Move Over Heidi...: Annie and TJ in Roma!

Rome is so much more than what you would think, and different than you would think. First it is incredibly easy to get around on foot, and you hear Italian, but you do not need to know it. In fact, most of the people that we came into contact with were Americans. All in all we had a wonderful experience there in spite of the unseasonable rain (but you know where ever I go I will bring unlikely weather with me).
We left early Thursday morning, because we flew Ryan Air out of Frankfurt Hahn. For those of you who don't know, Ryan Air is a discount carrier that flys in and out of small airports around Europe. And I mean discount. For TJ and I to fly round trip to Rome it was 130 EUR for both of us. Great deal! Any way we got to Rome around 9 am and took a bus from the airport to the main train station in Rome. This was the downfall of our experience as it took an hour and 10 minutes to get to the station. It really isn't that far...but traffic is a nightmare...you couldn't pay me to drive in Rome! The upside is the public train system that goes through the city. It is cheap and extremely easy to get around. We stayed right off Barberini Piazza in the heart of Eternal Rome, and lucky for us there is a stop there. Our hotel was fabulous, and the location was perfect! I would recommend it to anyone. We stayed at Hotel Ottocento right off Via Sistina. It is a small, sweet hotel that was very clean with amazing staff...and moderately priced.
Lets get to the food...It is very hard to find a bad meal in Rome, and even harder to find bad wine, TJ and I spent at least two hours a night at dinner and then always went for a drink elsewhere afterwards. We stayed in the Roman theme and ate Italien every day and night. FYI, the best pizza is at Pizza Ciro, the best lasagna is at Ciao Bella, and the best Ravioli (and service) is at a tiny restaurant around the corner from our hotel.
We took a tour of Imperial Rome (ruins, etc.) on Thursday afternoon, spent the day in Eternal Rome on Friday (and did a little shopping), and then took a tour of the Vatican on Saturday. It was a great experience! So for the next three days I will blog and put up pictures of each of our three days. For now I will leave you with some pictures we took Saturday afternoon of the city from the capital area.

A view of the skyline from downtown...