Our Arrival in Roma - June 7th

The Pantheon at night...
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June 7th- Today is the day when we began the rest of our adventure and had to leave beautiful Scotland. We flew from Glasgow, Scotland to Dublin, Ireland and then on to Rome, Italy on Aer Lingus.

After arriving in Rome we took a taxi to our hotel, Grand Hotel del Gianicolo, and got settled room# 308, a nice room overlooking the garden on the third floor.

..... an un-Italian name for an excellent Italian restaurant...

We asked the nice gentleman at the desk for a suggestion for dinner and we chose one he recommended in "the old part" of Rome, though across the street from our hotel are some of the old city walls. We took a taxi and arrived at "Grill and Wine" (a decidedly un-Italian name for an excellent Italian restaurant) around 8 p.m. ( remember, this is Italy- everyone eats late!). After brochette, Caprese Salad/Prociutto & Melone, split Fettucini with fresh tomatoes and basil, then meat entees (mine was Saltimbuco) & of course, 1/2 bottles of wine, we finished it all off with tiny cups of espresso.

We left the restaurant about eleven and started to walk to catch a taxi back to the hotel. As we had eaten dinner, we saw several groups of people walk by, so we decided to head in that direction because our hotel was that way also. About a block away we were delighted to be standing in front of the real Trevi Fountain (pinch myself... this is not Las Vegas :-)

We continued on- no taxis but lots of old buildings! 11 P.M.!!! Oh, my, we happened upon the Pantheon - I had to pinch myself again (getting black & blue :-) - was just beautiful under the lights. Gary had not brought his camera but changed settings on mine and was able to get a picture with the almost full moon just above, very nice. Finally, we caught a taxi and came back to the hotel around midnight.....

We never stay up this late at home... time for some ZZZZs for this very happy traveler!