Wednesday, October 22 and Thursday, October 23 - Roma.

We boarded a noon Eurostar to Rome and enjoyed the trip through the beautiful, rural countryside. Italy is a very beautiful country. Arriving at Termini, Rome's central train station, our first goal was to locate our hotel, which we did, about a 5 minute walk (pulling suitcases) from the station. Although we had been to Rome several times, we set out to revisit some favorite places: the Spanish Steps, the fountain at the base of the steps, Via Veneto, Trevi Fountain, walk past the Forum and Coliseum… Rome is a city of unending splendor, appropriately called the "eternal city."

That evening we dined at one of our favorite Roman restaurants before strolling the streets and enjoying the flavor of the city.

Trattoria Gioia Mia is very popular (primarily locals) and is always crowded. Been around since 1920. Food is excellent and prices are very reasonable (dinner for two was €39.) It is located in a little, hard to find, alley between Piazza Barberini and the Trevi Fountain. (map)

The day was misty with occasional light rain. Therefore, we decided to try one of the hop on-hop off (hoho) buses that travel through Rome. For a flat fee, you can hop on and hop off (hence the name!) the bus at any point to explore the city. We took the Green Line, which took us to the Vatican, Borghese Gardens and villa, the Via Veneto, and more. The Green Line provides headphones so that you can hear a "guided tour" in your selected language as the bus cruises through the city. We were also provided a map with very poorly marked hop-on points.

The concept of the hoho bus is good, but be careful choosing the bus line. With the exception of re-boarding at a stop, if we explored between scheduled stopping points, we had enormous difficulty finding the hop-on locations for the Green Line. We had no trouble finding signs for the Red or Blue lines, however, but tickets are not transferable between hoho bus lines. Consequently, we walked far more than we rode, and found the experience with the Green Line to be exhausting and disappointing. However, we did not hear complaints from Red or Blue line customers that we spoke to.

Friday, October 24 - Heading home!

We left our hotel room about 05:30 and pulled our suitcases through the almost empty, early morning streets of Rome to get to Termini, where we took the Leonardo Express to the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport. A word of caution-there were two trains on the same binario (track), both bound for the airport, but the one that was the furthest to walk to left 30 minutes before the other. Fortunately, we figured that out in time to get to the airport, go through security, board Alitalia & fly home. Once in Miami, we again took tri rail to meet our neighbor, who took us home. What a wonderful trip!

The new international departures building (reached by monorail) is really quite nice. There are many shops and a couple of eating areas (albeit quite pricey.) If you want to take pasta, wine or a block of parmesan cheese home - buy it in the city - not at the airport.