Rome 2005
We spent a lovely few days in Rome with Shirley's Mum and Dad in February 2005. This was to continue the celebratations for Dad's 70th birthday. The weather was very kind to us and we walked our socks off! We stayed at the Hotel Torino which was really nice and highly recommended.
So ... map in hand our first stop was the Quirinale Square and palace (outside only).
From there we wandered off to the Trevi Fountain - it's huge - much bigger than we expected it to be but that goes for a lot of the things we saw in Rome. Walking round Rome takes ages because every time you turn a corner, there is something else to admire!
A quick look at the map to decide where to go next ...

... and we wandered off for dinner in the Via di Repetta while we planned our afternoon.
We wanted to get away from the tourists for a while and found a very nice restaurant called Trattoria al Gran Sasso - a mix of dictionary Italian and their English found us some lovely food.
We decided on the Spanish Steps as our next port of call
The boat shaped fountain drew the crowds and the steps provided a good place to sit and have a rest for many a weary traveller.
As I mentioned above, wherever we went there was something to look at, even if it wasn't something famous - here are some sundry pictures that we saw whilst wandering around.
Parking in Rome has to be seen to be believed - if there's no space you just double (or treble) park) - no-one seemed to fall out about it while we were around but goodness only knows how some of them got their cars out again!
Believe it or not, we are still on Day 1 (and we only arrived late morning). Our next scheduled stop was at the Pantheon - again, an amazing building and much bigger than we had imagined. However ...on the way there we noticed that the Church of San Louis of France was open so we called in to have a look and were stunned by its beauty.

The dove on the right was above the pulpit - the way the lights caught it was amazing. The church was well lit so we didn't need to use flash for these photos.

The dragon (below left) was on the wall outside.
Finally, we got to the Pantheon. To use an Americanism - it was awesome. The last of the 6 pictures gives you an idea of just how big it is.
Our final call for Day 1 was Piazza Navona where we enjoyed a well earned cuppa and then walked back to our hotel (in the dark!)
 
Day 2
  

We spent the whole of the second day in the Vatican - mainly in St Peter's Square and the Basilica but also had a quick walk down to the river. The Vatican Museum was closed so we couldn't get in there to see the gardens, Sistine chapel etc. so we've got a really good excuse to go back another day to see those.

The square and the outside of the Basilica were really impressive ...

... and the inside of the Basilica rendered us speechless - what a magnificent building!!
As you can see, the ceilings were pretty special ...
... the floors were very ornate as well ...
... not to mention the altar area and the statues (even the walls were ornate!)
Dad, Jonathon and Shirley went to the top of the cupola - Mum went as far as the top of the lift went but decided the stairs were not for her. They were very sloping in parts and the last bit of the climb was a circular stairway (see below right) with only a rope to hang on to (and that wasn't very well secured!)
The two pictures above were taken from about half way up - the mosaics were all around the tower, the two pictures on the right were taken from the top of the lift journey.
The rest of the pictures in this section are from the top of the tower/cupola - the colours in Rome are lovely and the top of the cupola on a clear sunny day is a good place to view them.
It's also a good place to get a bird's eye view of the "square" and appreciate the symmetry of the design.
Shirley and Jonathon also went back after tea (local restaurant called Smeraldo that made excellent pasta, pizza and veal dishes ) to take photos of the lights.
The metro stopped working sooner than we anticipated so we ended up going back to the hotel by bus - another excellent day and so to bed to get ready for tomorrow.
 
Day 3
  

Our last day and we feel like we haven't even scratched the surface of this amazing city. There is so much to see and do but a trip to Rome wouldn't be even nearly complete without a trip to the colosseum and forum areas.

Again, the colosseum was much bigger than we expected it to be and quite fascinating. You could imagine it being filled with thousands of people - the noise, the smells etc. with the gruesome activities going on in the arena.
We only had a very short time to wander quickly round a small part of the forum area - another good excuse to come back again to explore some more.
The first two arch pictures are of the Arch of Constantine, the third picture is the Arch of Titus (we think) - we didn't have a guide book or much time so some of this bit is guess work!
The picture on the left is a view from the colosseum. The next 3 are of the Santa Francesca Romana - the belltower is wonderful.
The next three pictures are of the Basilica Contantine e Maxentius - another "ginormous" structure.
Of course, some folk just stand and gaze at the sights - taking it all in before it's time to go back home.

We really need to go back and spend a lot more time in this area (or Rome in general really) as there is loads more to see and learn about.

Maybe some day .....

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