We ate. We loved. We traveled.: Ciao! Roma, Italy

Before flying to Rome, I had butterflies. I'm not a plane person. The person who is talking about how the plane is going to crash and we're all going to die, and oh, that turbulence wasn't turbulence at all, it was the wind telling us we can't fly and down we go. All jokes aside, I don't like it and it makes my stomach flip. Drum roll....I now have a baby and that made matters worse! Everything I could possibly think was flying through my mind, especially her crying. Well, Sicily did amazing, we made it with our friends to Italy with car arrangements made for us by the wonderful woman that let me rent out one of her places through Airbnb.com. This place was in the center of everything, and a corners turn from the Trevi.

We were all in heaven. I highly recommend staying there. Here is a link and if you're interested, I've included the listing for the place: Fontana Di Trevi . Go ahead, see for yourself that I wasn't lying, it's absolutely beautiful. And this was the view from my bedroom window.

Lets move on to the food that will make your tastebuds explode and some attractions. We spent 6 wonderful days in Rome, and I although I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to venture and see everything I wanted, I figure, it's another excuse to come back. (Which I will.) We pretty much dropped our stuff in our rooms and we were gone in a heartbeat. Exploring is the best thing to do and I highly recommend it. Don't take a bunch of buses or taxis, if you must take anything, ride the metro. We rode it everywhere, and walked everywhere. The treasures we found were worth every sore ankle by the end of the night.

The best value for your money you could invest in: Roma Pass. - If you don't get this, you're spending so much unneeded money it's not even funny. With this beauty, you can ride any public transportation (bus, or metro etc) for 3 days, as many times as you please. You can also enter 2 museums free and you can skip the ticket lines because well, the pass IS your ticket. The tickets by the way, are around 30+ euro each per museum. With the pass being only 34 euro, it's definitely paying for itself and it's well worth it. It includes a map as well, so don't bother buying one! Downfall, it can't be used to get into the Vatican, so you will have to buy the tickets online or you'll wait in a 2 hour line. Ew.

For food, we hit a place called II Pozzo Dei Desideri - the bonus, it was literally right next door to where we were staying. The food was out of this world, and is not a big tourist spot. You'll understand what I mean if you are ever just so hungry and you just pick a place that looks good, until you taste it and it reminds you of Olive Garden. My taste buds exploded and I truly understood what real Italian was after this trip. The olive oil was....I don't even have words, but trust me, if I could describe it, I would. Lets just say 'imported' olive oil from the US is crap compared to what I had.

Ciampini - This was a suggestion from our host. She told us all the best spots that locals went to and I'm so grateful. Here we had a stuffed bread pizza. I'm a truffle mushroom lover, and this pizza was so good, I almost cried. It was filled with potatoes, ham, the freshest mozzarella, pieces of black truffles and just a splash of truffle oil. If there is a meal I could die eating, this would probably have been it.

In the Galleria Mall, we found the biggest pastry place we had laid eyes on and it wasn't just looks either. It was called roma Dagnino palermo. Stop there and at Vanilla Organic for out of this world desserts.

Jolly Pop was a candy store we found that had creme saver gummies and I, being the sweets lover I am, was as jolly as can be. Ha. Ha.

La Grande Bellezza was really on top of our list. If you find yourself willing to wonder and walk a bit from the Metro, please make your way here.

The winner and king on my list is Baccano. I'm all about Moscato, but the wine the waiter brought out was out of this world, and if it wasn't almost 45 euro for the bottle, it would have made it into my suitcase. This place is a little more on the finer end but it is affordable and delicious! Meals were rather nicely sized, bursting with flavor, but dessert made me believe, there must be a food goddess! It was our last sit down meal for our trip so I highly, highly, recommend this place.

Gelateria Pasticceria had the best gelato, crepes and pastries. It is right near the Trevi and the women are the sweetest and adored my daughter to pieces. I loved the cookies and cream (not like what you'd typically think), rum, vanilla and chocolate chips, mint, tiramisu, and chocolate. We went to this place everyday, 3x a day while we were in Rome. If that doesn't tell you something, I don't know what will.

There were plenty more food places, but while I may have loved the food at those other places as well, these are the ones I want to rave about and make sure others have the chance to enjoy them as well. These photos are just a few from the places mentioned above.

I highly recommend going to the Trevi when it's dark, and a little after 11:30pm at night. Bring drinks, take photos and just enjoy it. It's almost empty, romantic and you'll get to throw your coin in and make a wish without any interruption! We did the Trevi everyday, only because we could. It truly is a must see, day or night. The Colosseum was another highlight that I found out gave me goosebumps. I am an architecture nut, and I'm a sucker for great building structure. (Hey! I'm from Charleston, SC. Historic downtown and our building has made me this way, okay?!) but the Colosseum blew anything I knew out of the water. You can tell how much care was put into it, how much blood, sweat and tears were dropped there. I highly recommend getting a private tour which is only 18 euro if you also have the Roma Pass! Listening to history all over again and walking through with visual pictures of how they think it looked really helped me bring it all together in my mind.

I don't want to make this too terribly long, so with Roma Part 2, I'll give you all the details on the Vatican, Roman Forum, Palestine Hill, shops to get the best spices, olive oils, truffle sauces and the definite do's and don'ts.