After we arrived at the parking deck we went ahead and started heading towards our apartment with the plan to arrive there make sure we knew where it was and then go explore. We were set to meet our rental agent at 4. Well we started this process at 1pm and I'm sure glad we did! We didn't find the place until 3:30. That was 2.5 hours of walking around in circles and going the wrong way. We found a pretty overlook though on accident due to getting lost. Good thing our apartment really only is 5 minutes from where we parked our car.....whoops. So then we got our keys and went back to the car to stow our luggage in the room. Then it was off to explore. First stop was piazza navona.
This is a very famous square in Rome and has local painters and a market in the morning, we missed that unfortunately. It's square is so full of life and lined with outdoor cafes. It is a tourist location but doesn't feel cheesy in the slightest. It was fun to walk through and see the art, I will probably purchase some before we leave. Next we went to the Pantheon which was once a pagan temple and is now converted to a Christian church.
It has a 30ft diameter hole in the ceiling and 5 rows of imprinted trapezoids in circular rings around the dome that used to be decorated with bronze stars. That is before The Vatican stole it centuries ago and Bernini used it to decorate St. Peter basilica. On the way home that evening we found the back of the building which shows how it once would have looked. Then we marched onto the Trevi fountain we got gelato on the way and a couple cups of coffee...nothing like caffeine and sugar to keep ya going.
Once we got to the fountain we saw the masses of people I have come to expect around large touristy areas. Justin was surprised the fountain was so large and also that the square around it so small. We took some time to admire the fountain and then braved the crowd for a picture in front. We got the picture but then tried for a second with us throwing our coins into the fountain meaning that we will come back to Rome. Over 120,000 euro gets pulled out of the fountain each year and most is donated to charity each year. Then we walked over to the Spanish steps.
We reached them from the top and were able to walk down them then taking a picture going back up. There were again many people, but most were taking a break on the steps. We also sat down and planned up move for dinner. We picked out one in the guidebook and started that direction with the plan that if we saw something different on the way we would stop there. We ended up near the piazza navona and found a small little restaurant that offered bruschetta (toast with fresh tomatoes and olive oil) and the either pizza or pasta and beer or wine for 12 euro. Also they had free wifi so we could update everyone that we got to Rome in one piece. I of course had to have the roman specialty pasta carbonara and Justin got spaghetti with white clam sauce. Both meals were delicious and the wine was amazing (remember this is their crappy wine) we ended up sitting for a bit longer and having and extra glass of wine. Then made it back to the apartment for a good but short nights sleep. Tomorrow it's up early for an early tour of the Sistine chapel.
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