A Day in Our Life (in Rome)
During this travel adventure, we’ve had a few days that are a pretty accurate representation on what life is often like for us on the road. Balancing working and exploring can be frustrating at times. And, because we’re away from home-base so much, we try hard to keep fitness and some awareness of nutrition an active part of the mix (or this would be a weight loss blog).
So, here’s the low down of what a day looks like for us. In this case, in Rome…
6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Today we’re up early. Being 9 hours ahead of Seattle, all of our clients have e-mailed while we’ve been asleep. Plus, we basically forgot about work in Bologna, so we have some catching up to do.
This particular hotel has free WiFi AND breakfast included in the price. We’re able to work in the room, popping out about halfway through the work session for a bite to eat.
10:00 a.m. to noon
A solid work session behind us and breakfast fueling us, we hit Rome for a decent run / sightseeing session. We spend a lot of time jogging all around Borghese Gardens and checking out the Spanish Steps. We unexpectedly come across this view and ask someone to snap a picture. Notice that blue sky? Our luck with weather continues.
noon to 5:00 p.m.
On this particular day, we want to see a lot on foot. We’re determined to get to our pal’s top restaurant recommendation in Rome, so we set off from the hotel mega-hungry. The restaurant delivers in a huge way. We devour every bite of our eggplant parmesan and rigatoni. (Yep, more pasta pictures. We’re evil.)
Unfortunately, in our excitement, we spill our wine all over the table. We pass on dessert, knowing that we’ll certainly be tempted by a gelato shop as we continue to roam the city.
Continuing our walk after lunch, we’re completely won over by the river on this autumn day. We snap several photos while street vendors try to sell us all sorts of junk we don’t need (including, oddly enough, tripods like the one we have and are using to take this picture).
Before making our way back to the hotel, we take that gelato break. Don’t think you’re off the hook… Lots more on gelato to come in a future post.
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Tired from a productive day, we’re happy to kick off our shoes for another work session back in the room. Clients back in the States are just starting to come to life, so we’re able to interact with them before closing our laptops for good. This is especially fun because we’ve had that wine for lunch. Work should always be like this.
7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Tonight, we’re going for a quick walk and getting take out pizza from a highly recommended place in our hood. Bringing pizza back to the room allows us to have a reasonably priced meal and experience a local favorite. A great way to save some money.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is a “sampler stack” of pizza. Enough to make two grown guys cry.
8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Because we’ve had too much fun hanging with these three travelers (who happen to be in Rome as well), we need to keep things low key tonight. We’ll dive into a pastry that we also picked up earlier, create a loose plan for tomorrow and call it an early night.
That’s a day in our life in Rome.
My morning runs are my favorite way to see a city and burn enough calories to eat all the delicious food!
Agreed!
Very cool. It sounds like a good mix of being productive, exploring and eating delicious italian food. That pizza looks sooo good!
It is a good mix, but it can be frustrating at times. We totally went off the deep end in Bologna (not working) so had a lot of catching up to do in Rome. Feel like we didn’t see as much as we would have liked (plus there were some other very fun travelers who kept us distracted at times!).
I just read this and looked at all the photos… I don’t think I emailed the photo of yall looking at the map and the girls looking at the map too. I love that photo!!! Let me know if I didnt so I can send it to you! Ahh life was great in Rome. I’m working on the thankgiving post right now…lol.
Thanks, Jaime – We, too, had a great time in Rome. Thanks for being a part of it.
It does seem like a pretty good life
I like how structured you are when it comes to work and fitness!
We’ve gotta be
Love that you’re showing easy ways to stay fit and save money.
These Italy posts are making me soooooo hungry. All of my favorite foods. All of them.
I guess that means we’re going out for Italian food when we meet!
Are you trying to make us jealous, because you’re doing an excellent job of it!?
If it makes you feel better… we’d love to have you along
first of all, i just had a pavlovian response to the pasta.
second, i can’t believe you guys have that kind of strong discipline to actually buckle down to work. You guys are my heroes!!!!
Lastly, so jealous that you guys have had such beautiful weather!!! my last several trips this year has been covered with a dark cloud of rain over my head!
It’s easy to stay motivated to work hard because we want to continue this – our dream lifestyle. Long live NVR
SO glad you made it to my new favorite place!
That eggplant parmesan is one of the best around.
Can’t wait to talk all things Italy with you. Thanks so much for all of your help.
Please, please, please, can I come with you the next time you go to Italy? I’ll be very quiet.
I really wish I enjoyed running – taking a jog around a new city seems like a fantastic way to sight-see.
And it’s really cool seeing how you structure your time, especially with balancing work. We mostly switch back and forth between taking a day to just work and then taking a full day to explore a city, but it gets exhausting sometimes. Doing a little of both each day seems like an interesting mix!
How dare you be doing ANYTHING at 6am? What are you, some kind of insomniac robots from the future??
I am ashamed to say I’ve been out for a run precisely twice in the last month. I feel very let down by myself
On a brighter note, and largely due to your recent pasta posts from Bologna, I will be spending four hours today making a ragu alla bolognese. The proper one! I will report back on my success/failure.
You guys seem to balance work and travel really well. James and I need to take a lesson from that. I am the type of person who gets obsessed and can spend all day on the computer – while he likes to explore all day. we need to somehow meet in the middle
Sounds like you guys are having an awesome adventure. I look forward to keeping up to date with it from now on.
Looks like a delicious adventure!
Wow, I could definitely do with some eggplant parmesan, yum! Great way to spend a day and a good mixture of work, activities, and food!
It’s a tough life we live isn’t it
Love the photo of you two by the river, gorgeous setting.
I am not sure any country can rival the cuisine here.
And the cannoli’s. Dios mio… Great post guys.
I had such a nice time with you guys, so glad to see more photos of you and the food in the posts
I so admire people who run on the road! I always say I’m going to, but rural areas are the only places I make that happen. Man, I’m a sucker for wine-fueled lunches. I can’t wait to meet!!
LOL, that IS evil! Everyone’s “work day” should look like this.
What a life! So great to see a day in your life, very balanced and carefree
What an awesome way to live your life! You two are inspiring. Do you find that clients are understanding about time zone differences and virtual meetings?
Well, it can be tricky at times, but we make it work. it means that – at times – we can keep a strange schedule.