Day 3 - 9th January

So we caught the 1 hour 45 minute flight form Paris to Roma (Rome for you less smarty people), we disembarked and were sitting in the airport, about to leave, thinking about how to catch a taxi (the place was swarming with foreigners) and we were greeted by a man who looked like an elderly cousin/uncle.  His name was Claudio and offered us the services of his taxi.  He seemed cheerful enough so we took him up on his offer and after a quick chat of locations, we were on our way into Hotel Abruzzi right outside the Pantheon in Roma (Rome, remember?). 

I watch a lot of History channel and the last half of the trip form the airport into the hotel was almost like living on channel 73....  amazing!  So we disembarked from our taxi, we were standing directly outside the front door of the hotel and look at what we were in front of...

From our Hotel Window (WTF!)

Crazy!  And look at what our room view is like!

So we unpacked, looked out the window several more times and went out for a little food (we hadn't eaten since very early morning and it was now late afternoon.  I randomly picked a little restaurant close to the hotel, hoping that it wasn't a tourist trap restaurant, but we were very happy with the outcome.  Friendly service, lovely pasta, and a nice main (of which I can no longer remember).  It probably had something to do with the bottle of wine we washed down with it.  We left there in high spirits, thinking that if all the places where like that then this part of the trip was going to be hot stuff!  Later that night we wandered a few block west of our hotel around to were the Christmas markets were being held.  It was the last night of the year they were being held and it was more like a carnival/festival than some dreary old markets.  We wandered around the stalls avoiding the people trying to sell us their local goods/junk and generally had a top time!  Got back to the Hotel room and promptly fell asleep - about 8:30pm - haha! (we are so hardcore).