Day 1 - Piazza Navona

Fresh off the plane, the boys settled into their room, scrubbed themselves clean and headed to Piazza Navona, one of the key Piazzas of Rome, literally three minutes from where we are staying.

From Piazza Navona we visited the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple which was later converted to a church. An engineering and design marvel, the Pantheon still boasts the world's largest free-standing concrete dome and impressed all of us.

Later, we headed to dinner for our first Italian meal, to Ciro Pizzeria, just off the Piazza. The pizzas found a good home, with the boys declaring it was the best pizza they'd ever had. It might have been the hunger speaking, or the pizzas may have just been that good.

Our last stop of the night was the magnificent and iconic Trevi Fountain, a huge fountain whose roaring waters can be heard long before it is seen. A coin thrown over the shoulder is said to make sure that the coin thrower will return to Rome. Coins were tossed into the fountain mere hours after first setting foot in Rome, such was the impression it left.

The boys happily went to bed at 8.00 pm Rome time. Most reported that they were asleep shortly after that.