We arrive to Aeroporto Leonardo da Vinci early in the morning. Our first experience of Rome is holding on for dear life in an airport shuttle that whisped us away from the airport to our hotel near the Campo di Fiore. The swarm of scooters surrounding us as we went through the narrow streets of Rome intensified the feeling that this was the beginning of the end of our vacation.

As we pull up to our hotel we passed a small little flea market, which told us that we were staying I a small little corner of Rome. We finally got to our hotel, the Albergo de Sole al Biscione. Two flights of stairs with all our bags we reach the front desk where a man barely wearing his button down shirt showing his gold chain was waiting for us to give us our key. After checking in we had to go up two more stories, but this time we had the luxury of "the lift". Calling this elevator small, would be an insult to all the small elevators that crowd most of Europe. This elevator was sooooo small … how small was it? … it was so small that we could just fit ourselves and our bags in through the narrow (18") doorway, but it wouldn't move due to the added weight. Theresa went up first, sent the elevator back down and up Dave finally went.

We enter our room … 3 twin beds. Why? Who knows? since we were supposed to have a double. We pushed two of the beds together unpacked, turned on the ceiling fan, and were unconscious in a matter of seconds. As we awoke to the Roman afternoon we were shaken in our boots by the loudest roar. Theresa thought that maybe it was a pope sighting, but I knew that the World Cup was this week and probably it was that Italy won its most recent game (or at least scored a goal).

After that very Italian wake up call we headed out to become tourists. Little did we know that ¾ of Rome was populated with tourists. We fit right in, camera, Eyewitness Guide (can't leave home w/o it), and water bottle. First stop-bad pizza @ Piazzo Navano, then off to the il Colosseo (The Colosseum). We laughed a lot about being Senators who would regale at the site of the wild beast shows and would relieve themselves right in front of the bleachers. This we learned from our British voice on the audio guide.

An hour of audio guides later and ½ a roll of film (we are sparing you ALL the pictures), we made our way through the Forum ruins towards Fontana di Trevi & then to the Spanish Steps. (Try to find Theresa sitting on the steps.)

After all the sites we walked down Rome's 5^th Ave. and then along the Tiber River. I have to say that the Tiber is totally NOT romantic. It is kinda smelly and just not beautiful. I say this having walked along both the Seine (Paris) and the Vltava (Prague--more recently), which are definitely much more beautiful middle of the city rivers. We finally found a nice outdoor restaurant where we had our first fine Italian meal.

On our walk home, we shared in our mutual infatuation with Europes cutest two-seater, the Smart (brought to you by Mercedes Benz).