McPhails in Italy 2012: Sad to Leave Orvieto for the Noise of Rome

As our Italian holiday quickly draws to a close, we regretfully left Orvieto at noon today, to make the hour-long train journey to Rome. It was drizzling when we left (good for Simona's vegetable garden), but by the time we reached Rome the sky had scattered clouds and the temperature had edged up, but not nearly like it was when were here two weeks ago.

Our hotel is a short taxi ride from Termini Station. Hotel Residenzia Cellini is a bit unusual in a number of ways: (1) there is no prominent sign on the outside announcing its presence--just a small brass plaque and a buzzer system to get the attention of the desk staff, (2) the actual hotel is situated on the 3rd and 5th floors of a building that appears to have both businesses and residences on other floors, (3) guests check in at the third floor and are either directed to rooms there, or shown to the fifth floor. One thing that isn't unusual is the size of the elevator. It took two trips to get the three of us and our bags up to our room which has a double bed and a single bed. The hotel is very nice. The furnishings are elegant, the floors in the halls are marble, the floor in our room is inlaid hardwood, the bathroom is marble and modern, there are fancy 19th century type curtains--and best of all, the air-conditioning works! We'll be very comfortable here for our last two nights in Rome.

Led by Cathy's map reading skills we took a long walk down the via Nazionale where we came upon the Victorio Emanuelle II Monument. By that time we were both hungry and thirsty, so we found our favourite Irish Pub in Rome (it's close to the monument; Cathy and John had visited it previously and had to recommend it to Kendra) and recharged our batteries.

We returned to the hotel on via Corso which turns into via Condotti--the premier shopping district for Rome's elite and well-heeled travellers. All the snobbiest fashion and jewelry stores are to be found here. Needless to say, we limited our activities strictly to window shopping.

We have been told about some good restaurants in this district of Rome, so will seek one of them out for our second last dinner in Italy (on this vacation).