Marco-YOLO

After doing some damage at the snack bar in the United red carpet lounge in Dulles airport, we took our direct flight to Rome. We watched 2 movies on the plane; Sweeney Todd (w/J. Depp) and Atonement (w/ K. Knightley). We both hated Sweeney Todd and strongly discourage anyone from seeing it (even if you love Depp) and I loved Atonement although Colleen thought it was just OK.

Rome was having beautiful weather. Sunny in low to mid 60′s (F). We took the Leonardo Express from the Fiumicino Airport into downtown. We are staying at the Marriott Grand Flora on Via Veneto. This area used to be the favored building spot of Roman emperors for their palaces and is very expensive today. We used points for our stay, otherwise the room we are in runs 400 Euros a night. The room is nice but has this balcony with an amazing view of Via Veneto and the Villa Borghese Gardens which we are right next to.

We took a siesta after getting into the hotel on Thursday around noon then grabbed an Italian dinner at an outside restaurant on Via Veneto. We then walked around Rome for the next 3 hours, taking pictures in front of the Trevi Fountain and going up the Spanish Steps. We continued walking to Piazza di Spagna and then walked back to our hotel along the perimeter of the Borghese Gardens.

Tomorrow morning we take in the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel.