Ah Roma!!!

Sorry it has taken us so long to post updates,  We have been BUSY and hopefully between the four of us we should keep you better updated.

Plane ride was very long. We did meet some nice folks from Olympia heading to the same destination. We happened to run into them twice while in Rome! Hello to Tom and Lynelle.

We arrived in Rome a little late and had an interesting ride to the Hotel Centrale with Fabio

                                                           View from our hotel

The hotel was small but great and Franco checked us in to our room. We freshened up and headed into the streets of Rome. We were in awe! We found a great little restaurant recommended by our now good friend, Rick Steves -  Ristorante il Gabriello. MMMM.

We slept fairly well and in the morning found a small little cafe, The Cafe Dami, and had our first cappuccino in Rome. I had dreamed of this moment for years and sitting there I found my eyes filling with tears. The realization of a dream.

We spent the rest of the day wondering around Rome. We spent time at the Piazza Novana, Campo di Fiore, and just wondered around the streets.  Here's a few of the sights.

Snack!!!

We ended up at a great ristorante for a wonderful meal. We started with sheep ricotta with chestnut honey and homemade marmalade, polenta with lardo and green peppers, greens with bruschetti and the best chevre I have ever tasted. For primi homemade tagliatelle with wild bore and fettucine with meat ragu. We ended the meal with espresso and 4 cheeses. Oh and a great bottle of Brunello (how could I forget)

We headed back to the hotel, or so we thought. By the time we ended up at the Campo Fiore twice we decided to catch a cab. It's very easy to get turned around in Rome at night. We made it home about 11:30 and found Carol and Maurizio in their room, shared a bottle of wine and hit the sack.