I’m in Italy. I can’t believe it. What an amazing first day we had. Or two days? I don’t know. One big long day. We left Nashville around noon. 
We arrived in Rome at 10:15am.
We got out luggage and took a taxi to our airbnb apartment. The owner of our apartment met us there and gave us the keys and showed us around. His name is Franco and he’s awesome. This is our first experience with an airbnb and I highly recommend it! Make sure you read reviews and do your research. For example, if you don’t want to share a bathroom, make sure it specifies that the place you are considering has it’s own private bath. Also, some people just rent out sections of their house, so you are actually staying with them. We wanted a private apartment with our own bathroom. It’s way cheaper than a hotel and we wanted to pretend we live here! 
We decided to just stay awake until bedtime here in Italy, so we set out for our first day of sightseeing.
We went to the Colosseum first. I really can’t describe how beautiful and overwhelming it is. We downloaded the Rick Steves Audio Europe app, which I also highly recommend. It allows you to download audio tours of sites all over Europe. You can skip long lines or tour groups and just put in your headphones and get a really great tour. I love history, so walking through the Colosseum listening to the audio tour was perfect. 
Next we saw the Arch of Constantine and the Forum. We listened to audio tours for those as well. The beauty of all these places is seriously overwhelming.
Our next order of business was food. Oh my word. Food. We set out to find out of the way, family owned places to eat. We walked into a little shop that had meat hanging everywhere and SO MUCH CHEESE.
Everybody was yelling in Italian as soon as we walked in the door. I understand Italian very well, but I don’t speak it very well, so I was very glad Daniel was with me. Thankfully, he’s fluent and has been doing all the talking. This little store also had panini and pizza, so we decided that our first food in Italy should be pizza. We had potato pizza. It is beyond delicious. I make potato pizza at home, but something about eating it in this little shop with all the sights and sounds around us was pretty fantastic.
The next order of business was gelato. Gelato is everywhere. As in, two or more places per block that sell it. Gelato has less fat than ice cream. It’s made with more milk than cream. It is heaven. I plan to to eat it multiple times a day for the next ten days. I can’t describe how good it is. My first two flavors were coconut and gianduia, which is chocolate and hazelnut. Trust me. Eat all the gelato. 
To walk off pizza and gelato, we went on a walk called the Dolce Vita stroll, which took us to some beautiful churches, a shopping area, and finally the Spanish steps. People just sit on these steps all the time. It’s a hang out spot for Romans. It’s a great people watching spot. We sat there for awhile, mainly because we were exhausted. When we felt like we could walk again, we set out to see more of Rome. 
No one eats dinner here until 8:00 or later. In fact, a lot of restaurants don’t open for dinner until 7:45 or 8:00. Or basically, whenever they feel like. Also, you don’t really sit down and place an order. You sit down and they tell you what’s in season or what you’re going to have. We saw a restaurant that we wanted to try, but we walked in around 8:00 and they said “No. No room. Go to Michael’s around the corner. Tell him I sent you.” So we went here. We sat down and the waiter told us what we should have. So we did. No disappointment here. We had this flat crispy bread drizzled with olive oil and salt, veal saltimbocca, risotto with porcini mushrooms, green gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and veal scaloppine. Excuse the quality of the pictures. The lighting was pretty terrible. Trust me that this was all beyond delicious. 
By the time we were left the restaurant, I had been awake for about 28 hours, but I sure did drink it in every minutes of my first day ever in Rome! 
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