Spanish Steps

Wow, the Spanish Steps are beautiful. The view from the top is amazing as well, especially with a beer.

This was the first place we encountered lined with tourist traps...... Waiters standing outside their restaurants trying to lure you inside with English menus and men tricking women into taking Free flowers  from them "to bring them luck." "They are free they are free.... For you luck....." A few moments later a tap on the shoulder to their partner asking for "just a littke tip" for them for the flowers. 

This happened to Lily and Andrew. Andrew replied "Sorry no euro. Shes not mine." Haha

Beautiful place.  Just say "No Gratzi" A LOT!  And whatever you do don't take the flowers..... or drop them when they slip them in your elbow. They don't like that.  :)

Pantheon

We have been dreaming about Romes Pantheon for years now. It was much different than we had imagined.  Beautiful structure inside and out!

The streets in Central Rome

The night before we were stuck in our own little amaixing world of Trastevere. Now we have crossed the Tiber into Campo di'Fiorie. We were in awe when we stepped into Piazza Novana. It was incredible like in the movies.  But the fun part about Roma, is everything is close together and the streets are all connected. it was so easyto walk around Rome. Here are a few photos of our journey in the streets of Rome.

Roma, Campo di'Fiorie

After our very Italian breakfast we hit up Vodafone for our cell phone plans.  700 minutes and one GB for $20 . Not too bad. 

Then we started our tour of Rome. We pinched ourselves when we saw the Piazzle............. ???

Look at how beautiful the fountain is... There was so much detail,  it was unreal. 

Due cappuccinos, gratzi!

Oh boy did we need breakfast! We headed to camp de'fiori, the neighborhood right across from ours.  While trying to find a Banco/ATM we stumbled across this gem. It was filed with Italians standing at the bar having their morning cappuccinos and espresso.  .80 euros,  standing.  This was less than 5 euros. And it was Katies first cappuccino ever. 

Night caps back at the flat....

We're not sure what time zone we are currently in.  Or bodies are in a crazy loop. Everyone was relaxed and tired. So we decided to head back to the apartment for a night cap and to listen to music. What a great way to end day 1 in Italy!

Pimms and Procecco

What a romantic spot on the little cobble stone lined Piazza.  Pimms is a magical bar in Trastevere just a few blocks from our Flat.  Live music played from inside. We were in awe as an Italian saxophonist, bass player and pianist romanced us.

JJ treated us to a bottle of Procecco... We hadn't had processco until we came to Roma! We were greeted with home baked Potato chips and  fresh green Olives. And we mean,  these are olives so fresh we've never had anything like it!  Mmmmmm.

In just a few hours we were all memorized by Rome and our little neighborhood. It's an unreal feeling but are hoping tomorrow will wake us it of our dream as we tour some of Romans ancient history. 

We were also greeted by several boys selling crazy nick-naks and roses. We would have included a better photo but we're feared they would try to charge us to take their photo haha!

CIN CIN!

This was by far the best pizza we all have ever had.  We were watching other locals eat their own pizzas....Tiny ladies too! And the pizzas weren't small by any means. But we're light and so flavorful with the best dough ever! OMG!

  We  ordered 3 pizzas, 4 birres and an Arugula Fungi salad.   Omg this place was great.  The local man next to us spike broken english but did teach us a few Italian words including Chi Chi! Which is the Italian saying for Cheers! 

Lily and JJ are here! Tre IPAs + Una Pilsner Gratzi!

After JJ and Lily landed and arrived to the apartment, we went to a great bar just a few blocks from our apartment. Ma Che Siete Ven Uti A Fa in Trastevere. What a great LITTLE bar! They had a great selection of some fantastic beers on tap. Nothing like this could be found in the US. An Italian soccor game was going on so the tiny little bar was packed full of locals and poured out to the street.   We squeezed our way inside to order. 3 of us ordered an amassing IPA. One of us,  uhhhmmm, had a nice light Pilsner. Standing just outside the bar on the cobblestoned street with the locals was a little intimidating at first.  Ma Che Siete Ven Uti A Fa was such a great expierence we will  definitely be back for more birre! 

ROMA!

Oh yeah!  We landed in Roma! This is our "cool" taxi driver. He didn't speak much English but "knew" where we were going.  Long story short he dropped us of on the wrong street. The cross street name wad almost the same but had an A at the end.  It took us 10 minutes to realise that.  Then about another 45 minutes to find the right Street. How did people find things before, without cell phones in Rome??

Andrews First Cafe

Andrews first dutch "Cafe" along with a Procuitto & Arugula Panini. Jet lagged and Waiting for our flight to Roma. 

One leg down one more to go...

Oh we look so tired... Deltas 10 hour nonstop from PDX to AMS. We left at 1:40pm and landed at around 9am.

AMS Schiphol Airport

We landed!  We've started a 3 Hour layover in the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. First thing we found while wandering.... awesome cigarette labeling.  Oh and lots of cheese, smoked eel and Holland clogs. What a huge airport! 

This is happening! OMG!

This doesn't seem real yet!  Andrews sad this isn't a Boeing flight.  Mahallo Portland!

T minus 24 hours

T minus 24 hours and counting! It's laundry & Packing night tonight! Penny knows what's up. She is being such a snuggle bug the last couple days.