Rome ~ Part Two

This was fun to see!  Not much new I can say.  It was ...colossal.

 Arc of Constantine.  Part of it anyway.  I guess I will go ahead and mention it, that the Colosseum had a quite a bit of scaffolding around a major part of the outside, and half of the Arc was covered also.  It didn't bother us, since there was enough to go around.  : )  I liked being surprised by Constantine's Arc!  I didn't remember it was here, from our Roman studies last year.  He was the first Christian ruler of Rome, although he totally flipped the rule of killing Christians, to killing anyone who was not!

  a little view of Rome from the Colosseum

some old church we kept walking past  : )

Ok, this building just showed up around the corner on our first night out walking!  It's the Monument for Victor Emanuel II.  But it's got nicknames, our favorite being the "wedding cake".  And every time we passed by it we had to stop and stare and get a few more pics.  It was just massive!  And like everything, beautifully lit at night.

Well, we do have a close second favorite, and that would be the Pantheon.  It was just enchanting.  Beautiful at night too.  It's near the Trevi Fountain so we got to see it several times too.

    Who knew there was a hole in the top?  Not me, until I walked in the door.  : )  Impressive history behind this place too.  Thanks Rick Steve.

   The square out front was a great place to hang out.  So we did.  With gelato in hand most of the time!

  Wish I had more to share of places we ate, beautiful shops, adorable streets, and irresistible gelato shops.  Maybe next time... : )

Rome ~ Part One

John and I had a chance to get away alone, so naturally, we chose Rome!  ; )  We had an amazing weekend there.  The weather was a perfect sunny 65, we walked all over Rome, even ended up in another country!  ;)  (Vatican City).  Had great coffee, wine, and pizza, all outside, and  thoroughly enjoyed our sensory overload!

                                      Saint Peter's Basilica  -  Our favorite

The distance to the front of the church is about 2 football fields long!  There were hundreds of people in here! The whole thing was just overwhelming.

                       The letters at the tops of the columns are 7 ft high

                San Pietro himself...

                                                       St. Peter's Square

                                how humiliating,

    We were also more impressed with the Sistine Chapel than we expected.  We downloaded Rick Steve's audio guides app to our iphones and really enjoyed learning new things.

              That's Castel Sant' Angelo behind me.  This one was for Jacob, since he wants to go there because he's "stood on the very top of it in one of his games". ha!

                                   Fountains at Piazza Navona  - An artists square

                                                          Trevi Fountain
                                          Just as romantic as you think it might be

    One of the old underground aqueducts still brings water to this and a few other fountains.  Water flowing for over 2000 years!  I love that!

     I can't imagine what this place would be like in summer!  Even though we hate crowds, we were drawn here every night we were in Rome!  It was fun to just pass through again and get swept up in the atmosphere here.