June 7, 2011 - Siena to Rome

We ate breakfast at the hotel and had to fight the old men's club that apparently was also eating there today.  Then we headed down the street to catch our bus to the train station in the rain.  After the short ride to the train station, we were on our way to Rome, via Florence.  The train to Rome from Florence was really nice, having beverage service and snacks.  Rome's train station is huge and crazy.  We finally found our way to the metro train to take toward our hotel.  After a couple of stops and a few blocks we arrived at our beautiful hotel!  Marble everywhere and very high class.  The room is small but very nice.  It is really close to Trevi fountain.  We are starving since our train was delayed almost two hours.  We head to a cafe by the pantheon.  It is delicious, cheap and huge portions.   Afterwards, we head into the pantheon and are both awestruck by how massive and beautiful it is.  Imagining the ancient Romans building and using this is remarkable.  Then we head towards Trevi fountain.  We stop on the way to buy Laura a purse from a street vendor.  Trevi fountain is really neat and packed with people.  Then we head to suzanna church to try to get tickets to see the pope live tomorrow during our trip to the Vatican - they had some for us!  We are really excited at the thought of being able to see the pope in person at the Vatican!  Next we head to the hotel to relax before dinner.  Due to our late lunch we might actually hit a dinner crowd.  Usually we are the first ones to the restaurant and 6:30 or even 7:30.  We tried to go to a pizza cafe that was down by piazza de fiore, but it was closed on Wednesday's.  So we found another cafe where we sat outside and had some good Italian food again.  Laura got scared when going to the restroom there because it was down in the basement, down a long, narrow, winding staircase.