach.” So we decided to pack our things up and go to the train station to buy our tickets to Rome. We bought tickets for 1:30 p.m. train, which gave us just enough time to go back to the pizzeria and get another slice of that tasty focaccia pesto pizza. To no surprise, the pizzeria owner was in a much better mood today. He explained to us in perfect English that he clearly didn’t want to work last night when there was a match to watch and that’s why he closed his store. “If I’m going to serve people acting like a grouch, what good does that do for you or for me when I clearly don’t want to be here? So I close my store and I go enjoy the match!” How different, but wonderful is the Italian work ethic?!

The train to Rome took about 5 hours. On the ride, Kyle and I played card games, and then I wrote as Kyle watched TV shows on the Kindle. The large windows allowed us to watch the scenery as we passed from town to town. The air conditioning on the train barely cooled the cabin, and again, we fought the heat.

We arrived in Rome on a holiday—the Festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. We checked in to our hotel and set out for a stroll to explore the area around our hotel and find a place to eat dinner. About three blocks from our hotel, I stopped in my tracks as I saw my first glimpse of the Vatican off in the distance. I was so excited knowing that I had wanted to go there for so long and I was finally here, seeing it and tomorrow we would get to go inside and take a tour.

Our hotel recommended a nearby restaurant called Segreto. We tried Roman fried artichokes (that tasted like potato chips) and insalata romana—our first green salad since we’ve been here. For our main courses Kyle ordered penne arrabiata and I ordered ravioli with ricotta cheese and spinach. While it may seem silly to post about every meal we eat, each one is special and unique. Kyle’s cousin Joe told us that “you can’t have a bad meal in Italy,” and he was right!

After dinner we walked to the popular Piazza Navona, a vibrant square filled with street vendors, artists, musicians, restaurants and incredible Bernini statues surrounding the a giant fountain. There was so much going on in this square that we decided to stop at one of the restaurants to have a drink and do some people watching.

While this was a day broken up by train travel, we were still able to spend some time at one of the most unique beaches we’ve ever seen and get a taste of Rome at night—not too shabby!