Day Two: We had big plans. The Spanish Steps, Fontana Di Trevi, the Pantheon, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Vatican and Trastevere. The first three were in areas we hadn't really explored the day before and the last were all the way over the other side of the river so we drew a perfectly planned route on the map passing each one in the above order to ensure that we wouldn't get lost. The next stage of our planning was to come up with an outift that was suitable for St Peters Basilica at the Vatican - i.e. covered our knees and shoulders. This proved a difficult task (clearly we are both massive skanks) but eventually we worked something out, and headed off.
The first exciting thing we came across was The Quattro Fontane - an intersection with a fountain on each of the four corners. Of course this made it a little difficult to get a photo, but each fountain was really impressive and detailed. I'm glad we saw this before we came slightly desensitised to fountains.
We kept walking, passed some more fountains, ate our first panini, and easily came across the Spanish Steps. At the top of the steps were artists offering the usual - watercolours, caricatures etc. All the watercolours were gorgeous but we didn't really want one until we started talking to an Italian man who insisted on showing us his collection. The ones of Trastevere were so pretty that I couldn't help buying a tiny one.
The Spanish Steps were even more crowded than the Colosseum. It was a really cool sight actually, for some reason that day everyone was dressed in colourful clothing, making for a great scene.
After the Spanish Steps we walked down a road with all the designer label stores - it was so busy, how can travellers afford it? There was a LINE into Louis Vuitton for goodness sakes. I don't know.
We came to a sign that made us smile:
And shortly after we heard the sound of gushing water. The fountain was SO MUCH BIGGER than I expected. So so so much bigger. It was beautiful - and very, very, VERY crowded. We squeezed our way through and sat on the edge so we could throw a coin in and make a wish (to come back to Rome and find love).
Next stop was the Pantheon. We had a really awkward moment where we thought a different building was the Pantheon, and we couldn't work out where all the tourists were. But we quickly realised our mistake and discovered the real thing was just around the corner. Duh.
I don't know why, but the Pantheon kind of bored me. So I applied some effects to make it more exciting. Haha. Inside was amazing though. Apparantly the dome of the Pantheon was built in such a way that even modern architects still can't figure out.
After the Pantheon we had lunch (Pizza, yummm) then wandered towards Piazza Navona, which was, suprise suprise, another stunning place. I don't have any decent photos though, so you'll just have to visit yourself.
Just outside the Piazza was a man with 4 puppies, they were sooo cute and I just had to donate money, even though Amy said he just used them as a ploy for suckers like me. But it was worth it, I got to pat the baby Lab and he was so cute and soft. I think that was the distraction that got us sidetracked - we kept walking in what we thought was the direction of the river, but ended up back at the hostel. Oops. We were kind of grateful though, as the idea of three more tourist sites was a bit to much to bear. I was feeling a bit sick by that time, so we just went out to dinner, then bed (sleep came quickly due to the free limoncello shots our waiter gave to us).
Day three! We had to wear the same outfits as day two because they were all we had that were appropriate for the Vatican. So we felt a bit seedy about that. Our first goal of the day was to find the market so we could have a picnic in the park near our hotel that night. After hitting a few obstacles (the most important which will be discussed later with the rest of our Italian men experiences) we finally made it - and it was amazing! Leisure Coast, eat your heart out.
We caught the bus to Vatican and managed to get off at the correct stop - what an achievement, right? Vatican Square was pretty imposing.
I got changed into my nun outfit and we decided to take a tour of the Vatican instead of lining up - even though it cost 20eu more. It was a good idea though - like the Colosseum, we would have had no idea what we were looking out without someone to tell us. Our tour guide, an American girl, was pretty entertaining as well.
We walked through the Vatican Musuem and saw busts, sculptures, tapestries ... never ending really. The Vatican Museum is huge - fun fact: if you spent 1 minute looking at everything in there it would take you 13 years to see everything. My favourite was the Hall of Maps.
Finally we got to the Sistine Chapel which was what I had been looking forward to, but you weren't allowed to take photos inside. It wasn't what I had expected - for some reason I had thought it had a circular dome ceiling, but it was actually a rectangular shaped building, relatively narrow and very long. The fresco's were stunning, but you wouldn't want to tell Michelangelo that, apparantly he was a right jerk.
Ok, nearly finished, I promise. After the Sistine Chapel we went to St Peter's Basilica, where we really had to pull our skirts down low. It was MASSIVE (word of the day) and very holy... Excuse me for looking very unsaintly, I was a bit sick of photography at this point.
Castel Sant'Angelo was just around the corner from Vatican Square, but it cost a lot to enter so we didn't bother. There was a really awesome looking open bar that we could see from the bridge that would have been nice to have a drink at, if we weren't ready to collapse.
And that's that day done. All of Rome's major sights in three days. The boys we met on the bus home, our picnic dinner, and our consequent night out will be dealt with in a post specially dedicated to my birthday (and the dangers of strawberry vodka). It may have to be heavily censored though...for Amy's benefit. Hahaha.
Ti amo!
x
Karen
P.S. Sorry, I realised in the other blogs I accidentally disabled clicking on the picture to enlarge it. Its fixed from here on :)
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