Ciao from Roma!! I want to blog as much as I can while we're over here so that I don't forget about the specifics of our daily adventures. And what an adventure this is already proving to be! We arrived today in Rome at 6:45 Am...after being on an "overnight" flight from atlanta...it was really weird on our bodies because in salt lake it was the middle of the evening, but on our flight, it was overnight...needless to say, we're a little jet lagged today! When we got off the plane, there was a HUGE crowd to get through customs. I say crowd--not line--because it was TOTALLY unorganized and people were just in a big blob waiting to get through. Hundreds of people! I thought it was going to take forever, and I was pretty grumpy from not sleeping at all (when we landed in Rome, it was midnight salt lake time and all I wanted to do was sleep, but it was the start of the day here!!) so poor Matt had to deal with a pregnant, sleep deprived Kayla this morning, bless his heart :)... After we got through customs and found our bags, we needed to find a taxi to take us to our hotel. I knew our hotel was a little out of the city, because it was so much cheaper to stay a little ways out, but the cab driver wanted to charge us 140 euro (!!) to take us there. To do the conversion..thats about $290. For a cab ride! So after scratching our heads and thinking of other ways to get there, we decided to rent a car. OH MY GOODNESS, let me just say, driving in Rome is an adventure in and of itself! There are practically NO traffic laws, super narrow streets which are poorly labeled, and motorcycles that have a death wish weaving in and out of everyone. BUT it was nice because we took a "scenic" route to get to the hotel and drove along the coast for most of the way. BEAUTIFUL!! It actually looks a lot like the california beaches. I had no idea there was even a beach that close to Rome! When we got to our hotel, I literally couldn't function. It was about 3 or 4 am utah time and the night before we left I only got 4 hours of sleep, so I NEEDED to lay down. Turns out, laying down turned into a 5 hour nap, but it was very needed! When we got up, we freshened up and got back into our little Fiat "Panda" rental car...haha I think naming a car "the Panda" is just the funniest thing...and headed into center Rome for the first time. Again, the craziness of the drivers were just unreal. I felt like I was in the Borne Identity haha. It's about an hour drive in traffic from our hotel to center Rome, but man oh man we passed right by the coolest sights! The way we went led us RIGHT BY the coloseum... its incredible to see it in person, and even crazier to see romans just drive right past it not even thinking anything of it! After we found a parking spot, we walked to the Spanish Steps. It was such a view! from the top of the steps you can see the rooftops of Rome and some really neat buildings. When we'd taken in that view, we decided to find somewhere to eat--this was what I was most excited for lol! The authentic Italian food!!-- and we passed by the "rodeo drive" of italy...every designer imaginable and everything very, very, VERY expensive. We ended up at this cute little restaurant with outdoor seating, and had a DELICIOUS meal. It was so funny, Matt and I kept telling each other "this looks just like the inside of the venetian hotel!" because it literally seemed fake. the restaurant was in a little cobblestone alley--only, it's actually a street but the streets there are so narrow!--with towering stucco apartment buildings with cute shutters and little shops in the bottom. Leaving the restaurant, we window shopped a little bit, stopped for some gelato (of course!) and then walked to the Trevi Fountain. This fountain is so beautiful! It has some amazing sculptures and since it was dark, it was all lit up and gorgeous. We HAD to toss a coin over our shoulder (apparently, this is supposed to bring you good luck to come back to Rome) and take a few pictures. In our wanderings back to the parking spot, we ended up in this beautiful catholic church, and I snuck a few pictures. :) I can't believe how intricate, elaborate, and decadent the churches here are! I turned to Matt while we were inside and said "when this church was built (in the 1500's), people were really poor, and that money probably should've been spent in a better way..." it's true! But, it's neat to see the painted ceilings and amazing relief sculptures inside. We're now back in our hotel room (after another life-threatening drive) and tomorrow we have a long, exciting day planned out. We're going on a tour of the coloseum, then the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon, with other things in between. It's going to be an early morning! I just hope we can adjust well to the time change and feel rested in the morning... enjoy the pictures!! :)
in front of the Trevi fountain together
me in front of the fountain eating tasty gelato :)
a couple of views of the random gorgeous church
in front of the restaurant... this is what i look like after lots of travel and no sleep!
spanish steps from the bottom
spanish steps from the middle
the view from the top of the spanish steps
the coloseum!! these pictures were taken while driving...
Ciao from Roma!! I want to blog as much as I can while we're over here so that I don't forget about the specifics of our daily adventures. And what an adventure this is already proving to be! We arrived today in Rome at 6:45 Am...after being on an "overnight" flight from atlanta...it was really weird on our bodies because in salt lake it was the middle of the evening, but on our flight, it was overnight...needless to say, we're a little jet lagged today! When we got off the plane, there was a HUGE crowd to get through customs. I say crowd--not line--because it was TOTALLY unorganized and people were just in a big blob waiting to get through. Hundreds of people! I thought it was going to take forever, and I was pretty grumpy from not sleeping at all (when we landed in Rome, it was midnight salt lake time and all I wanted to do was sleep, but it was the start of the day here!!) so poor Matt had to deal with a pregnant, sleep deprived Kayla this morning, bless his heart :)... After we got through customs and found our bags, we needed to find a taxi to take us to our hotel. I knew our hotel was a little out of the city, because it was so much cheaper to stay a little ways out, but the cab driver wanted to charge us 140 euro (!!) to take us there. To do the conversion..thats about $290. For a cab ride! So after scratching our heads and thinking of other ways to get there, we decided to rent a car. OH MY GOODNESS, let me just say, driving in Rome is an adventure in and of itself! There are practically NO traffic laws, super narrow streets which are poorly labeled, and motorcycles that have a death wish weaving in and out of everyone. BUT it was nice because we took a "scenic" route to get to the hotel and drove along the coast for most of the way. BEAUTIFUL!! It actually looks a lot like the california beaches. I had no idea there was even a beach that close to Rome! When we got to our hotel, I literally couldn't function. It was about 3 or 4 am utah time and the night before we left I only got 4 hours of sleep, so I NEEDED to lay down. Turns out, laying down turned into a 5 hour nap, but it was very needed! When we got up, we freshened up and got back into our little Fiat "Panda" rental car...haha I think naming a car "the Panda" is just the funniest thing...and headed into center Rome for the first time. Again, the craziness of the drivers were just unreal. I felt like I was in the Borne Identity haha. It's about an hour drive in traffic from our hotel to center Rome, but man oh man we passed right by the coolest sights! The way we went led us RIGHT BY the coloseum... its incredible to see it in person, and even crazier to see romans just drive right past it not even thinking anything of it! After we found a parking spot, we walked to the Spanish Steps. It was such a view! from the top of the steps you can see the rooftops of Rome and some really neat buildings. When we'd taken in that view, we decided to find somewhere to eat--this was what I was most excited for lol! The authentic Italian food!!-- and we passed by the "rodeo drive" of italy...every designer imaginable and everything very, very, VERY expensive. We ended up at this cute little restaurant with outdoor seating, and had a DELICIOUS meal. It was so funny, Matt and I kept telling each other "this looks just like the inside of the venetian hotel!" because it literally seemed fake. the restaurant was in a little cobblestone alley--only, it's actually a street but the streets there are so narrow!--with towering stucco apartment buildings with cute shutters and little shops in the bottom. Leaving the restaurant, we window shopped a little bit, stopped for some gelato (of course!) and then walked to the Trevi Fountain. This fountain is so beautiful! It has some amazing sculptures and since it was dark, it was all lit up and gorgeous. We HAD to toss a coin over our shoulder (apparently, this is supposed to bring you good luck to come back to Rome) and take a few pictures. In our wanderings back to the parking spot, we ended up in this beautiful catholic church, and I snuck a few pictures. :) I can't believe how intricate, elaborate, and decadent the churches here are! I turned to Matt while we were inside and said "when this church was built (in the 1500's), people were really poor, and that money probably should've been spent in a better way..." it's true! But, it's neat to see the painted ceilings and amazing relief sculptures inside. We're now back in our hotel room (after another life-threatening drive) and tomorrow we have a long, exciting day planned out. We're going on a tour of the coloseum, then the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon, with other things in between. It's going to be an early morning! I just hope we can adjust well to the time change and feel rested in the morning... enjoy the pictures!! :) 
in front of the Trevi fountain together
me in front of the fountain eating tasty gelato :)
a couple of views of the random gorgeous church
in front of the restaurant... this is what i look like after lots of travel and no sleep!
spanish steps from the bottom
spanish steps from the middle
the view from the top of the spanish steps
the coloseum!! these pictures were taken while driving...
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