RTW - week 13 (5am wake-ups)

As I said in my earlier post, Rome has really surprised both Bryan and myself. Thankfully our home in Trastevere has been such a pleasant break from the craziness of downtown, so we can choose to partake when we want.

Our days have been filled with park in the morning, school in the afternoon and then off for some excursion after an early supper. The only way to beat the heat here is to avoid at all costs, the hot afternoons.

What I do desperately want however, is a photo for my gallery wall at home. Each country that we visit, I have one image put on canvas and it goes on my wall. This way, we can all be constantly reminded of our travels, and that our minimalist lifestyle and change of address allows us to have the freedom to travel.

Aside from the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain seems like an excellent fit. Now this does mean that we have to wake up at 5am to hop on the public transportation (an hour trek) to beat the crowds and get our picture. Hunter and I pour over directions and put together a strategy that will provide the ultimate results.

Colosseum first (since they start offering tours at 9) followed by Trevi, and then the Spanish Steps. Fool proof!

Day 1 . I awake at 5am only to fall asleep again on the couch. D’oh.

Day 2. I awake at 5am and have instructed Hunter to also set his alarm. Strength in numbers right? That night, however, we receive our first rainfall and it hasn’t stopped. It is pouring, so I send a very disappointed Hunter back to his bed.

Day 3. I awake at 5am and Hunter also is out of bed and dressed by my side before I can barely roll over. I wake a reluctant Bryan and girls and we are dressed and out the door for the 5:26 tram. We arrive at our first stop hoping to catch a bus, but as expected, it is late. I am sure that it never arrived actually, so we ended up walking to the Colosseum. We arrive, the kids are placed and I whip out my camera (which by the way, I have barely even used this entire trip because it’s so HEAVY!) I turn it on, and right there in black and white it says “no SD card”

DAY 4.

During our little “test run” yesterday, it occurs to me that 5am is not enough time to make it down to the stops. Also, turns our Trevi fountain is a happening place. Hunter suggests that we change the plan and take Bus 718 (he has since mastered public transportation in Rome and makes all of our itineraries) directly to Trevi than go to the Colosseum. I agree, so we wake up at 4:30 and are on the 5:04 bus the very next morning.

Success! We arrive at Trevi and almost nobody is there, yet surprisingly quite a few people for 5:30 am. The sun hasn’t even risen yet! These people are crazy, oh yeah that’s me too

We even have the Colosseum to ourselves before heading back to our apartment for an extra large coffee and a nap.

It is our last night here in Rome and our next major hurdle is getting ourselves to the airport, which is only 14 km’s away, but takes an hour and a half to get to.

We could either take an Uber which takes about a half hour, but for a steep price of $80 euros OR we could take 3 busses, taking an hour and a half, for only $3 euros.

I’ll keep you posted on what we chose, but if you know me personally, you probably already know.