Our second day in Rome. We woke up, oddly refreshed. I put the coffee on and checked out the window. Pretty nice looking day. Grabbed my phone and checked the time. Two o’clock PM. That would explain the oddly refreshed part. Stupid jet lag nailed us. Nailed us good. Oh well, we shall make the best of it. And we did. A full day in Rome. First stop lunch (breakfast). We stopped at a spot on the way to the Trevi Fountain and had a pizza. What else. Looked great, tasted great. The ambience of the place was great, Al Presidente Restaurant.
We finished up and made a quick stop at the Trevi Fountain. We had to see if it was just as busy during the day.
From the fountain, we took off to the Spanish Steps. Another amazing place. People everywhere and a major shopping district.
From the Steps we headed towards the Parthenon, ducking into shops on the way. The Parthenon square was a focal point and again, people and music everywhere.
A sample of the music.
As you can see, it is getting a bit dark. We started back towards the Trevi Fountain, with the intent to find somewhere to eat and continue walking towards the Colosseum area. We found a place, and it was amazing. the food, superb, the service exceptional I would recommend it to all.
It is about this time that the Rome way of doing things began to sink in. The city comes alive when the evening hits. The streets and restaurants fill up and things start happening. The days are warm, the evening, much more tolerable.
We finished up our dinner and struck out again. This time towards the Vittoriano. To get there, we had to cross through the famous traffic of Rome. Apparently, to live, you must not stop when crossing (the drivers aim at where you were). You also must not dart like a deer, stopping, starting and dodging, as the Roman drivers hate that and will aim for you. Confidence in your stride and no fear in your eyes will get you through.
Across the street, we continued on towards the Colosseum area. It was getting late and we had our friends from England arriving the next day. We decided to head back to the apartment, via the Trevi Fountain and possibly a beer or two. We got back to the Fountain and partook in the coin toss tradition.
After I took this video, I was tapped on the back. I turned and there was a fellow with a Polaroid Instamatic wanting to take our picture for 5 Euro. Somebody should let these guys know that everyone has digital cameras and cell phones now and the need for a crappy Polaroid is pretty minimal. I said no thanks, but couldn’t help but hope that this guy wasn’t paying off his passage to Italy through some shady cartel, because I think it will be a while before he pays that off with this gimmick.
With that, we ended our day and headed off to our place for more sleep….stupid jet lag.
Is It Possible To See It All 
Hi Joe & Lori, I enjoyed reading your post and it brought back memories to our first day in Rome. Arrived through the day and opened the window and shutters to the distant sound of a fountain. We set off to explore and found our way to the Trevi Fountain not far from our hotel. What a joy it was to discover Rome for ourselves with our 2 children. Followed a simliar trail as yourselves and enjoyed every minute of our time there. Had to watch out for the Gypsy kids though. I have managed to get to 30 countries so far and most of those several times over. Check out my blog at suncoastdreaming (http://suncoastdreaming.wordpress.com/author/suncoastdreaming/) about our local area here on the Sunshine Caost of Queensland Australia. Cheers.
Thanks Mal. We fell madly in love with Rome. An extraordinary place, and one we will be back to some day. Australia is on the list,have several friends and relatives scattered about there. Kind of concentrating on Canada (Home is Calgary), the US and Europe right now. Did a series on New Orleans and the Western Caribbean earlier this month on the blog. I will check yours out tonight.
John & Lori