Day 5.5:  Siena to Rome

Andrew navigated us from Siena to Rome, seriously though, the roads in Rome are insane! Getting to the car rental place was a challenge, and I’m pretty sure we were all running on adrenaline after driving through the city to get there. We dropped by our hotel, Hotel Mancino, to check in and drop off our luggage. From there, we ventured and made our first stop for gelato. Our first destination was the Trevi Fountain, which was blocked off due to the Fendi 90th anniversary fashion show. Turns out, Kendall Kardashian was also in Rome to walk in the fashion show, casual. We made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, and decided on Da Robertino in a cute little neighborhood. Our waiter apparently liked us because he gave each of us a Lemoncello on the house! At the end of the night, we had walked around 4.75 miles (it goes up from there as the days go on)!

Day 6:  Rome

Our morning started with croissants and café freddos at Bibo. I had the toast with marmalade and it was so good! This was our big tour day, so get ready, there’s a lot going on in this post! We started our day by walking the Vittoriano Altere Della Patria, which was huge and had so many steps. This stop was really close to our hotel, so it only made sense to pitstop and take in the view.

From there, we made a stop at the ancient ruins in the city. Braden handled the camera for most of the day, which was great, and I’ve gotta say he did a great job!

Next stop, the Coliseum! It was unbelievable how much history was in this place. And y’all, it was so unbelievably hot during our days in Italy, but it was an all time high in Rome. I don’t think we could drink enough water to compensate how much we were sweating, it was unreal! Any piece of advice I can give, hydrate hydrate hydrate the night before / after for days in Rome! It’s crazy how much you walk in a day! After walking for a while, we were pretty hungry for lunch. We made our way through the crowds to Cavore 313 for lunch.

 After lunch, we headed to the Pantheon. Naturally, a gelato stop had to happen, Braden and I shared a Crème Caramel gelato and it was easily my favorite flavor we had! We made our way to Pizza Navona where there were many local vendors, restaurants, and dessert bars.

Ali and Andrew spotted a gorgeous painting at one of the local stands, and we ended up talking with the artist for a while. He had beautiful stories about his work, and after much debate, Ali and Andrew purchased one his pieces! We then headed to the Spanish steps, but these were sadly under construction, so we didn’t get to see them up close. We took a break from touring, and did a little shopping (more like window shopping) on Via del Corso. 

 This full day of touring wore us out, but Braden and I had promised one another that we would try a CrossFit gym at some point during our trip. Naturally, our heaviest walking day, we decided to try a CrossFit class (oops!). We hopped on a train and headed across town to CrossFit Traverse. I was honestly a little intimidated at first, but as soon as we crossed through the gym doors I felt like I belonged. The trainers were incredibly kind and helpful, and gave instruction in both Italian and English. The workout kicked our butts, but it felt so good to stretch and to lift a little after traveling so much.

We went back to the hotel (drenched in sweat from the class), and got ready for dinner. We went more casual and had dinner on a popular square in Rome where we were able to watch the soccer game.  At the end of Day 5, we had walked 10.8 miles, HOLY COW my legs!

Day two in Rome was equally as full with sightseeing and touring, as well as racking up the miles! Stay tuned for Rome part II!