A Beautiful day and off we go...
... to battle the ticket machine.
It cannot make it's mind up which notes it takes, the body of the machine cleanly depicting every note, and the screen stubbornly showing only a 10 and 5 euro note or a 1 euro coin.
You can guess which won.
As a bonus, there is so much water in Rome they do give it away for free! Who doesn't love FREE STUFF! Even if we can get it from a tap - still love it! Choice of sparkling is an especially nice touch.
First stop is the old forum built bu Augustus. The Knights of St Johns built their monastery/headquarters on top, so to excavate it, they destroyed most of the knights building in the process.
The second unscheduled pit stop of the day! A gorgeous building we nosey-ed around just because. It is a dedication to the soldiers of Rome, and fittingly, by two lovely columns with flames spouting out, are two armed soldiers as still as statues. Unfortunately those photos are on the phone which went doen the toilet, so let's imagine :)
So next up! Ryans plan of the day. The Pantheon.
It was a stunning building, although converted to Christianity instead of the pagan gods - It would have been interesting to see it originally!
Slide Show alert!
A few of us!
The outside was a typical square.
Fountain? Yes!
Horse and carts? Yes!
Restaurants? Yes!
Cool we covered it.
Next up, we wondered past a church and decided to nip in.
It turned out to be the French National Church - very pretty.
This was all on the way to Ryan's next idea of what we should see. Piazza Navona!
Beautifully intricate fountains, a host of colourful street artists and many tourists like us wondering around to get the best photos, or soaking up the sun and listining to the music that seems to follow you around.
They say the whole area was a hippodrome, (a stadium for chariot races) which was abandoned in the middle ages when all went dark.
You can imagine the curves of the track with the end fountains in each curve.
Starting with the impressive center fountain: Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, supposedly featuring the rivers Nile, Ganges, Danube and Plate.
I am not sure what the rest are, but we enjoyed them regardless :)
Then we wondered streets, saw lots of cute shops, and interesting bits... Pinocchio's shop was well worth a look!
Congratulations to whoever decided a chocolate wall fountain was a good idea in this ice cream shop - SOLD!
I was fascinated by the graffiti artists - amazing paintings. I didn't take many photos because it looks a bit conspicuous :)
Final stop on the agenda - The Trevi Fountain!
So I had not prior expectations. My reaction was a
'Woahhhh! Its huge and beautiful and intricated and I could sit here all day.'
By now it was time to try Pizza in the center- it was good, but it does not yet beat Tony's!
We made it back and decided to attempt a cup of tea.
We had kindly been left a vast array of different ones, but with no kettle, this was a situation to be solved.
And solved it was!
Much love x
