Using the hotel wifi to finish up some blog posts! Below is the recap of it first day in Rome!
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The cruise is officially over and we are back in Italy!
Debarkation was incredibly smooth although I was bummed we didn’t have to show our passports as I had hoped to get a an Italian stamp on my passport. Nope, no luck. We just walked right off the ship, through the gates and onto the bus chartered to drop us off in the central piazza.
After a bit of a heart attack with paper work we grabbed a cup of espresso then hailed a cab to our hotel, the Crosti. It was another wonderful hotel, located more in the business district which we found to be wonderful when it came to dinners.
We did a quick drop of our things, grabbed the map given to us from the hotel and began our own tour of Rome. Our main order of business was getting some lunch and P found one of the highest rated lunch spots in the area. It was basically a fast food authentic pizza to go place and we just beat the lunchtime rush. The pizzas were reheated in the wood burning oven and we just ate them standing outside. Once we refueled it was time to start our adventures in Rome.
First thing we noticed, the streets are not gridded at all and only a few of them have cross streets and names marked. Full discourse we walked in circles twice before due to map being not oriented with a compass. Once we figured directions out we wandered towards what we thought were the Spanish steps. 
Except they weren’t. The building was Il Vittoriano which is a monument built in honor of the first king of unified Italy and also housed Italy’s version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. By happenstance we arrived during the changing of the guard which was a bit different than ours, but still moving. 
A guard at the museum gave us directions to the Trevi Fountain and soon we found the signs and followed the sounds of a crowd. Oh my goodness, there was a crush of tourist taking pictures, it was a bit overwhelming. Everyone was crowded around taking pictures while tossing coins into the water and forget about getting to the front of the fountain for an unobstructed picture. We settled for the usual selfie on the side of the fountain and we both threw in our coins :)!
From the Trevi we meandered towards the Spanish Steps which sadly are under construction so really aren’t much to look at right now. We we bought some postcards we saw what they look like in their glory and finally understood the fascination.
Our hotel was off one of the main roads so we walked up and ran into a de other monuments along the way. There was also a gelato stop for a snacky before dinner. It was a good thing we grabbed something to eat because all of the restaurants were closed until 6pm. During the downtime we tried to blog, catch up with people online and then looked up ratings of restaurants nearby.
Rebuscalia was two blocks away and was very highly rated, with good reason we found out. The English menu was helpful especially since the staff spoke only a few words of English. All of the food tasted incredibly fresh and overall was delicious. We were also able to upload pictures using their wifi which was helpful since the hotel wifi was the second weakest we’ve had so far. The European dinner linger was in full swing as we chatted about our favorite moments on the cruise and made plans for our Vatican trip the next day. Here’s hoping the weather stays clear.
pandkontheirway 