Day 1: Rest and Recreation

At long last we arrived into Rome. Claiming luggage and proceeding through customs was fairly quick and easy as was finding our driver. He seemed like a pleasant fellow, but it was a shame that there was a language barrier, otherwise we could have made great conversation. The drive from the airport was nothing out of the ordinary until we spotted the first set of ruins. Ruins from the great Roman Empire? Maybe. We saw more and more until we navigated into the city itself.

As we made our way through this great city, I couldn’t help but spot something I recognized when I journeyed here four years back. In the image at the very top, you will see a certain crest that contains what looks like a Papal Tiara and two keys crossed beneath it. This is a crest of the Vatican, and from what I learned as a student, it appears on buildings commissioned by the Vatican.

After finding our Hotel, we caught up on some much needed rest and recuperated. And after that, we explored our surroundings a bit, soaking in the gentle life around what is considered one of the largest cities in the world. We got a little lost, but we took time to indulge on authentic leather purses (much to my mother’s content), tasted gelato along our stroll, and finally settled for dinner. The owner was very kind and helpful. Even though he didn’t know much English, we were able to somehow converse using Spanish since the languages are very similar.

To finish the night, we continued our stroll around the area. We were both content that evening, with no one to rush us, and no places to be.