Our Italian Adventure

Around 640am, we arrived at Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicnio Airport known as FCO. This airport is 19 miles south of Rome and lies adjacent to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was built in 1960 to help move people during the 1960 Olympic Games held in Rome. Since we were one of the first planes to arrive on Wednesday, May 7th, 2025, the airport was pretty deserted. We made our way thru customs, obtained our checked luggage and met up with our arranged driver near the exit. We had decided on ‘Welcome Pickup’ as our chosen path into Rome. I had watched many Youtube videos, and read many blogs about the best ways to arrive into Rome from the airport. One could take a bus, take a taxi, ride the reliable Leonardo da Vinci airport train to Termini station, or hire a private driver. Knowing that we would be overwhelmed and not oriented to directions in the city, we decided against a bus or the train right away. Those options would still require a taxi to our lodging once we arrived in Rome. After watching videos of long lines for a taxi, we chose to pay an extra $20 for a private driver. Great choice as he led us to his Mercedes van and dropped us off right in front of Residenza Gens Julia. Unlike when we arrived in Paris with a light rain falling, it was a beautiful day to start our Italian adventure.

What a great first residence. For starters, even though we arrived in the morning, we were allowed to check in. Urzala and her son greeted us with open arms and treated us like family. When one arrives in a foreign country and being overwhelmed with all of the changes, it’s a blessing when your first hosts are so friendly and understanding. There was a common kitchen with coffee, drinks, snacks, and breakfast items. This was connected to their office/reception area. I believe they had four rooms on the 2nd floor and we rarely saw anyone else during our stay. Although we did talk to one couple where the wife was still waiting for her luggage 4 days later! Our room was larger than we expected with a small living room and two bathrooms!

Knowing how easily flights become delayed, I intentionally kept our morning pretty light with no timed entries. We started in the People’s Square aka Piazza del Popolo. This lovely square is lined with street vendors and artists and it was already quite lively in the late morning. We saw our first of many Egyptian obelisks in the Piazza. Rome has many treasures which were pirated from other countries during their sucessful war campaigns. Egyptian and Greek treasures were highly sought after. This one had belonged to Ramesses II and had been brought to Rome in 10BC.

Afterwards we checked out Borghese Park and got our first good viewpoint of Rome from the Terrazza del Pincio. Eventually, we made our way to the Spanish Steps which in May have azaleas lining the edges of the steps. The flowers were already past peak, but it was still beautiful to see them on the Spanish steps. Our next ‘big’ attraction was the Trevi Fountain. For those who don’t know, Trevi started to restrict how many people could actually be right next to the fountain. It was wierd because they don’t have timed entry into that area. This now has created a mess with people queueing up for entry. However, to skip this, you simply stand behing that area and since it is elevated higher than the restricted area, one still has a closeup and unobstructed view of Trevi Fountain. We decided to skip the queue. After all, it is just a fountain. A very impressive fountain, but as we found out, there are many impressive fountains in Rome.

Our late afternoon timed entries were for the Pantheon and the Torre Argentina Ruins which is right next to our Residenza Gens Julia. Considering the Pantheon was dedicated around 126AD, it is a pretty impressive structurally sound building. There is a small hole on top of the dome which allows sunshine into the Pantheon during a part of the day. Rain can also enter the building. However, they have drains which prevents the building from flooding. The Argentina Ruins were discovered in 1927 and this is where Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC. Fun Fact: Many feral cats have now taken up residence in the ruins. Visitors are strongly advised to not feed or even talk to the cats. They don’t want the cats to respond to the humans and get hit by the cars as these ruins are in a busy area of the city. Nevertheless, Amy enjoyed getting her daily cat fix right next to our place.

We had authenic Italian pizza at a place almost right below our room. We stayed up as late as we could, but that was probably around 8pm, Italian time. We had a early morning scheduled, so that wasn’t too bad.