Getting to Rome, and day 1 of the "Trip of a Lifetime"

After a long time of preparation and anticipation for the Super Trip to Europe the time finally arrived for us to go! Also arriving in our household was a nasty bug - first Torin got it, then Dani, then Jacob, then John.  Fortunately, Dani felt well enough to board the plane (though it was uncertain for a time).  The rest of the family outside of Claire subsequently got the stomach flu, and Jared even got it on the plane!  It was an inauspicious beginning to the trip!

We arrived in Rome the middle of the next day.  After checking into the hotel, Dani decided to catch up on some sleep while Jared went and did the preview of the Rome Highlights tour, which Dani got to do the next day.  We were issued our Precoa sunglasses, and we set out on a preview of what we would be guiding people through the next day.

We got to spend the night wandering around Rome, searching for and finding amazing food and gelato, and seeing Rome at night.  What an amazing place it is!

Jim had found a restaurant that was highly rated on TripAdvisor, so we set off on foot with Carson and Paige to go find it. We must have walked for miles, but eventually, we found it.  It was closed, unfortunately, but we found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant where we all ate the best Italian food we'd ever experienced!  We had an amazing buffalo mozzarella and pancetta appetizer, and Jared had an amazing Gorgonzola pasta. Dani's lemon gnocci was lightly flavored and delicious. I don't think either of us had ever dreamed that pasta could taste so good! The woman owner thought it was hilarious (and confusing) that Carson ordered a pasta primi dish and a pasta segundi dish.

After finding our way back to a gelato place (yum!) near the Pantheon, we took a long walk through Rome with Jim and Mel back by some of the sights we would be showing people the next day.  The moon was out right behind the Pantheon, which was all lit up.

 

We walked towards St. Peter's Square and got a beautiful picture from a distance.  We also walked around the castle and moat.

St. Peters was beautiful all lit up at night.  There weren't a lot of people in the square, so we really got some nice peaceful time in the square with our friends.  It was an amazing and memorable night - we walked for miles and miles and just loved the lights of Rome.

Gelato was certainly one of the highlights of Rome! We made sure to have 2-a-day gelatos whenever we were in Italy throughout the trip. The place near Trevi Fountain was probably the best that we got.  Our favorite flavors included raspberry, passionfruit, and lemon (especially in Sorrento and Capri).  The panna cotta flavor in Venice was delicious, too!