Benvenuti in Italia!

Alright my little adventurers, now we have entered into our favorite part of the trip: Rome! I'm not sure why Ryan and I liked Rome more (probably a mixture of warmer weather, less walking and PIZZA/GELATO) but we did. Since I am so enamored with Rome, it's going to take up a few posts :) Ryan's mom and sisters enjoyed Paris more, so it really is just a matter of opinion. My opinion is that while we were in Rome, I felt like I was living in a movie. I loved throwing open the windows of our guesthouse and letting in the sights and sounds of neighbors hanging laundry from their balconies, birds flying around like crazies and diners from the restaurants below.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Rome was....check in with our hostel! I know you were expecting me to say "EAT" because that's the kinda girl I am, but we were patient and left our luggage with the front desk of our hostel first since we were a few hours early to get into our room. Then we went and got some pizza and vino bianco at a great place called Meid in Nepols where the service was friendly and the food was delicious! For about 15 euro we shared a delicious mushroom pizza and a half liter of white wine. My Italian is pretty bad but they had an English speaker who seated us and the servers were incredibly kind and patient with us and our mangling of their language :)

After lunch, it was finally time to check in so we picked up our luggage at the hostel and headed to our guesthouse. The main hostel, The Beehive, is super amazing but we actually stayed in an offsite guesthouse they own called "Acacia" which is essentially a massive 3 bedroom apartment next to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (pictured to the right). For 80 euro/night we had a private room with a shared bathroom and living area. Since we were there for four nights, the other guests changed a few times but it was usually young couples that we only saw in passing and everyone was very quiet and respectful. I felt like a local as I used my key to slip into a nondescript door on the street, head up the tiny 2-4 person elevator and enter my temporary home.

Since we beat Ryan's family to Rome, we were on our own that first night so we decided to go exploring! We walked down to the Colosseum which was just a short walk from our house. I got some pistacchio and coconut gelato and it was the happiest moment of all time. Handy tip I read in a guide book for choosing a good gelato place: look at the pistacchio flavor! If it's bright green RUN!! It should be a light olive color because that means they didn't add a bunch of artificial crap. Here are a few more tips for choosing a good gelateria that I wish I had read before we arrived, it also mentions choosing gelato based on natural colors.

We wandered around to a few shops on the way back to our house but with a long day of traveling behind us, we both welcomed an early bedtime so that we'd be nice and refreshed for seeing our family and friends the next day at....the Colosseum!