Rome Day Three

Our last day in Rome I tried to get a few last shots of our new favorite city in the world. Unfortunately, it was so cloudy that the colors didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

Due to the crummy weather, we were having a hard time deciding exactly what we wanted to do on our last day. We had yet to see the Castle di St. Angelo...apparently there was a great view of the city from atop the castle, but we thought we would kill some time shopping around until the clouds burned off. After grabbing some breakfast, we walked the streets looking at all of the souveniers. We had already seen everything, but we wanted to be sure we didn't miss a single "knick-knack." As we reminisced about the past couple of days, Conner and Eddie were dreaming of being sculpted by Michaelangelo. These are the poses they decided they would have presented to him...

After bumming around for a couple of hours, we decided to hit up the Castle of St. Angelo. Over the years, it was used as a castle, a prison, a tomb, and a hideaway for the Pope. There is a walled pathway from the castle all the way to the Vatican. If the Pope was in danger, he could run all the way to the castle to seek refuge.

The view from the top was beautiful. But those darn clouds...

I loved seeing all of the old churchtops!

After the castle we were wondering where to go next. Eddie asked, "What time is it?" Someone replied, "noon." Eddie response-"Oh good; we can eat!" Luckily it was lunchtime since, apparently, we had become so desperate for something to do.

Before lunch, we allowed Rick "Ricky" Steves to take us on a quick tour of the Pantheon (the temple to all gods). The Pantheon was built in 126 AD. All of the columns lining the entrance to the Pantheon are one, solid piece of granite. Not only are they one piece, they were brought overseas to this very spot. We kept asking, "how did they do that?" Rick, the man with all the answers, didn't let us down..."an unlimited number of slaves."

This is the dome to the heavens. It is 142 feet high. The light of the sun shines right into the center of the temple. It was pretty incredible.

The Pantheon also houses the tomb of the infamous painter, Raphael. Together, with Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael forms the trinity of great masters of that period. 

Following the tour, we ate a grilled pizza, an Italian favorite, on the steps of the fountain in front of the Pantheon.

 

And...another gelatto. Giolitti's was PACKED! Apparently this gelatto is world famous so we had to try it. Between the four of us we got mint, chocolate, oreo, strataccieli, banana, pineapple, and grapefruit. The flavors tasted  EXACTLY like the real thing; there were even mint leaves in the gelatto. It was fun to try, but we decided our favorite place was the gelatto we had just outside Vatican City.

We walked and shopped around the rest of the evening. We revisited the Trevi Fountain once again, found an emergency bathroom for myself, and then walked to a popular piazza, the Piazza del Popolo. There was live music and "free" entertainment. We had an enjoyable time for a while and then decided it was time for dinner....we must have needed something else to do.

We learned quickly that there wasn't a bad place to eat in Italy. Everything was fabulous. We even tried asking the locals, "Where should we eat?" They would laugh and say, "Anywhere!" The boys weren't too fond of the restaurant this night, however...the waiter kept telling them how good-looking Kylee and I were. It was flattering the first time, but by the 3rd comment, Eddie was pretty upset. I think it might have even ruined his meal. My pizza, on the other hand, was delicious!

We all agreed that we ate too much after dinner. So...we got gelatto.