I wake up this day at 3 am starving and ready to go! My husband is still quite tired so I force myself to lay back down and pretend to sleep for a few more hours....
I lay there thinking "Im here! Im in Italy!" and the excitement is too much, so I get up again after a few hours of very light sleep and start getting ready for the day and reading maps of the area.
When my husband is awake, we get ready to catch the metro to our Vatican City tour. Here I must interject how the metro is quite dirty, it was a little bit to take the first time but its easy to forgive because their system is so effective and simple to use.... we are grateful for it.
We meet up with out tour Guide Francesca who is a fun and very expressive Italian... I fell in love with her instantly.
Its hard to know what to say about St Peters Basillica.... or the Sistine Chapel, other than it takes our breath away the beauty of the art, statues, paintings, gardens.... its too much to take in or even write about or even capture in pictures.... the size of it all is over the top. We are here in off-season and yet it is still full of people.
After this tour, we strolled to Piazza Navona... Here there are vendors, artists, and street performers. The 3 fountains in this Piazza are incredible..... the detail, the significance of each part of the Fountain of Four Rivers is just marvelous.
We take our time looking at the local art, gazing at the fountains, then head on to walk to the Pantheon, one of the most pleasant surprises of the trip.
The first ever self-supporting dome... from the outside this place doesn't look like much... most of the beauty was stripped away, some taken to Peters Basilica, some other places.... so its quite homely in a way on the outside.
Then you walk in. It actually made me gasp, its peaceful, beautiful and so unique. The opening at the Dome is open, no glass or covering of any kind and it is also the only thing to provide natural light other than that huge doors. There are even vents in the floor should it rain through the hole... the water will flow away from the building. The columns are made out of a single piece of granite.
Just an incredible place and one we revisited multiple times.
This day we enjoy a caffe and Bruschetta at an eatery called Napoletanos where we gaze at the fountain in front of the Pantheon and enjoy some street performers.
After this we stroll slowly through side streets and check out some of the shops.. passing time until we meet for our evening tour. On this tour we saw some of the major sites illuminated and learned some more fascinating history about each place... We took pictures of this but they don't do it justice.. Rome at night is beautiful and one of the most well-lit cities.... there are no streets that feel dark and scary.... there are lights everywhere, even ally ways.
All fountains and structures are lit up... breathtaking.
Let not forget Trevi Fountain.. impossible to visit without sharing your time with other people, (always a crowd here) this fountain is indescribable and pictures cant begin to tell the story of how wonderful this is. Here is one of ours anyway.
I lay there thinking "Im here! Im in Italy!" and the excitement is too much, so I get up again after a few hours of very light sleep and start getting ready for the day and reading maps of the area.
When my husband is awake, we get ready to catch the metro to our Vatican City tour. Here I must interject how the metro is quite dirty, it was a little bit to take the first time but its easy to forgive because their system is so effective and simple to use.... we are grateful for it.
We meet up with out tour Guide Francesca who is a fun and very expressive Italian... I fell in love with her instantly.
Its hard to know what to say about St Peters Basillica.... or the Sistine Chapel, other than it takes our breath away the beauty of the art, statues, paintings, gardens.... its too much to take in or even write about or even capture in pictures.... the size of it all is over the top. We are here in off-season and yet it is still full of people.
We take our time looking at the local art, gazing at the fountains, then head on to walk to the Pantheon, one of the most pleasant surprises of the trip.
The first ever self-supporting dome... from the outside this place doesn't look like much... most of the beauty was stripped away, some taken to Peters Basilica, some other places.... so its quite homely in a way on the outside.
Then you walk in. It actually made me gasp, its peaceful, beautiful and so unique. The opening at the Dome is open, no glass or covering of any kind and it is also the only thing to provide natural light other than that huge doors. There are even vents in the floor should it rain through the hole... the water will flow away from the building. The columns are made out of a single piece of granite.
Just an incredible place and one we revisited multiple times.
This day we enjoy a caffe and Bruschetta at an eatery called Napoletanos where we gaze at the fountain in front of the Pantheon and enjoy some street performers.
After this we stroll slowly through side streets and check out some of the shops.. passing time until we meet for our evening tour. On this tour we saw some of the major sites illuminated and learned some more fascinating history about each place... We took pictures of this but they don't do it justice.. Rome at night is beautiful and one of the most well-lit cities.... there are no streets that feel dark and scary.... there are lights everywhere, even ally ways.
All fountains and structures are lit up... breathtaking.
Let not forget Trevi Fountain.. impossible to visit without sharing your time with other people, (always a crowd here) this fountain is indescribable and pictures cant begin to tell the story of how wonderful this is. Here is one of ours anyway.
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