To wrap up Day 3, we went to Travestere and had dinner. T
ravastere ("Across the Tiber") is Rome's left bank and Bohemian neighborhood. It was the first time we picked our own restaurant (Da Gildo), and it ended well. Actually, it was our favorite meal in Rome! We tried to find somewhere off the beaten path and somewhere that the locals were eating (i.e. we looked for the absence of backpacks and maps!). Our antipasto course was the most delicious bruscetta I've ever had---tons of fresh tomatoes. Then we each ordered a pasta dish. Mine was pasta with fresh parmesan, olive oil, and fresh ground black pepper. It was the most delicious thing! The Mr.'s had a tomato based sauce and was good, too. We shared a meat dish---veal in a lemon sauce. It was great. It was also our cheapest meal in Rome---35E. After dinner, we caught a cab back to the ruins (6E) and saw them lit up at night...really beautiful. 
We then went back to the square by our hotel and people-watched. We met a waitress from College Station (who sadly went to UT undergrad).
The Mr. asked her all kinds of questions about the mob, and I think this remains his highlight of Rome. He has a fascination with the mafia, and she did nothing but perpetuate it.
Day 4
Woke up and packed up. We headed to the Pantheon at 10:30am.
It's a pagan temple that was converted to a church. We did our 15 minute run through then grabbed a gelato, a table outside, and did more people watching. Some of our observations: (1) scantily clad people are not native to our area---we saw more than we ever wanted to see of the Romans and Rome's tourists. (2) everyone (absolutely everyone) smokes. When we get lung cancer, we will blame this trip. (3) eavesdropping is more fun when you don't know the language---you can make up the conversation and drama which is likely more interesting than what's really being said.
We grabbed a couple of souvenirs then got our bags and caught a cab to the Termini train station (10E). We were seated by a couple from Chicago. I suspect they were in their late 60's or early 70's. When we sat down, I asked (very Texan-like) , "Where are y'all from?" The lady responded very slowly, "A-mer-ica". I still laugh thinking about it. We visited with them for awhile (and played footsy a bit as we were sitting directly across from them and sharing leg space). The journey took 4.5hours. There was pretty scenery along the way. We napped, visited, and slept.
We arrived in Venice at 6:50pm.
Since we are staying in an apartment here, we met the lady who would give us the keys and show us the way at the train station. Since we know ZERO Italian, and she knew very little English, we did lots of gesturing. We took a vaparetto (water-bus they call it) to the apartment area. We bought a 3 day pass on the vaparetto which allows you unlimited rides for 30E each.
ravastere ("Across the Tiber") is Rome's left bank and Bohemian neighborhood. It was the first time we picked our own restaurant (Da Gildo), and it ended well. Actually, it was our favorite meal in Rome! We tried to find somewhere off the beaten path and somewhere that the locals were eating (i.e. we looked for the absence of backpacks and maps!). Our antipasto course was the most delicious bruscetta I've ever had---tons of fresh tomatoes. Then we each ordered a pasta dish. Mine was pasta with fresh parmesan, olive oil, and fresh ground black pepper. It was the most delicious thing! The Mr.'s had a tomato based sauce and was good, too. We shared a meat dish---veal in a lemon sauce. It was great. It was also our cheapest meal in Rome---35E. After dinner, we caught a cab back to the ruins (6E) and saw them lit up at night...really beautiful. 
We then went back to the square by our hotel and people-watched. We met a waitress from College Station (who sadly went to UT undergrad).
The Mr. asked her all kinds of questions about the mob, and I think this remains his highlight of Rome. He has a fascination with the mafia, and she did nothing but perpetuate it.Day 4
Woke up and packed up. We headed to the Pantheon at 10:30am.
It's a pagan temple that was converted to a church. We did our 15 minute run through then grabbed a gelato, a table outside, and did more people watching. Some of our observations: (1) scantily clad people are not native to our area---we saw more than we ever wanted to see of the Romans and Rome's tourists. (2) everyone (absolutely everyone) smokes. When we get lung cancer, we will blame this trip. (3) eavesdropping is more fun when you don't know the language---you can make up the conversation and drama which is likely more interesting than what's really being said.We grabbed a couple of souvenirs then got our bags and caught a cab to the Termini train station (10E). We were seated by a couple from Chicago. I suspect they were in their late 60's or early 70's. When we sat down, I asked (very Texan-like) , "Where are y'all from?" The lady responded very slowly, "A-mer-ica". I still laugh thinking about it. We visited with them for awhile (and played footsy a bit as we were sitting directly across from them and sharing leg space). The journey took 4.5hours. There was pretty scenery along the way. We napped, visited, and slept.
We arrived in Venice at 6:50pm.
Since we are staying in an apartment here, we met the lady who would give us the keys and show us the way at the train station. Since we know ZERO Italian, and she knew very little English, we did lots of gesturing. We took a vaparetto (water-bus they call it) to the apartment area. We bought a 3 day pass on the vaparetto which allows you unlimited rides for 30E each. The apartment is beautiful---La Rosa di Venezia.
Very small, but just adorable. We are right on a side canal, literally around the corner from St. Mark's Square (2 minutes max). Rialto Market is about a 15 minute walk. After getting settled in, we went out to find a restaurant recommended by the apartment owners in the packet they left us. Sure, we should have known better than to trapse off with a map and confidence, but we did so anyway...and it was a disaster. Around and around we walked, and finally an Italian woman asked us what we were looking for. We told her the name of the restaurant, and she said it wasn't in the area. At that point I realized that I wrote down the name of the wrong restaurant! We were really looking forward to the restaurant so we wound our way back to the apartment and found the name of the right one. Familiar with the way back now, we headed back to our former locale armed with the name of the restaurant. We arrived and found...that this was the very restaurantwhere the nice lady offered help! Ahh...the irony. The food was delicious. We ordered the antipasto di pesce (24E), which was a plate of assorted seafood. It had cod, a seafood spread, shrimp, crab legs, squid. It was huge and filling. We had a delicious meal, and went back (again) to the apartment. There was laundry to do so we stayed up doing that and finally turned in at 1am. Laundry was not fun, but we continued the motto that you can't complain when you're in Venice.
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