{"id":3222,"date":"2025-10-03T13:56:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T20:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/?p=3222"},"modified":"2025-10-03T13:56:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T20:56:36","slug":"three-of-us-in-italy-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/three-of-us-in-italy-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Three of Us in Italy – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Untitled
The Colosseum at night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ride<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Thursday morning, and we arrived at our hotel in Rome last night. I didn\u2019t sleep very much on the plane, and by the time we got to our hotel, it was almost 10 PM, and after setting up everyone\u2019s Wi-Fi, I needed to sleep and this morning feel much better and well rested. It\u2019s about 6 AM, and I\u2019ve been up since 5 AM, which is normally the time I get up, so that\u2019s not unusual. Barb will likely be sleeping for several more hours, and this is the ideal time for me to write my blog while everything is fresh in my head.<\/p>\n

We debated how we would get from the Rome airport to our hotel and in the end decided that taking a taxi was the best choice. We\u2019ve taken a lot of taxis over the years, and this itself wasn\u2019t a big decision. It was the ride that was interesting. It\u2019s probably an Italian thing, but we were blasting down the highway from the airport, on a posted 60 KM\/hr road, easily doing 120. It must be a taxi thing, as some other taxis were passing us. Suffice to say, we made good time getting from the airport to our hotel.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled
Having breakfast at a local cafe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Long Walk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday was our first full day here in Rome. From our hotel, we found that within a 10-minute walk, there are a number of places to eat, and we had breakfast at a local place for some coffee and croissants, which we found they call a cornetto<\/em> here. While the three of us sat at a table outside, there were many locals, well-dressed in suits, having the same, but more often standing at the bar,\u00a0which is very common in Italy.<\/p>\n

We did a lot of walking yesterday, which we often end up doing when exploring any big city. We purchased a 24-hour ticket for the subway, which we used several times to get around. On our first day, we hit many of the major sites, and while many of them were crowded, we overall didn\u2019t feel that the city was overrun with tourists, as it probably would be during July or August. About the worst was around the Trevi Fountain, which we had originally planned to go first thing in the morning, but on the spur of the moment decided to walk there in the middle of the day, among a horde of people.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled
Us on the Spanish Steps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The weather throughout the day was very good, in the mid-20s, and all of us were taking layers off as we walked around. After dinner, it was quite a bit cooler, closer to 17 and in hindsight, I would have worn one of the thicker shirts I brought with me. Wendy had made reservations at a restaurant right next to the Colosseum, which was very photogenic, lit up at night, and all of us took several photos of the area, then took the subway back to our hotel, ending our first day here in Rome.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled
The staircase in the Vatican Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of us watched lots of videos before leaving home on scams and pickpockets in Italy, and have been vigilant about this. However, most of the places we\u2019ve been to so far, especially the subways, which are a pickpocket hotspot, have not been very crowded, and we\u2019ve never felt unsafe.<\/p>\n

The Vatican<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Friday today, and we had booked tickets to visit the Vatican Museum and St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. In hindsight, it was an exhausting day with a lot of running around. Getting to the Vatican was fairly easy, and it was just a few stops on the metro. The whole area around the Vatican had about the largest crowds we\u2019ve seen since getting to Rome. The Vatican is always popular, and we think that because this year is a Jubilee Year<\/a>, there were likely lots more visitors to the Vatican. The Vatican Museum had room after room of treasures, some donated over the centuries, and a lot of Egyptian artifacts likely plundered in years gone by. It took about 90 minutes of walking with crowds through all of the rooms, up and down staircases and waiting to get to what everyone was looking to see, the Sistine Chapel, which only came at the very end, before we had to leave. Guards are walking around the chapel asking people not to take photos of the ceiling, and none of us knew why it was not allowed. Nonetheless, Barb got a picture of the ceiling on my photo website.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled
View of St. Peter’s Basilica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We ended up having to rush out of the Vatican Museum and quickly walk about a kilometre to our booking to see St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. We ended up walking about 8 Km today, and we were all exhausted, especially from walking everywhere around the Vatican with large crowds. After two days in a row of lots of walking, almost 15 Km combined in both days, we have a slow day planned tomorrow to get our energy back.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Catholic priest calendars, seen all over Rome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As always, I\u2019ve started to post my photos from Italy on my photo website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ride It\u2019s Thursday morning, and we arrived at our hotel in Rome last night. I didn\u2019t sleep very much on the plane, and by the time we got to our hotel, it was almost 10 PM, and after setting up everyone\u2019s Wi-Fi, I needed to sleep and this morning feel much better and well rested. It\u2019s about 6 AM, and I\u2019ve been up since 5 AM, which is normally the time I get up, so that\u2019s not unusual. Barb will likely be sleeping for several more hours, and this is the ideal time for me to write my blog while everything is fresh in my head. We debated how we would get from the Rome airport to our hotel and in the end decided that taking a taxi was the best choice. We\u2019ve taken a lot of taxis over the years, and this itself wasn\u2019t a big decision. It was the ride that was interesting. It\u2019s probably an Italian thing, but we were blasting down the highway from the airport, on a posted 60 KM\/hr road, easily doing 120. It must be a taxi thing, as some other taxis were passing us. Suffice to say, we made good time getting from the airport to our hotel. The Long Walk Yesterday was our first full day here in Rome. From our hotel, we found that within a 10-minute walk, there are a number of places to eat, and we had breakfast at a local place for some coffee and croissants, which we found they call a cornetto here. While the three of us sat at a table outside, there were many locals, well-dressed in suits, having the same, but more often standing at the bar,\u00a0which is very common in Italy. We did a lot of walking yesterday, which we often end up doing when exploring any big city. We purchased a 24-hour ticket for the subway, which we used several times to get around. On our first day, we hit many of the major sites, and while many of them were crowded, we overall didn\u2019t feel that the city was overrun with tourists, as it probably would be during July or August. About the worst was around the Trevi Fountain, which we had originally planned to go first thing in the morning, but on the spur of the moment decided to walk there in the middle of the day, among a horde of people. The weather throughout the day was very good, in the mid-20s, and all of us were taking layers off as we walked around. After dinner, it was quite a bit cooler, closer to 17 and in hindsight, I would have worn one of the thicker shirts I brought with me. Wendy had made reservations at a restaurant right next to the Colosseum, which was very photogenic, lit up at night, and all of us took several photos of the area, then took the subway back to our hotel, ending our first day here in Rome. All of us watched lots of videos before leaving home on scams and pickpockets in Italy, and have been vigilant about this. However, most of the places we\u2019ve been to so far, especially the subways, which are a pickpocket hotspot, have not been very crowded, and we\u2019ve never felt unsafe. The Vatican It\u2019s Friday today, and we had booked tickets to visit the Vatican Museum and St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. In hindsight, it was an exhausting day with a lot of running around. Getting to the Vatican was fairly easy, and it was just a few stops on the metro. The whole area around the Vatican had about the largest crowds we\u2019ve seen since getting to Rome. The Vatican is always popular, and we think that because this year is a Jubilee Year, there were likely lots more visitors to the Vatican. The Vatican Museum had room after room of treasures, some donated over the centuries, and a lot of Egyptian artifacts likely plundered in years gone by. It took about 90 minutes of walking with crowds through all of the rooms, up and down staircases and waiting to get to what everyone was looking to see, the Sistine Chapel, which only came at the very end, before we had to leave. Guards are walking around the chapel asking people not to take photos of the ceiling, and none of us knew why it was not allowed. Nonetheless, Barb got a picture of the ceiling on my photo website. We ended up having to rush out of the Vatican Museum and quickly walk about a kilometre to our booking to see St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. We ended up walking about 8 Km today, and we were all exhausted, especially from walking everywhere around the Vatican with large crowds. After two days in a row of lots of walking, almost 15 Km combined in both days, we have a slow day planned tomorrow to get our energy back. As always, I\u2019ve started to post my photos from Italy on my photo website here. Baden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}