Thank You! Here's a mini-adventure!

We had 3 full days in Rome, but one of those days was a Sunday. If you take away anything from this blog, remember this rule of thumb: generally, things in Europe are closed on Sundays. Bearing this in mind, I booked our tours on Friday and Saturday, leaving Sunday to act as a catchall for whatever was left. Friday was ancient Rome day and Saturday was Holy Rome day. The schedule mostly conformed to these labels, but we also were victims of random wandering. During these forays our conversations went roughly like this . . .

These carts were everywhere! And they all looked identical

“Where are we?” (K)
“I know where we are” (J)
“Are we lost?”(K)
“We’re not lost!”(J)
“How the heck did we wind up here?”(J+K)

On Friday, after visiting the Forum, we were parched. To relieve our thirst we stopped at one of those ubiquitous carts in Italy . . . souvenirs, gelato, drinks, paninis, and postcards, all in about 40 square feet. He bought a beer he dumped most of (Italians are known for wine) and I bought a diet coke I ended up sharing since he had dumped his beer. When it came time to toss the coke bottle we couldn’t find a trash can. During our search (seriously, where are all the trash cans) we encountered an immensely huge, white, columned building on hill. We finally found a waste receptacle and returned to this building.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Rome, Italy
This does not properly convey the sheer size of this building.

Our View
Yes, that's the Colosseum there in the middle of the skyline.

The sign said, “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”, and as there was no admission fee we wandered in the gate, and up the steps. Our feet were killing—several-thousand-year-old cobblestone has a tendency to do that—but the rules prohibited sitting on the steps, so we climbed. Mostly we just followed the people in front of us, but as the crowd thinned and we continued to climb, we needed to find a purpose for our ascent.

I saw a sign for “Terrace/Cafeteria” with an arrow pointing up. We followed these signs up until we ran out of steps. We were on the terrace, about 20 feet below the base of the columns. We were only about halfway up the building, and already it felt like we were on top of the city. There was a glass elevator to the roof, another 100 feet or so above us, but at 8 euro apiece, we voted against riding it.

Walking around the terrace we found the cafeteria, or more accurately, the café, and we stopped for a snack. Here we had our first authentic Italian cappuccino. I don’t like coffee, but I would drink one daily if they always tasted like that first sip. We complemented our coffee with pastries we shared. Joe chose a dark chocolate-coffee flavored one (not tiramisu), and I selected one with fruit and creampuff cream. Best afternoon pick-me-up EVER. Midway through the coffee we realized where we were and what we were doing: having dessert and cappuccino over panoramic vistas of Rome. Somehow, this has become our life, and we are so blessed to live it. Thank you to our friends and families who manage to continue loving us, despite the distance. Sharing these stories with you brings a new level of joy to our experiences. So again, thank you!