Our overnight flight to Rome was uneventful (aside from some incorrectly colored orange juice!), we even got a few hours of sleep. We left at 10PM Boston time and arrived six hours later at noon Rome time, checked into our hotel and we were off! The first order of business was to find some lunch. Bob was relieved that he'd still be able to satisfy his coke addition in Italy. Whew!
(The first of many, many antipasto platters we had!)
Then we went to the Colosseum (It was rainy, but the ONLY rainy day we had which was more than we could have hoped for!)
From there we wandered until we couldn't wander any more!
Monument of Victor Emmanuel II
Trevi Fountain
Rome Day Two:
We spent the morning walking around with the goal of finding the Pantheon, and we finally found it!
(Seeing the Pantheon was a huge highlight. I've been reading about that building for most my life, it was humbling to actually be in the space!)
Trevi Fountain again, in the daytime.
...another coke...
...and another antipasto platter.
Friday afternoon we had reservations for the Borghese Gallery so we started making our way there after lunch, walking through the Gardens surrounding the Villa. (The trees reminded us of Dr. Seuss's Truffula trees)
The Borghese Gallery was well worth the trip, the Bernini sculptures were amazing, so dynamic!
David
Apollo and Daphne
My favorite painting was Caravaggio's Madonna and Child with St. Anne. I'd never seen such a beautiful depiction of Mary and baby Jesus.
Afterward, we walked around the grounds as the sun went down.
Rome Day Three:
On our third day in Rome we got up very early to meet our Vatican tour guide (Ms. Wolfe) at a coffee house near the Vatican. Turns out, Ms. Wolfe is a six-foot-tall Dutch lady who was REALLY GOOD at cutting in lines. She was so good, that even we started feeling bad for all the line cutting!
She gave us a mini art history / Catholic history lesson out in the garden, then we buzzed our way through the Vatican Museums...(the amount of art we blew past was shocking!)
...and eventually into the Sistine Chapel (sadly, no photos allowed).
Afterward we squeezed through the Sistine Chapel (wall to wall people!), Ms. Wolfe told the security guard that we were claustrophobic and we cut a thousand more people in line....
...and got right into St. Peter's. (We are so burning in hell for this!)
Michelangelo's Pieta
There was even a mass going on, which was cool to see.
After the Vatican, we started walking back toward some pizza and our hotel...
...and ended up at the Piazza Navona.
Fountain of the Four Rivers
From there, we decided a nap was needed so we could get back out in the afternoon and enjoy the day.
After our nap (one of my best ideas ever!), we took the metro to the other ancient sites near the Colosseum that we'd missed on our first day. I think the Roman Forum was the highlight of Rome for me. The daylight was beautiful and perfect. We had our Rick Steves audio guide in our headphones, painting a picture of Ancient Rome for us. It was truly a perfect afternoon.
Arch of Titus
Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
Temple of Antoninus Pius
Temple of the Vesta
House of the Vestals
Temple of Castor and Pollux (the three columns in the distance)
Temple of Romulus (left) and Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine (right)
Arch of Septimus Severus and to the right, The Curia
Rome Day Four:
On our last day in Rome we took a cab to the outskirts of the city to walk along the Appian Way and see a few sites. It was another perfect, sunny day! (We know how very lucky we were!)
Tomb of Cecilia Metella
Villa di Massenzio
We also saw the Catacombs of San Callisto but no photos were allowed.
The walk alone was worth the trip out there.
Eventually we realized that we couldn't walk all the way back to Rome. Plus the Appian Way has a shocking amount of traffic on it! So we called a cab and took a chance that we could get into one of the restaurants that had been recommended to us by a friend of Bob's who'd spent a lot of time in Italy. Luckily for us, our American habit of eating dinner before 9PM panned out for us and we had the best meal of our trip so far at Osteria da Fortunata, where this lady in the window literally made our pasta! It was amazing!
And a perfect way to end our time in Rome.
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