Rome Take 1/Day 1

So, we make it to Rome from Latina in the rental car, thankful that my husband had a stick-shift for the first two months we were here. Our son's ear was really bothering him and he had been running a fever off and on for the past 3 days. After losing the tube in his ear a few days before and swimming for long periods of time, I was sure he had an ear infection. My husband had talked around with some of the American's in Latina and got the name and address of a Connecticut Doctor in Rome. (sounds like a novel, doesn't it?) We make it through the first 6 directions of a 30+ list from Google and decide that maybe we will take a taxi.
Now, getting into Rome was no big deal. We know we got turned around once, but found our place, but then with traffic and my painfully full bladder, we stopped. We parked, conveniently, in front of a pyramid. Pyramid of Cestius, to be specific, though we didn't know that at the time, it was just darn lucky that we found a parking place close to a bathroom, a metro station, a taxi stand and easy to get back to since we speak less Italian than French. We took care of business and found a taxi to take us to the doctor.
Thank the lord we decided to take a taxi. There is no way, even with my expert navigator skills and my husband's ability to take direction on very short notice, that we could have found it. No way. On our absolutely death defying taxi ride to the doctor we past the Colleseum, Circus Maximus and Vittoriano, and many ancient ruins that have been saved. It would have been a gorgeous tour if we weren't preoccupied with our lives.
The office/apartment of the doctor, who is an OB/GYN turned general practitioner for Americans in Italy, was way up past Trevi Fountain, up on some narrow, twisty, old hill that tourists get lost to see. Again, thank the lord we took a taxi. We met the doctor, he took care of our son and that was that. Just a case of swimmer's ear, no biggie. We left him with these instructions to the bus that would take us, easily, to the pyramid, "You'll find the bus stop just down the hill." Um, which hill? Not the hill or direction we took, but hey, we found a great gelato shop AND Trevi Fountain. The camera was in the car back at the pyramid, but we saw it, we were there.
We took a bus back to the pyramide without problems and found our car. From there, we had to get the car back to the airport, about 45km from where we were. The airport wasn't a problem to get to (kinda), but it was harder than heck to find the rental car return! Once we found the place to take the car back, it was time for a little toddler meltdown, then on to the airport terminal to get the train into Rome again. I had found a great deal on booking.com for a hotel in Rome, close to the metro station and the Vatican. The train into Rome is a racket, I swear. It's really the only way we knew of to get into town again, so we paid their 27EU.
Our son entertained some very nice nuns, about 23 years old, if that. He was in full ham mode, so they got a chuckle and we were able to relax since he was a in a great mood again. After a little bit of walking around Termini Station and with the assistance of a very honest taxi driver, we found our next metro station to get to The Hotel Gerber. It was about, 2000 at this point, we were ready for the hotel. Because of the taxi driver, we saved about 23EU taking the train over there.
The hotel couldn't have been easier to find, off the metro line, down one block and around the corner. The desk clerk was wonderful, sent us to a fabulous pizzeria, so we were able to fall asleep, each in our own twin sized beds, fat and happy.