Roman Holiday pt 2

Day 2 

We arrived in Rome at 8:00 a.m.  We had a driver there to meet us at the airport and he took us to his car.  We found out he spoke little English and that was quite common with the people we met.  The drive to the hotel was crazy.  Apparently there aren’t a lot of lines on the road and when there were the drivers didn’t really stay within them.  A bit terrifying but we made it to the hotel safe and sound.  There is an 8 hour time difference, so for us it was midnight.  I was glad I wasn’t very tired because when we got to our hotel we were unable to go to our room.  Before we left the states, we were told to stay up as long as we could.  So off we went to explore.  Our hotel room was down town Rome.  Across the street was an old church.  It looked quite plain from the outside but we walked inside and wow.  It was absolutely amazing.  The décor and large size was just, well, amazing.   They had one of the biggest organs in the world and because mass was about to begin someone was playing it.  When you go into a Catholic Basilica in Rome you must have your shoulders covered and you are not supposed to where shorts.  So they were handing out scarves for the ladies and men to cover their shoulders.

The outside of our hotel

a fountain across the street from our hotel

I was in awe of the immense size of this church

These little smart cars were all over and the would park so close I had no idea how they would get out.

  From there we continued to explore some more.  And wow, there was another very old and very beautiful church.     

The back of the second church was just as beautiful as the front.

The front

inside everything was amazing.  I can't even imagine what it takes to design something like this.

here are some people not dressed appropriately so she had to where a scarf around her top and bottom

Then we grabbed a bite at a cute little restaurant and ate outside.  We watched and no one left tips.  What we found out is there is a service fee included in your meal at all restaurants.  If you get it to go there is no fee, if you eat outside there is a little fee, and if you eat inside larger fee.  During the meal my head began to spin.  We had been up for about 24 hours and were exhausted.  So we went back to the hotel for a nap.  David set an alarm so we wouldn’t sleep to long.  Then we walked around the hotel, checked in with the kids, ate some left over’s and went back to bed.   Good day