Roma – Day 3

Today we started out late, so we missed our free breakfast.  We decided to head out towards the Vatican and grab breakfast.  I had crepes with Nutella and strawberries and A.C.E. drink.  We then walked the shopping streets North of the Vatican and eventually towards Popolo to Via Margutta, which wasn’t as filled with art as I had expected.

We eventually walked to Piazza Navona, which is a large square filled with artists and a beautiful fountain. There are restaurants and old buildings enclosing the long square. There are also many street performers, although most were not unique. The art was nice, although price in comperison to Paris or Venice.

We continued on to the nearby Pantheon.  The Pantheon was impressive with its large dome and ancient pillars...it was neat to see in person.

After the Pantheon we returned to Trastevere to check out some of the sites we missed the night before. We went to S. Maria basillica, which was quite impressive on the inside. We also ventured up the hill to check out a couple fountains. The views at the top of the hill are nice, and the Fonte Acqua Paola is an impressive fountain.

We went back down the hill to get a bite to eat. In the end we decided to keep walking and walked back to the Vatican, back into the city center, and eventually back across the island into Trastevere. I wanted to give Dawn the experience of finding a place to eat, which she was not fond of an kept walking out of the area. Anyway, we went back to Trastevere and had a nice dinner with wine.

We decided to return to the hotel via bus along the parkway. Unfortunately, we didn't find the exact bus stop and kept walking. We then walked and walked some more. Eventually we must have walked the wrong way because we were in the middle of a parkway far from our hotel. So, we walked and walked some more until we were back in residential area and could find our hotel. It is good that we had a detailed map; it was bad that the streets are often not labeled as nicely. Either way, we were able to see a lot of SW Roma :-)