Woke up, super tired… Day 1 was more exhausting than I realized. We grabbed two cappuccinos at St. Eustachio Café in Piazza del St. Eustachio, a café recommended by Little Black Book Rome as the best in the city.

Then we walked to Piazza Navona which features the 4 Rivers fountain, a fountain featuring the world’s 4 major rivers (Nile, Danube, Ganges, Plate) make gestures to the church in front of them. I was a little confused about the “gestures” part of the description (it looked like one guy was hiding from the church while another looked angry) but the fountain was the coolest we’ve seen in Rome. Not as large as the Trevi fountain but very cool and the church behind it is gorgeous.

We walked to Piazza del Spagna to see the Spanish steps. This place was pretty but a little underwhelming after 3 months living in Paris and seeing the haute couture shopping districts of Paris. From there we took the metro to Vatican city. Didn’t plan for the day accordingly. I was wearing shorts and a tank top so we had to buy a dress (the Vatican has a dress code… yes, I knew I was just dumb) and then buy suppli (delicious Roman fried concoction) at a nearby restaurant in order to use their bathroom to change. Dress and tennis shoes… cute.

Our second time seeing the Pope in person this trip. Since it was Wednesday he was giving his morning sermon in the main square. We walked through the Vatican Museum… kind of breezed past the art but my favorite was the gallery of maps. The Sistine Chapel was insanely packed and we couldn’t tell if we actually got all the way through to St Peter’s or not.

We ate lunch at a pizza place called Amalfi’s… a veggie pizza, bruschetta, salad, and red wine. After wards, we walked back to our hotel from the Spanish steps and got gelato at the same place again. Black forest and crema with nutella swirls.

We were still tired so we took a nap then headed towards Trastevere for an early dinner. We got pasta arrabiata and bruschetta pomodoro, ai funghi, and a bean one. Grabbed cannoli on the way back as our last food from Italy! We finished the night by trying to find a way to pack all of our newly acquired souvenirs into two suitcases. We’ll be waking up and taking a taxi to the airport at 5 am!

Bon voyage! xoxo.

-T