SITE SUMMARY: Villa Borghese, Campo de' Fiori, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps
LUNCH: Palatium Enoteca Regionale del Lazio
DINNER: Group Dinner at Trattoria Dai Tre Amici Al Pantheon
SLEEPING: Hotel Nardizzi Americana
LESSONS LEARNED: Restaurant bills are delivered upon request. When ready to go, it's a good idea to give your server at least 20 minutes notice for the final bill.
Cruising around the Villa Borghese
After a light breakfast at the hotel, we spent the morning returning to the Villa Borghese. Our youngest son really wanted to rent a four person cycle and cruise the park. The park was much quieter than the day before, but quite enjoyable. After working up an appetite, we consulted our guidebook for a restaurant in the area.
Lazio is one of the 20 regions of Italy and is made up of five provinces. Our choice for lunch, the Palatium Enoteca, is funded by the region and serves the finest items from the area. Pictured below are some of the tasty items we ordered. We didn’t realize that you had to request the check in order to wrap up your meal, so we ended up with a really long lunch. By the time we asked for the check, it was only a short while before the tour was scheduled to begin – I think we made it back to the hotel in record time!
Welcome to the tour! TOUR HIGHLIGHT: SMALL GROUPS
The group gathered at our first hotel in the afternoon to meet our lead and assistant guide as well as make introductions to each other. There were a total of 27, including our family of four. I was relieved to see so many kids in the group ranging from age 8 through upper teens. The size of the group is really small by tour standards and proved to be extremely comfortable later in the trip once we loaded onto our beautiful bus. It was also small enough that everyone could get to know everyone, including remembering names, within just a day or two.
Soon, it was time for our activities to begin! We started off by learning our first Italian: Andiamo! This means “Let’s Go!” After the brief language lesson, we were given a transportation and city orientation, followed by a city walk and group dinner.