We arrived at Rome by fast train from Naples and we took the Subway to go directly to our hotel. The first thing we saw after leaving the subway station was the famous Spanish Steps.
It was glorious! Being on a place in which many famous writers that I personally admired have been before me. Of course later that night I will be standing on Piazza Trinita de Monti right next to the house where English poet John Keats live and died in 1821.
We had to walk 4 blocks to go to our hotel “Hotel Mozart” (located on Via dei Greci next to the Conservatorio di Musica “Santa Cecilia”), this is a really cute hotel, but even thought I love our attic room, I have to admit it was a little small and had an even smaller bathroom. In perspective I would prefer to stay close to the Pantheon, but this hotel is close to a subway station, the Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo and it is also located right next to Via del Corso, in January Italy has one of the biggest sales of the year so… you know how it goes.
After leaving the bags in our hotel, (we arrived at 09:30, too early to check in) we decided to go to Piazza del Popolo. On our way there we visited two churches, I don’t remember the names but they were incredibly beautiful, like every church we visited in Italy. I am sorry to say that we had our minds in more popular places so, we didn’t even care to check the names.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Museum. I love the place. We were traveling for our honeymoon this time and we do not have any kids, but I think that kids will love this place as well. The museum is small, and not to overwhelming, maybe good enough to spend 30 minutes or less. It also have a small shop, if you fancy yourself some interactive game or book. I got mine!
Once we finish there and in our way to the Vatican Museums, close to the subway station Ottaviano we went for lunch at a small sandwich place that I read it was great. We order two sandwiches from the small menu on the wall and we were not disappointed, they were simple and extremely tasty!
Vatican Museum. For this museum and preventing the lines I bought the tickets in advance online. I think I paid 4 more euros than if you buy them directly there, and that way we just show our online voucher and they gave us the entry tickets. We were using Rick Steves app, which is great if you want to see most of the museum at your own pace. Charlie (my husband) love the statues in the Gallery of the Candelabra, I was really excited to see the Egyptian Rooms and we both preferred anything painted by Raphael. Don’t be surprised that you are more impressed by something completely unexpected and not by the most famous pieces of art, that was what happened to us!
Piazza San Pietro (San Peter’s Square). We came to Piazza San Pietro with the idea of visiting the Basilica, but at 04:00 pm (yes, we spent 3 and a half hours in the Vatican Museums), the line to enter the church was a kilometer long… we did not visit it that day. So instead, we enjoy the ambiance and we walked every one of the yellow squares in the floor and had fun looking at which line of column will disappear depending on where we were standing. We also use the Rick Steves app for the Piazza and the buildings surrounding it, and it was really helpful and informational.
We walked all the way to our hotel ( I still don’t know how I follow my crazy husband in this idea). But despite how tired we were, we enjoyed to just walk along the Tiber River, looking at Castle Sant’Angelo, old churches and just loving every corner of Rome in a winter afternoon, our first honeymoon day.
After a shower and a well deserved nap, we were ready to go out for our first dinner in Rome. Since I have read a lot from it and my cousin really recommended it we went to Trastevere. We chose Tratoria Ristorante da Otello. I have to say this was probably my favorite dinner in Italy, and Charlie and I spent a wonderful night and have the best memories from the place. The service was amazing, the food was supreme and the ambience just perfect. We met a couple from Australia and ended up joining the two tables together, and the bartender brought us complementary shots once they find out we just got married the day before. I really recommend their house wine and their meat and cheese platter for the appetizer.
After dinner we walked across the river to start our tour, one of the Rick Steves audio tours: Heart of Rome. We absolutely loved this tour, and the fact that we did it really late at night, we started walking around 9:30 pm. Even though it was winter and it is supposed to be the slow season, there are still a lot of tourists in Rome so it is hard to see the Trevi Fountain by yourself unless you visit it really early, or really late like we did.
My highlights of the tour: Campo de’ Fiori, The Statue Called Pasquino, Piazza Navona (my favorite), The Pantheon (my favorite as well), The Trevi Fountain, and The Spanish Steps (my favorite!!!… yes I know I have a lot of favorites… what can I do? It is Rome after all).
We ended up in our hotel past midnight, tired but ready for another amazing experience the next day.