We spent four days in the eternal city, and I wish we had brought a pedometer to see how much we walked each day. Rome's subway system is pretty much a joke with only two lines, and I've never figured the bus system in any European city, so we walked every inch of central Rome. Nightly foot massages were required...
I was surprised how much I loved Rome. Some people had told me that, despite all the amazing things to see, they didn't like the city itself. I'd heard it was too chaotic, but compared to Naples it felt completely manageable. I mean, they had CROSSWALKS and stuff - what a concept! Walking everywhere was actually great because we got to see so many neighborhoods and little nooks of Rome - flower markets, cafes....
Here are some of the major sites we managed to see during our visit:
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Castel Sant'Angelo - built as a tomb for a Roman emperor,
later served as a fortress for popes |
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Beautiful and tourist-filled Piazza Navona, with no less than 3 huge and
over-the-top Baroque fountains |
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| Monument to Vitorio Emanuele II, the first king of unified Italy |
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Tossing our coins into Trevi Fountain! Throw it in with your right hand
over the left shoulder and you're guaranteed to return to Rome! |
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| Trevi Fountain=tourist madhouse! |
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The Mouth of Truth - it used to be part of a Roman fountain. In the
Middle Ages it was considered a lie detector - it was believed that
your hand would be bitten off if you told a lie. Now a photo op for
tourists - for a small fee of 50 euro cents! |
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The Spanish Steps! Best people-watching that Rome
has to offer! |
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| The Pantheon! Probably my favorite thing we saw in Rome |
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| How does a place this amazing have free admission?!? |
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| I kind of took a lot of photos of this place... |
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Most amazing thing happened while we were inside - it started to rain!
The Pantheon has a huge hole in the ceiling, so we got to watch the
water come pouring in! |
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| Gladiator on his cell phone |
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| The Colosseum, of course! |
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| another view |
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| inside the Colosseum |
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The floor is no longer there, providing a creepy view
down to the ancient catacombs where they would
store all the animals before showtime |
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| View from the upper level |
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| The ruins of Palatine Hill |
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Palatine Hill was kind of like a park... just a really awesome one full of
ancient stuff! |
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| View of the Colosseum from the hill |
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| View of the Roman Forum from the hill |
We also spent a day in the Vatican City (technically a different country!). We arrived about an hour before the pope was scheduled to make a public appearance, so we figured we might as well delay our museum visits by a bit and wait around to see him.
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| St Peter's Square |
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| Hey look, it's the pope! |
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| And his flashy pope mobile! |
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| The crowd of people waiting to see the pope |
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Swiss guard looking ridiculous! But he gave us directions
and was really nice |
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The Sistine Chapel! You're not allowed to take photos, but literally
EVERYONE was |
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| Inside the massive St Peter's Basilica |
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| It's HUGE!!! |
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