We stayed out pretty late the night before so the next morning I was grateful we didn’t have anything until 11am. I had booked us a tour of the Catacombe San Callisto and I was super excited to go. I had been to the catacombs in Paris but these were very different. Pictures were not allowed inside so I only got one of me in front. It was a nice Christian Pilgrimage and it was neat to see how they buried people a long time ago. No skulls or bodies were seen but a lot of history shared. I am always surprised how much history is preserved and how neat it must have been to be the archaeologists that first got to explore it.
Afterwards, we got lunch and we had a bike tour scheduled for 3pm to bike the Appian Way. I love Rick Steves and one of his things to do in Rome is bike this route so I had to do it. We scheduled our tour with Bici Baci and I was delighted when I saw Sarah, our tour guide from 7 years ago that took us around Rome there! She, of course, didn’t remember us but I remembered her so well and was happy to see her still there and loving what she does. Sadly, she was not our tour guide and for the life of me I can’t remember our tour guide’s name but he was very nice and took lots of pictures of me and Dan. I was shocked the tour ended up being only me and Dan for English speaking and the one Sarah led was in Dutch and had like 15 people. I was even more shocked and so grateful they didn’t cancel on us. It was an amazing treat to have a private tour and not pay the private tour price.
This bike tour was so much fun but me and Dan agreed it was also the scariest. Thank goodness we upgraded to the electric bikes for all the hills but the actual Appian Way is so bumpy and no real flat road so any wrong move or swerve on the road and you could go flying off. It was terrifying and thrilling! Our tour guide was so sweet and would wait for us and guide us and tell us what to expect for the road conditions. I love taking bike tours in various cities and now I get why Rick Steves recommends biking this route because this route will always stay in my memory. It was absolutely beautiful! All the villas, the tombstones, and the history all together it felt very surreal. The weather was hot but the breeze from biking felt so nice. I would definitely do this exact tour if I ever make it back to Rome because while it was scary there was something so special about it that I can’t quite articulate. We loved it!
We went back to the hotel to rest a bit, shower, and change. I had asked for restaurant recommendations from our food tour person that cancelled and we had a good list and we decided to go to one of them. It was delicious! This was another night of walking by the Big 3 and random fountains and Piazzas. It is weird how time works in Europe. I can do like a hundred things in a day there and still get up the next day just fine but back home if I do two or three things in a day I am exhausted for hours lolol.
This would also be the first night we rented scooters and were brave enough to travel on the street late at night on them. We didn’t dare try to navigate the roads on a scooter during the day but at night if we saw a Lime or Bird scooter we would rent them and head to the Colosseum then to our hotel. It was this night that it really hit me that we were in Rome, the eternal city. As we stayed out late, talking, laughing, and riding around I couldn’t help but feel so happy and “blessed” that I was able to take this trip. I even pinched myself while at a red light thinking this was a dream. I remembered exactly why I love traveling, why I love Rome so much, and how special this trip was to take with Dan. We got back to the hotel, showered, and stayed up talking some more about what we loved about the day. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe I can still find things to talk about to Dan when I am literally with him 24/7 but we both surprise each other with a different memory or we took a picture of something the other missed and this night we stayed up talking about our bike and scooter rides and how much we loved both.
Adventures of Janet 