Roman Holiday: The Arrival

We arrived in Rome on Tuesday around lunch time. We grabbed lunch at a fast food stand in the train station called Mr. Panini. They were sub style bread with different meats and cheeses. We hopped on the metro to go to the place where the shuttle to our hotel came into town.

Our hotel was a 4 star conference center on the southwest edge of Rome. Being away from the city center, they run a shuttle into the center of the city every hour and a half or so throughout the day. It was a large charter bus, and I'm sure in the summer they fill it up at peak times.

We checked into the hotel and got settled in. Looking at the menu of the hotel, we decided it was too upscale for our tastes... plus it was pricy. So we took the shuttle into town around 6 pm.

We knew from our experiences in Paris that none of the restaurants would be open until 7, so we walked a few blocks to the Vatican city area and saw St. Peter's Basilica all lit up at night. It was a grand site.







Then (and you may think this is strange) we went to a Mexican restaurant I'd seen advertised in a magazine at the hotel. I know, I know... Mexican food when you're in Rome? But you have to understand that we've been in Europe for over 2 months and we really miss spicy, yummy, filling Mexican food. It was a small restaurant run by an immigrant family from Acapulco, Mexico. While it was a little bit different than what we're used to, it was so good to eat salsa that didn't taste like ketchup with peppers and onions in it.

So that was our first night in Rome... Mexican food... and we really enjoyed it.