Rome, Italy - Piazza Navona

Great and smooth flight.  I didn't sleep much and watched three movies (Salt, Letters from Julia, Avatar).  US Airways gave us a cup of coffee and a little croissant.  The flight was smooth, and the pilot came on to tell us that we were going to begin our descent in to Rome.  Five minutes later, he said that we were cleared for land and swoosh, we were coming down fast. The crew didn't even get to my seat to take my coffee cup.  But the landing was good and we pulled our big plane up to one of the terminals. They wheeled a stair case up to the plane (WOW!) and we had to drag the luggage down the steps. We were all pretty cool with our carry-on luggage, but Sara wins for having the least.

We walked past the luggage belts and out of the international doors. There were several drivers with name cards so we knew that we were in the right place.  Yea!  We looked around and finally found a young girl with "Ledee K Rickard" on a card.  Close enough.  She was a really nice guide and spoke English so that was very helpful.  She led us down to the Tourist Information so that we could buy our Roma Passes and then out the front door to meet Stephan, our Italian English Speaking driver. He loaded the van with the luggage and off we went, to Rome!  The sky is a little overcast, but the air temperature was really nice.  We chatted with him about the weather and other things and were at the apartment in 40 minutes.

We rang the doorbell and the attendant for the apartment rang us in.  We put the luggage (and me) in the elevator and the others took the stairs to the second floor.  We toured, selected rooms, and got ready to have a really late breakfast...or a slightly late lunch.  Off we walked east on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.We went through a few side streets until we got to Piazza Novona.   The Piazza is filled with booths with Christmas gifts and decorations. We decided to eat on a little side street, and went to a small place that was large on atmosphere.  It was in La Scaletta, antica trattoria, that we had our first meal in Rome!  We decided to eat large, and that maybe this meal would also cover dinner.
La Scaletta
Via di Santa Maria dell'Anima 56
Piazza Navona Tel: +39 06.68.80.18.72
http://www.lascaletta-roma.it/

Here is what we ordered.  The numbers are prices in euros.  Multiply by 1.35 to get an idea of the dollar cost. 
Ladee and Kalen split Bruschetta. 7€
We had a wonderful bottle of Italian wine that is only served in November and December. 16
Sara had spinach ravioli 11€ and tiramisu 7€ for desert.
Kalen had fetticine with seafood 13€, I had gnocci (so yummy) with eggplant pieces 11€. Karl had veal saltimbucca 14€ and a side of spinach 5€ and Americano coffee (Espresso with hot water added) 2.5€ and cannoli 7€ for desert.
Kalen and Ladee finished the meal with cannoli and espresso 2€.

Anna was our waitress and she was very personable and extremely fluent in English.  Frank Sinatra was singing in the background (Francesco!!)

After dinner, we walked around Piazza Navona and took fountain pictures.  This is Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi  (or Fountain of the Four Rivers). I bought three umbrellas for $2 each (I drove a hard deal!!).  We then headed to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to look for the hop on hop off bus.  We couldn't find it, it was raining lightly, so we stopped at the grocery store to buy some milk and sugar, panetone (can hardly wait for breakfast tomorrow!), and other odds and ends.  Then we went back to the apartment, all very tired and ready to go to sleep at 4:30 PM!  Beware, Rom, Wild tourists are here!

Karl fussed with the drip coffee system, and then discovered that the glass was broken and it generally did not work.  That was the best thing that happened.  He found several espresso makers, those metal two tiered gadgets that sit on the stove, and proceeded to learn how to use this device. I googled step by step instructions and by the time I heard "It worked!!" from Karl, we had awesome espresso.

We had an espresso and Americano to stay awake the best we can until 7PM, and then we are going to crash!!  The Vatican is on the agenda for tomorrow.  We gathered at the dining room table, spread out the maps, plugged in the laptops and opened the Rick Steves books...what a team!!

So, good night to Rome. This is the view from the bedroom window, looking towards the Vatican.