Day 12 – Touring Roma on our own

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Day 12 - Touring Roma on our own

Today we jumped on the underground line A which is very close to our Hotel, Massimo D'Azeglio to reach the Spagna station near the Spanish Steps. Although Rome only has an A and B line underground, I highly recommend it to reach the area around the Colosseum or the area around Piazza del Popolo. You can buy a ticket for one EURO that is good for around 70 minutes or you can buy tickets for longer periods of time. All other areas will require footwork or the bus. You can also buy a ticket for the open tour buses that run a circle around the important tourist stops in Rome. A one day pass is ten EURO and a two-day pass is fourteen EURO. With this pass, you can get on or off as many times a day you want.

We walked up the Spanish Steps to reach the cathedral at the top of the hill. The obelisk in front of the church was being renovated so the view up the steps to the cathedral was impaired. Regardless, the view from the cathedral was wonderful.

From the Piazza di Spagna, we walked through the shop and cafe lined side streets until we reached a huge piazza called, Piazza del Popolo. This part of Rome contains all the high end shops in the world. Piazza del Popolo connects the ancient entrance to Rome, the second oldest obelisk, many historic statues, two small churches named Santa Maria del Popolo (of the people), and sits at the base of where the Borghese gardens begin. We climbed the stairs and paths of the hill to where we had a wonderful view of the city. We could see St. Peter's basilica from there.

After we tired of the view, we ventured back down to the city to find a cafe for a late lunch and then back to the hotel for our afternoon siesta.

For dinner we decided to find the Hard Rock Cafe we saw the previous day when we passed the heavily guarded US Embassy. We jumped on the underground and walked a little to find the American friendly Hard Rock. We ate nachos, hamburgers, cajun chicken, BBQ, and more nachos and hamburgers. This was a nice stop to break the continual local fare. Don't get me wrong, I loved all the food while in Italy, but we did need a break to make the local fare even better. We noticed that the US Embassy was very quite even though there were still many Italian security surrounding the outlining streets.

We all went to bed early as we had to be in the coach at 7:00am the next morning to begin our assault on the Vatican museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's basilica.

EPI Notes:
Since our group was smaller and we couldn't muster enough traveler's, the Pompeii trip was canceled. We didn't sign up due to the time and cost commitment. It was over 100 EURO, and took up the whole day. One couple arranged a trip to Pompeii and loved it.

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Photos

Cathedral on Left
Piazza del Popolo had two churches connect to it.

The other fountain and sculpture on piazza
If you look real hard you will see Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, being suckled by the mother wolf.

At the Hard Rock
I think they feel right at home.