Another 0615 wake-up to prepare for the day’s excitement! We had an excellent breakfast in the dining room, collected our gear for the day and headed out to our bus that took us approximately an hour away, into downtown Rome! We transferred onto our double decker Red hop on & off bus. We then spent the next 6 hrs taking one stop at a time and then getting off to walk around Rome sightseeing. This remarkable city is incredible in its volume, size, and proximity of ancient ruins to completely modern buildings, houses, and shopping. We found wonderful shopping in tiny alleys and huge boulevards. We ate lunch in a really cool mom & pop Italian pasta restaurant in a great shopping street. Our entire restaurant consisted of 4 tiny folding tables with 1/2 of each table being outdoors. The food was excellent and cost $15 total😀 Then we went across the alley into a keyhole storefront with handmade leather goods and Paula tried out some gorgeous butter soft jackets, and walked out with nothing! What restraint! That’s My wife😀
We finished up the afternoon in an artists galley in another tiny alley admiring his spectacular oil paintings of the Italian coasts. Then we spent the last 1 1/2 hours on the Hop On bus getting back to our original stop to transfer back to our original bus. We are really getting comfortable walking all over these large and small cities enjoying their sights, sounds, and tastes.
Love you and miss you too! [Debbie Cooper]