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Wednesday, June 4- Wandering around Rome
Due to the FAO Summit (we’ve been told it is a summit to help third world countries) that is happening in Rome, our bus had to drop us off at the Metro station and we had to take a subway into Rome. The traffic is crazy and the police have many roads blocked off around the main area. The Metro here is interesting, not as bad as London or New York but it’s not the cleanest of subways either. It took about 10 minutes to make it into the city on the Metro.
When we made it into Rome, we headed to an open-air market called Campo di Fiori. It was a very cute little market with fresh produce, meat, flowers, and seafood. We bought strawberries and Ryan had a pear. They were both amazing. There were many people buying what we could only imagine was dinner that night while walking their dogs. The dogs especially liked the booths with the meat! They even sold chicken with their feet still on.
We had lunch at a restaurant on the piazza at Sabys. It was a little touristy but we were both starving!
Ryan had a mushroom pizza and Nicole had a calzone. They were both ok, we could have probably found something better but the hunger pains had taken over!
After lunch, we headed to Piazza Navona. This is a very large piazza with three fountains. Bernini’s Four Rivers is in the middle but they are currently doing work on it. One side of the piazza is all marble buildings and the other very typical Roman buildings. There were many people selling paintings and stolen or fake Prada bags everywhere.
The next stop for the day was the Pantheon. Words can’t even describe how amazing this place is! It is the perfect place. The dome was the largest in the world until the 1960s and the inside is just beautiful. Raphael is buried here along with two Italian kings. The paintings on the walls are amazing and the light let in by the opening in the dome adds to the magic of the place. The piazza outside was very crowded with people but we managed to find some steps next to the fountain where we enjoyed our gelato while taking it all in.
After enjoying the Pantheon, we moved
to the northern part of Rome to Piazza del Popolo. On the way, we passed Alfredo, which is the home of fettuccine alfredo! Too bad a bowl was €18 (roughly $30!) We’ll only have to imagine what that tastes like. We made it to Piazza del Popolo which is a very large piazza. There are two very large domes one end, a beautiful fountain in the middle, and a movie being shot on the other end! Although we didn’t know any of the movie stars, there was quite the crowd and people were everywhere trying to catch a glimpse of the action. We decided instead to head up the enormous amount of stairs to the Pincio Gardens.
Once we made it to the Pincio Gardens, we immediately realized why they say this is the most romantic spot in Rome. The terrace looks out over Rome and you can see straight ahead to St. Peter’s and see back toward Ancient Rome. This was a truly amazing sight! We sat on a little bench to take a rest and figure out where we were headed next. It was a great place to just sit and enjoy oneself, minus the guys trying
to sell flowers and bracelets constantly.
We strolled along the overlooked down toward the area where we came to the Spanish Steps. Every book we have says what a tourist area this is and how there will be large numbers of people and the crowds are just crazy. They were all right! This place is CRAZY! Lucky for us, we were already at the top of the stairs and got to walk down them. We didn’t spend much time with the crowds; we headed straight down Via Condotti, the high-end shopping street, for a little window shopping. It’s a shame all of this shopping is WAY out of our budget! We could have done some serious damage.
After our window shopping, we were off to find the Trevi Fountain. This fountain was much like the Spanish Steps as far as the number of people but it is gigantic and breath-taking. We stayed and enjoyed ourselves for a while and even threw a coin into the fountain to assure that we would return to Rome one day.
We were starting to get hungry again (imagine that) and we tried to make our way back down toward Ancient Rome
where the Metro was. On the way we passed the Quirinale. From what we understand this is like the White House for Italy. We noticed that it was gated off and thought by some chance with the FAO Summit in town that maybe the president was coming home or something along those lines so we decided to check it out. We climbed the steps up to the piazza and sirens started going off behind us. We made it to the front steps just in time for the changing of the guard ceremony! We got to stand in the front row and watch the navy leave guard of the Quirinale as the Air Force took over guard. The ceremony was very neat to watch but their troops are very relaxed. I can only imagine what would happen to our troops or the British Armed Forces if they twitched and fidgeted like the Italian Armed Forces! None the less, it was still a very cool thing to just run across.
So back at it! We’re still hungry and the changing of the guard took about 45 minutes total. We ended up wondering up and down the little side streets to try
to figure out where we were going to eat. Being so close to the Coliseum, we didn’t want to get something with too many other tourists. We ended up at a little restaurant just 2 streets over from the Coliseum. Ryan had spaghetti with clams for his first course and veal saltimbocca for the second course. Nicole stuck with the lasagna from the first course menu. Unlike the Italians, we aren’t used to eating an appetizer, first course, second course, salad, and then dessert. Ryan tried to up his ante a little and did much better than Nicole.
With a little time to kill before we had to get back on the Metro, we strolled along the Coliseum all lit up at night. There was chill in the air so we stopped at a little café right across the street from the Coliseum and had some of the richest (and best) hot chocolate we’ve ever had. What a perfect ending to a great day.
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Shanna
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I would've totally tried to score a stolen Prada purse!! I feel like I'm in history class- makes me want to go. Hope you're having a fabulous time. Lots of love ~Shanna