Celebrating 30 Years of Bliss: Ah...Roma!

Well, we arrived in Rome three days ago. I've been "back blogging" the rest of our Paris trip and thought that I would just do one catch up post since our arrival in Rome. This is our fifth visit here and it feels a little like coming home. Although we were very sad to leave Paris we do love being in Rome. Perhaps because it is so familiar to us.

We've rented many apartments here and most have been great but this one is the best of all. It is located on a little side street (Vicolo Orbitelli) off of the very beautiful Via Giulia. You can see pictures of our apartment here. I think this will be the place that we stay from now on. Like the Paris apartment we have free wifi and cable TV. It is a very modern apartment in an ancient building. I can't believe our luck with accommodations on this trip.

Our arrival here was pretty uneventful. Just one little snafu with Aitalia. The 10:15 a.m. flight was cancelled and we weren't able to leave until around noon but that didn't cause any major problems. I was able to call the shuttle service and the apartment owner to let them know that we would be late.

We have a little tradition for our first night here. We always walk to St. Peter's to marvel at this awesome and historic Basilica then walk to La Rustichella Restaurant for dinner. It's what we did on our very first trip in 2003 and we've been doing it on each visit since.

The waiters at the restaurant have not changed and the pizza guys are the same too. I even order the same thing - spaghetti alle vongole (or spaghetti with clams). Scott switched it up a little and had pasta with porcini mushrooms.

Via Giulia is an unusually wide street for the historical city center and has two or three churches on it as well as several antique shops. This passageway spans the street and was designed by Michelangelo. It's usually covered with ivy that hangs down from the archway.

On one of our walks we noticed several BMW police cars and policemen outside of this building on Via Giulia. The sign on the building reads Direzione Nazionale Antimafia - the National Anti-Mafia Directorate. What's really funny is that this street is packed with cars bumper to bumper except on the block where this building is. Hmmm...wonder why?

See?

We discovered this little restaurant on our second day here and have eaten here twice already. It's a Mozzarella Bar and I had this great open faced sandwich with all kinds of vegetables, anchovies, and mozzarella (of course).