Rome

March 27-30

Our expat living in Germany is slowly coming to an end. We are probably finishing up our last trip(s). One place that seemed to elude us is Rome. I remember in 2019, I had a solid itinerary planned but the Carona Virus epidemic hit, then in 2021 we had a trip planned and missed our flight. It seemed that we would never get a chance to visit the Eternal City. But good things happen to people who stay the course and guess what?, we are here in Rome.

This is our first time in Italy. Choosing a place to visit in Italy is not as easy as one may think; from Venice, Milan, Lake Como, Sicily, Florence, Amalfi Coast, etc. how could anyone choose just one thing? But we decided to stay true and focus on Rome. We had ideas of going to Florence and Pisa, but decided not to go.

The flight to Rome from Frankfurt is rather quick. Google flights says 1 hour and 45 minutes, but it was more like 1 hour and 30 minutes. You would think Rome would be packed because it is nearing Easter, however it wasn't overwhelmingly busy.

Rome has a few airports, but the one most people fly into is Leonardo da Vinci. I wanted to catch a taxi to the hotel, but we decided to take an adventure. It is of note that a taxi in Rome cost 50 euros and that is a flat rate. Leonardo da Vinci airport is 1+ hours from our hotel. At the baggage claim I bought a ticket on the TreniItalia to get to Roma Termini (the main train station). From Termini we caught the bus and got off at Corso, a bus stop near our hotel. We then had to walk about .25 miles to our hotel. It was in the middle of everything. It was also very hard to wheel my luggage over the cobblestone street.

Our hotel was right at the Pantheon, in fact our hotel was called Hotel Pantheon. It was rated as a 4 star hotel, but 4 star hotels are considered 3 star by American standards. When we checked in, the receptionist said they have no more hotel rooms and that we could stay in the suite for the night. I was like shoots. The suite was nice. There was two floors and the stairs was made of Italian marble. Outside of our place was loud, seriously, we stayed in the middle of everything.