Breakfast was to be included with our hotel but, we were so tired we slept too late to get our breakfast buffet at the hotel. So, we rested and ventured out on our own with a plan to head to The Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Neighborhood. It was our understanding those weren't on the list of things we'd see with our tour group. As we wondered around we came upon what is called The Old Roman Wall (Auirelian Walls). These walls were built for defenses of the Eternal City way back in the 4th century BC. The 6th King of Rome Servius Tullius initiated the first defensive walls built from large blocks of volcanic tufa that were about 10 meters high.
There was about 500 years of peace in The Roman Empire, during the Golden Age and little need of defensive walls. However, later as Rome grew and more lands and peoples were involved that changed. The Barbaric Hoards were a problem so Aurelian, who was then the Emperor had the walls rebuilt and it included all of the 7 hills of Rome and Trastevere district south of the Tiber River. It only took 5 years to build these walls that covered 3500 acres, as the Emperor used Rome Citizens, not just the military. It was completed just after the death of Aurelian. Later Maxentius doubled the height of the walls to increase protection. There were 381 square watch towers built at 30 meter intervals with 18 gateways in and out of the city.
These walls, and gateways remained after the fall of The Roman Empire. After 16 centuries the walls were breached at Porta Pia on Sept 20th 1870, which was the beginning of the unification of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel II. Though Italy is old...very old, it has not been a unified country for very long. A little confusion on the date, as I also read the date of 1861 as the date The King declared the country unified, so perhaps Porta Pia was a battle after the fact.
These walls are the largest monument in Rome as they extend into everyday life. You see the walls, you still go through the gateways, some of the walls are included in peoples homes and other buildings throughout the city.
Hubby, as we were walking about. I needed to prove he was there. LOL- This was a park near the above wall and gate.
We made our way to The Spanish Steps, but it was terribly crowded, and quite hot. So we walked around a bit.
Us half way on The Spanish Steps with Trinita dei Monti Church behind us.
Lots of shopping around The Spanish Steps
Trying to get a feel for the steepness of the steps down into the square. The Spanish steps were built to link the Church at the top of Piazza di Spagna to the Spanish square below.
Another view of the church
Was hot and we needed a break so found a little place for lunch, Trinita Snack Bar. We shared a sandwich and had our first very cool Italian Gelato after lunch. Sparkler included! I did not find a webpage for this little restaurant, but did a favorable review on yelp, and here's the link to their facebook page.
Beautiful statues everywhere, as we continued on walking after lunch.
Even at Government Buildings, which is where these very steep steps go. We found shade though!
Even the streets are pretty, notice the mix of color between the white government buildings.
Statues abound. At this point, I was done.... (broke my foot in March and not totally healed, as it takes they say a year), so we called Uber and made it back to the hotel to rest a bit, and get showers in order to meet up with a tour guide and group members for a welcome dinner that evening.
A wonderful and full day before our tour.
I was pretty excited here......even though exhausted after our 21+ hours of getting to Rome. We had to re-route our flight that would have gone from Columbus, Ohio to Charlotte, NC to Rome (about 12 hours total) to Columbus to Philly to London to Rome. LONG and tiring flight, but we arrived at our hotel in Rome (Hotel Romanico Palace), see previous post about 7:30 Monday night vs arriving about 9:45 that morning. The hotel referred us to Piccolo Abruzzo (they also have a facebook page) that was about 3.5 block walk from the hotel.
It was fantastic!! Like eating in someone's dining room. The owner greeted us, and ran back and forth from the kitchen. Have never been served my dinner in the pan it was cooked in before.....fun and different and oh was it yummy. And yes it was bad hair after the 3 flights.
Close up my meal with a wonderful salad that Ernie and I shared.
ERnie's meal, he said it was wonderful!! Then we had desert followed by Limoncello that was quite refreshing. We were ready to head out to go to bed at the hotel when they began serving the large family group next to us (from the largest pan I've ever seen). They scoped us out each a small plate of it, so we try it also. We were stuffed, but managed to eat every bite. Homemade pasta and fresh ingredients in their meals..........so so good.
We kept the business card our hotel front desk gave us. Really didn't want to forget where we had this fabulous meal.
And with that we closed out our first night in Rome, tired, excited and very full.
This is my travel route on my recent trip to Italy. You'll note we spent 2 nights in most locations. We started our tour in Rome and ended our tour in Rome.
We toured with Insight Vacations, The Art of Traveling in Style. This is the 2nd time we've toured with this travel company. This trip is billed as 12 nights and 13 days. Traveling in Italy is more costly than when we traveled in Ireland and Scotland last year. Italy is simply more popular, which I assume is the reason. Tours are billed per person (PP). $3,746.25 pp (that price included 3 discounts. Once you travel with one tour company, it pays you to to continue with them, unless you're unhappy with your tour. Repeat customers get a discount, ours per couple was $452.50. Additionally, once you put down a deposit, you have a window of time to pay for your trip early to receive the early pay discount which was 905.00 (per couple), and because we booked Italy within 60 days of returning from Ireland, we received a welcome home discount of 200.00. 7,492.50 divided by 12 nights is 624.37 per day per couple. That price includes your travel, your hotel, and in most cases your buffet breakfast.........and some dinners. All meals are typically not included. Our tour included 7 dinners with wine. That price also includes entrance fees to things like The Vatican.
We stayed in 7 different hotels, some better than others. When traveling in Europe it's important you NOT expect things to be as there are here in the USA. Two fold, it's rare that your room will be like others in the tour group. Things vary a lot in Europe. Bed sizes are typically smaller with King rarely being an option. Often Queen is not an option. More typically it's two twins vs a double. We've found it a better option to do 2 twins, as did most on our tour. You do not get washcloths in bathrooms. We noted this in Ireland and Scotland last year and it was no different this year in Italy. I don't remember if we had them in Spain 5 years ago, but think not.
Sheets! A word about top sheets. Again I don't remember about Spain, but we only had a top sheet one night during our Ireland and Scotland tour last year, and this year in Italy, we had a few. The typical bed making in Europe does not include one. A duvet is common places..........which is probably fine during cold weather, but a bit hot otherwise.
Our first hotel was in a good location in Rome, Hotel Romanico Palace, but our room looked nothing like what you see on their hotel webpage.
The hotel was clean and comfortable, but not all that attractive. I might call it delightfully tacky, lol
Beware...bathrooms typically have a tub or shower, or combo, but ...you never have a full closure. Typically you have half a door which makes showering without getting water on the floor a real challenge. Most bathrooms have a bidet...which many Americans say work well for washing your feet, lol. Seriously though if you look around the net the chances of spreading water everywhere in your bathroom and or burning yourself are substantial. Bars of soap are also not readily available. Only about half our hotels had them this trip. They often have a bathwash-shampoo combo available and not one hotel had hair conditioner.........which I admit to forgetting. I like not packing those items to save space, so had none this trip.
Also, carpet........isn't something you see much of. None of hotel rooms had carpet. Most were tile, or some other substance. So, if you don't like your feet hitting cool floors, take slippers. Personally, I thought the cold on the feet felt good after tromping around all day and putting miles on the dogs.
We, as a tour group spent 2 nights at this hotel, however hubby and I opted to go a day early and were there 3 nights. Our above room was 180.00 Euro's, currently that would be around $208.00 US dollars. Not a bad rate considering we were in an historic district walking distance to The Spanish Steps and The Trevi Fountain.
Hope to see you as I continue to blog about our wonderful Italian Adventure, Italian Escape.
This piece of luggage is called The Ghost Cruiser from REI. It's the luggage I took to Ireland and Scotland last fall (those posts were interrupted on this blog, by me during a blogging lapse). It weighs only 5 pounds empty and is a 27 inch rolling...duffel of sorts.
Trying to show the two openings here. It's main compartment and a smaller top zip compartment. It has a good study handle, and stand which keeps it upright nicely.
Empty insides show you two side pockets that zip that are good for a pair of shoes, or misc under things. I am able to put a sandal and a dress shoe(flats) in each pocket. I find not putting the pair together is helpful. The sandals obviously are smaller and compact better than a dress flat, so one of each works well. I've also been able to put panties, and footies in each of those compartments along with the shoes. Additionally a top flat pocket with zip works well for file folders, rain gear, or jacket you want to have quick access to; as well as a dress you might not want to scrunch.
All of that packed nicely in above suitcase for a recent 2 week trip to Park City, Utah. Notice 4 packing cubes, Zip lock bag of coffee, zip lock bag of yarn, ditty bag (red), zip lock bag of cooking spices (which I don't take on tours like Ireland, but do when we go to a timeshare vacation). A few misc items like a hat, umbrella, and rain coat folded in a zip lock bag, and a Martini shaker (also not something I take on tour, lol).
Please notice the green cube, 2nd from the right. It's the largest of the 4 you see and it contained 2 flare skirts, 2 dresses with flare skirts, 7 sleeves dress tops, 1 t-shirt, 1 bra and a handful of panties and footies.
Now I can't recommend this luggage, because they no longer make it, but they do have some that are similar. REI (an outdoor store with excellent equipment fully guaranteed). We've belonged to the co-op for years. So even though you might blink at the cost of their equipment, it's very high quality that they stand behind....and as a member, you get annual dividends.
I like a suitcase I can lift. It's not possible to worry about weight with this suitcase. You can't put 50 pounds in it. I'm sorry it's no longer made, because both hubby and I have been very pleased with our purchase.
I plan to to use this suitcase again later this year when we go touring again in Europe, this time Italy.
**I highly recommend using packing cubs. Different colors is helpful too. Perhaps I'll go into more detail on that in a different post.
***I should also mention all the above weighted 39 pounds...well beneath the 50 pound limit, which includes several things I purchased while there, including an extra pair of shoes.
Blarney Castle sits on over 60 acres of gorgeous parklands. There are gardens, walk paths and more. Plenty for those who may not be up to the physical task of climbing up and up in The Castle where the narrow circular steps are quite step and one way. A bit of challenge also if you're claustrophobic. I had to keep concentrating to move quickly up where there would be openness. The view from the top is breathtaking. You can look in all directions...even if you don't plan to kiss the stone. This is hubby below.
He wanted to kiss the stone. That also is rather physical, and you're pressed for time, as the long to do so is quite LONG. We did fairly well, as our tour guide got us there at an off time. You lie on your back, bend your neck and head down to kiss the stone which is beneath you. I wasn't keen with the position, as a person with some back issues. Our friend who's pictures are in this post (her's were better than hubby's), wasn't keen on kissing a dirty stone where hundreds of thousands have put their lips. I would guess about 1/3 of our tour group kissed the stone. There were 39 of us. I think about 2/3rd's climbed to see the sites.
This is the estate house. No longer lived in. Beautiful flower gardens all around.
Not a view you see often, or at least we didn't. We do not have on rain coats, and I actually had removed my jacket and pushed up the sleeves. We had a nice lunch outside and it was comfortable. The ONLY meal we were able to do that. This was after the kissing of the stone and walking the grounds.
Another view of Castle, giving you an idea of it's height.
One cool morning we left (optional excursion) our hotel early with about 2/3rds of our party for a Jaunty Car trip through gorgeous park lands. The Killarney National Park is quite large and very pretty. Martin was our driver. A senior citizen who'd been doing this job a very long time. He told us his Father had also been a Jaunty Car Driver.
We were bundled up, but enjoying the ride.
Later in the day we traveled throughout the Ring of Kerry. Lots of pretty landscapes, sheep everywhere. Stone walls everywhere. And Green, Green, Green.
Jane in the foreground, me right behind her in one of the narrow passages; but you can see here we weren't closed in.
