On Monday Jamar flew home back to the States. Amy and I were headed to Rome! We navigated the metro by ourselves again to the train station and rode the train a couple of hours to Rome.

There we continued to be brave and navigated the subway to our hotel! The subway was very crowded but very easy as there are only 2 lines.

The subway was so crowded it was literally bodies to sweaty bodies. Glad it wasn’t a very long ride.

We got out at the station right by the Spanish Steps. As we walked past it we saw it was barricaded and had a bunch of movie things around it. We eventually saw a sign for Mission Impossible. We thought maybe they were filming there. We saw cameras and a car. We learned later that it was actually the premiere of the latest Mission Impossible.

We made it to our hotel room, it was in a really quiet area – right by the parliament.  Because it was so close to parliament every time we came and left the hotel we had to go through armed security.

The view from our room straight at the parliament building.

There was always someone out with cameras. I asked the concierge what was happening and he told us that there is always a news crew out there in case something new worthy happens from parliament.

To the right of the van you can see some of the armed guards. It is a bit intimidating but they were all friendly enough.

After getting settled in we wondered out to find something for lunch. We didn’t have to wonder far and found a place near our hotel in the alley to eat. I ordered Carbonara.

After lunch we decided to walk around. We didn’t have anything planned for the afternoon. Just around the corner from where we had lunch we found these old pillars. That is what I love about Rome. Something to see in every corner.

Don’t know what was going on here but we saw another camera crew.

We made our way down to this monument.

More gelato!

Roman ruins

We were close to the colosseum but we decided to wait to get any closer. I reserved a place near the colosseum for dinner because I wanted to see it at night. Instead we walked back to the Spanish Steps to see if we could see anything going on there. We ended up getting to see Tom Cruise and Rebecca (the leading lady)!

Not sure who they are but beautiful people.

At first we could only see Tom through others people photos, there was a big crowd. We managed to work our way a bit closer and got to see him.

More armed guards.

After the excitement of Tom we started to walk back towards the colosseum for dinner.

There it is!

Pizza and Sangria for dinner!

EEEKKK, so exciting to see this at dusk! I got these with my phone and fancy camera.

One last look.

What a great first day in Rome!