*SIGH* After a week of fighting a miserable cold and plowing through over 650 photos from our first three and a half days, I have 198 uploaded and shared.

Rome was surprisingly fun after so many people told me how dirty and dangerous it would be.  The ruins were amazing, Vatican City was magical, and Trevi Fountain was a hoot.  We also got a morning of rain but we were actually prepared with an umbrella that we packed!  Yay!

If you’re in Rome for at least 2 days, the Roma Pass is worth getting.  For 23 euro per person, you get a card that gives you admission to two museums, a 3-day bus pass, and discounted admission to additional museums.  We used it for admission to the Colosseum and Galleria Borghese and rode the bus everywhere.  Might have costed almost the same if we had paid for everything without the pass but the convenience factor counts for at least 5 additional euro.

Roma Termini (the train station) is huge and convenient but FCO (Rome Airport) is super small and inefficient.  Their bus system requires a little figuring out but our tour book actually had a route map that helped us figure it out.

The food was good at times but then disappointing at times as well.  We always seemed to be in search for a whole-in-the-wall and found a couple gems.

Loved the gelato and sorbetto everywhere (*slurp*) and Jes had fun drinking beer out in the street.  We found the “pinocchio store” called Bartolucci and learned quickly that restaurants charge you a “bread charge” of 3-5 euro but don’t expect you to tip.  Italians also like to give you free snacks with your glass of wine.  Sometimes it’s a bowl of olives and sometimes it’s a bowl of olives, finger sandwiches, and potato chips!

Here are the photos from Rome.  Enjoy!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Hols!