As I alluded, we were up for a few hours in the middle of the night; was time for a couple excellent Belgium beers. Al even got up and chatted for a bit.
We finally got to bed around 5AM and slept until about 10:30, got up, ate some eggs and got ready for the day; Rome. We set out a bit later than we had wanted, but in good time. We walked back up and down the hill, took the local train to a bigger train and finally to and even bigger and faster bullet train. Paid for the bullet train (1 hour and 45 Euro) and almost got on the slow normal train (3 hours and 12 Euro).
The train was very comfortable and we enjoyed a slightly expensive beverage. We arrived at Roma Termini in good time, found our bus and got to the apartment in about 20 minutes. The room is quite nice and large for a major city. Excellent central location will serve us well; especially because Tim pulled a muscle in his calve.
The is a little grocery store right next to the apartment so we got some stuff for a pasta dinner. Tim wanted to do something simple, but Al has been eating simple Italian for years and preferred making a hearty ragu sauce.
Dinner took a while and it was good; we enjoyed a couple bottles of wine while we waited for the sauce.
We didn’t want the first day in Rome to be a total bust, so we headed out close to 10PM. Our goal was to get to the Pantheon but we found a cute square along the way.
We enjoyed a gelato, I got salted caramel and Al got espresso and chocolate fudge. Incredible!
After touring through some very cute cobblestone streets, we arrived at the Pantheon. Even at night, closed, it is a spectacular site. The sides of the building have untold scares from the hundreds of years of renovations. Archways and windows appear to have been filled in.
We made our way back to the apartment and settled in for the night.
