The morning after Christmas, it was planned for us to leave ridiculously early to make the five hour drive to Rome and still be able to do some sightseeing upon our arrival since we would only have two days to see it all. We did not leave at 5am, which was unrealistic anyway, but I had hoped that if we aimed at 5 we'd be on the road by 7. A little after 8 we were on our way. We made a pit stop just inside Tuscany for lunch at the Autogrill then proceeded on to Rome. On the bright side of leaving a little later than expected, we didn't have to wait for the hotel room to be available when we arrived just before 2pm. First lesson learned about traveling to Rome: if you're driving, scout parking ahead of time! There was a space in front of the hotel for loading and unloading, but no actual hotel parking (my review of the place made that clear, since they advertised free parking). I dropped everyone off with the luggage so they could get checked in and I drove around looking for a place to park. Unfortunately, since it was the day after Christmas a lot of the attended car parks were closed. I drove in expanding circles around the hotel looking for a good place and about a mile away found a space on the street that I was NOT happy about, but pulled in before someone else snagged it and looked around for something better with the GPS. Rob, in the meantime, is blowing up my phone because I haven't shown up in the lobby yet and he can't figure out how to check in without me there. I decide to leave the car there while I check in and keep an eye open for better parking on my way back to the hotel. I'm almost back to the hotel when Rob calls me again and at the same time, I stumble upon the perfect parking place. I tell him to wait because I found great parking but he's going on about the staff being pissed off that we have a kid with us... I wind up hanging up on him as I get back to the car as fast as possible so we can accomplish at least a little sightseeing before we drop from exhaustion. I get the car parked in an open-air car park with 24 hour security (live and video, YAY!) and walk two blocks to the hotel Milano where we're staying for the night. When I enter the lobby, I'm immediately dealing with angry Rob and upset Ana because the desk clerks have implied that we were trying to cheat them by not booking the room for four people. I fixed it all by showing them the reservation that stated clearly three adults and one child. The problem was in the translation from website to hotel and it was misunderstood. We had not been charged for Felix on the reservation I made, but it wasn't a big difference, so I handled it and we finally moved on to our room so we could dump our stuff and get on with our official visit to ROME!!!
We left the hotel and headed to the central bus station (Termini) two blocks away (next to my parking area) and decided to find a place to eat while we checked out the bus schedules and decided where to go. We found a great little spot across the street from Termini station and while we were eating, we noticed several open-air bus tours. Rob and Ana went to investigate, then decided to use the tour service as our official Rome experience. The buses made a circuit of the main attractions in Rome and Vatican City, running hourly, and included an audio guide in eight different languages along the route. Felix was excited about free headphones and enjoyed listening to French and German quite a bit. We got on the bus a little before 4pm and studied the route map to see where we would jump off first. The deal with the tour was that it was good for 24 hours from the time of purchase and you just catch the bus at any of the designated stops along the route as it rolled through, then you decide what stops are important to you and what stops you want to skip. The bus left a few minutes late (as is custom in Italy!) but only two stops later we were hopping off at the Colosseum stop. 
Having seen the Teatro in Verona, I was prepared for this to be bigger and better and cooler, but it was still just awesome as we rolled slowly up the street (traffic was becoming congested) and the Colosseum came into view. I tried to take a lot of pictures, but the sun was setting and the streetlights were coming on and I only got about three good pictures. As we walked up, we saw the line at the entrance wasn't very long so we went looking for the right place to buy tickets to get in... and learned that we were too late because the last entry is 30 minutes before sunset. We decided we'd come back first thing in the morning to see it and headed back to the bus stop so we could head on and catch Trevi fountain on our way back. We got to the bus stop about ten minutes before it was supposed to arrive and proceeded to wait almost two hours for it to show up. No big, we're thinking. We'll just get off at the Trevi stop, take the pictures and make the wishes, then snag the next bus and still be back to the hotel early enough to get a decent night's sleep before starting the whole adventure again tomorrow. Sure. The bus driver apologizes for being late, but traffic is very heavy at this time and it's been difficult to navigate in a timely manner. It's dark by this time, so even though we're listening to the audio guide, we can't see what it's talking about. We slowly make our way through the packed streets... it takes 45 minutes to make the loop in front of Il Vittoria (which should not have taken more than 5 minutes, stop included) and the bus driver deviates from the route to try and shave off some time. During this trip, Rob notices that bus #1 is packed wall to wall, exactly like sardines, and laughs about it, telling Ana that it reminds him of the buses in Honduras. I told him it was mean and that could be us so he shouldn't make fun of them - I mean, at least they were moving! Along the deviation, we wound up on a street packed solid with pedestrians and saw some really beautiful Christmas lights. We finally arrive at St. Peter's Basilica an hour later and the driver turns off the bus and tells everyone to get off because he can't go any further through the crowds and the traffic. WHAT!?! Ok, I had already given up on Trevi Fountain, but I was still expecting to make it very slowly back to the original destination two blocks from my hotel, not be stuck across the river and at quite literally the furthest point on the route from our hotel. They tell us to walk to the end of the street and on the left there's a machine we can buy a bus ticket from for €1 then we need to get on bus #1 and it will take us back where we need to be. Yup. We're getting on the sardine bus to get back to the hotel. We laughed about it because we knew karma was slapping us back, but it still sucked to be shoved up so tight against the window and hanging onto Felix for dear life so we didn't get separated as people shoved their way on and off the bus at each stop. Several times I thought about how awesome it was that I didn't have to worry about pickpockets because we were jammed so tight, I couldn't move my arms anyway and Felix was crushed up against me with my bag between us, so no way was anyone getting my stuff! I'm completely amazed by how many people can fit onto those buses and beyond impressed that the buses not only continue to move at all, but they move pretty fast for being weighed down like that. It felt like a longer ride than it was, but very soon we were back at the bus station and heading back towards the hotel. On the walk back, we kept eyes open for a place to have dinner since it was pretty late and we hadn't eaten in quite awhile. I'd seen a couple places on my way earlier and we stopped at one that looked promising. 
It turned out to be a very good choice, even though it started out with another misunderstanding. We stepped in and immediately took turns heading for the restrooms, which were down a winding and awkward staircase next to the underground kitchen. I realize that space is hard to come by here, but I just can't understand putting the kitchen underground. We are seated at the back of the restaurant and we order warm drinks then we sit and wait. About fifteen minutes later we get our drinks but our server runs off to help other customers before we order food. We wait for awhile, then try to get his attention. It takes a couple tries, but then he comes over and we order food. Apparently he thought all we wanted was to warm up, not to eat. We had a good meal once it was finally served and learned that our server actually lives in Miami but comes home for the holiday season in Rome to help with the family restaurant. Small world just keeps getting smaller!
We head back to the hotel, get Felix ready and into bed then Rob suggests that he and I go out for a bit while Ana and Felix get some sleep. Sounds good to me, so off we go. We walk only a couple blocks past Termini to Piazza della Repubblica where there's a beautiful fountain, not quite Trevi but still well worth seeing especially at night with the hotel behind it decorated for Christmas. We took pics of each other with the fountain, then headed over to a little hole in the wall bar for a beer and a chance to relax. It was nice to be out without any pressure to get somewhere on time or take care of the boy. After awhile we headed back, knowing that the next day would be easily just as busy because we still had to actually make it into Vatican City, not just get stuck in front of it!
