Rome, day 2

Oh my gosh, what a day! We left the B&B at 9:00 a.m. and just returned at 10:30 p.m. Our dogs are barking! We covered a good bit of the city today that's for sure!




We booked tickets online from home for a Vatican tour. Boy were we happy about that once we saw the crowd waiting to get into the Vatican. Being part of a tour gets you right into the entrance gate; those people in line were going to have a 2.5 hour wait to enter. We booked thru "What a Life" tours and highly recommend them. We spent 3.5 hours with the guide going thru the museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Then, because we had downloaded the Rick Steves' audio tour of the Basilica, we spent another 30 minutes listening to that, as the inside of the church is so amazing. There were so many people (the museum was pretty bad, wall to wall people,


move along at a shuffle) but it's not quite high season yet. I can only imagine how bad it must be in the summer...




We saw beautiful sculptures, mosaics, paintings, ceilings, stone floors/columns/walls. The Bernini and Michelangelo pieces are simply


amazing. After a delicious lunch we ducked into the Pantheon to gaze up in wonder at the coffered dome and ocular window above.


The many fountains in the city are beautiful. We are amazed at the force of the water coming into the city via the restored aqueducts. And the water is so refreshing! We had listened to several podcasts before coming to Rome and we had fun looking for the little significant idiosyncrasies of many fountains.




We enjoyed exploring Piazza Navona, but really enjoyed sitting at Campo de Fiori at the end of the day for a happy hour drink. I tried the Aperol Spritz ( Aperol liquor, prosecco, orange soda) and while I don't think it will replace my bourbon and ginger, it was pretty good.

An evening stoll from Campo de Fiori to Trevi Fountain then the Spanish


Steps certainly worked up our appetite! We had a lovely dinner al fresco then decided to forego a taxi and trust our tired but capable legs to get us back home (and encountered this street sign attached for a special person!


We are still trying to find the "Sara" and "Sandi" streets ). We have had such fun walking around the city. We saw a map today of Ancient Rome (4th century A.D.) and were astounded at the number of buildings. It truly was a city even back then (1.5mm people!). It shouldn't be surprising (but it is to us) that you can be walking down random streets and look over and see excavated columns next to a regular apartment/office building. They uncover those all the time. The only have 2 subway lines; it's just too hard to build a subway when every time you dig, the archeologists have to be called out!

There are so many exciting things to do in the city but we have to make some tough calls on what to include/exclude. Apparently the Pope is preaching on Sunday and tickets are FREE, but it is a 2 hour mass and it will be difficult to get good seats so we think we will pass this up. We are torn -- how many times would you have a chance to see the Pope, but heck, we aren't Catholic and it would mean a lot more to others to get those tickets.

Our bed is calling loudly to us. The B&B is VERY quiet and we had a great night's sleep last night. We need those zzzzzz's after all the walking we are doing. I am sure we are running an exercise/calorie deficit right now so we will probably come home pounds lighter than we left!!
Ciao!


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Location:Rome, Italy