Day 8: Arriving in Rome
Our final stop of our Italy 2013 trip was the ancient city of Rome. As was a pretty typical practice, upon our arrival and finding our way to our fantastic accommodations, we broke out some maps and travel books to plan our excursion.
Our first outing took us down the Spanish Steps...
Then on to Trevi Fountain...
Of course we stopped for our daily quota of gelato. This may be a bold statement, but Giolitti's was probably the best we had during the whole trip. Really unique flavors and super tasty! Raspberry and champagne...YUM!
Then we continued to meander through the streets of Rome and made our way to The Pantheon...
It was a short walk from there to Piazza Novona to see the Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) by Bernini and the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Carlo Rainaldi and others.
After perusing the art market and making some snazzy purchases, we moved on over to the Campo de'Fiori area to get some authentic Roman pizza and libations.
 |
| Zucchini blossoms! |
 |
| Pantheon |
 |
| Trevi Fountain |
Day 9: Ancient Rome and More!
No trip to Rome is complete without a spin through the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. I had actually been to the Colosseum during a People to People trip in high school, but it was even more awesome this time around since we had plenty of time to really explore and learn about the facility. We also spent a lot of time meandering through the Forum and learning about the structure and drama of Ancient Rome. Definitely glad we had our trusty Rick Steve's guide book to help explain all the sites and history. Reading out of a book to friends is a lot more fun than half-listening to a guided tour by a stranger.
 |
| Entering the Colosseum.... |
Lots of cool things to see within the forum! Temples, palaces, monuments...you could probably spend one whole day there and not see everything...not to mention they're still excavating!!!
 |
| Stadium area towards the back of the Forum that was used for sports & daily exercise |
 |
| Taking in the views of the Vatican - St. Peter's dome is off in the distance |
There was also plenty of time for touristy pictures!!!
|
| Colosseum |
 |
| Roman Forum |
 |
| Capitoline Hill (with a very capitol Foof!) |
Day 10: Our final hoorah!
We began our final day in Rome by heading to a beautiful open air market back over in the Campo de Fiori (where we'd had pizza two night prior). We shopped for tasty fruit and souvenirs, and then started to search for a nearby luncheon spot to escape the afternoon sun and heat. Little did we know we would be making some of the best memories of our trip at this lunch!!!
We of course turned to our Rick Steve's guide book to help assist us in our restaurant decision, and found "Trattoria Der Pallaro" in a quite, small square (as seen below). A small, unassuming restaurant...
 |
| Picture courtesy of Google Maps - Streetview |
Our friend Jeremy was reading directions to the location from the guidebook as we approached the restaurant. Once we found someone to ask about getting a table they said in gestures "Hold on, one moment...". They returned with the head cook from the kitchen who immediately recognized our book with a loud "Ah! Rick Steve's!!!" followed by a string of Italian. She was so excited to see that we had found her restaurant through our guidebook and immediately took the book and flipped to a page with her picture on it! We snapped her picture with her picture! Too fun!
Then we sat down to the meal of a lifetime!!! The motto of this restaurant is "You eat what we make you", so we ate...a lot...5 courses! Anti-pasti to start, then a cheesy pasta dish (which we were properly instructed to eat by the chef's husband...see Jeremy below!), followed by a couple meat courses, and then dessert - delicious cake that we were instructed to dip in our white wine! YUM! Finally topped off with a tiny shot of pure, fresh strawberry juice. Needless to say, we were stuffed!!!
 |
| Gotta get ALL the cheese from the bowl! |
 |
| One final shot of fruit juice to top it all off. |
The crowds weren't too bad that day, so we didn't have to stand in line long to get into St. Peter's Basilica. We spent quite a bit of time strolling through the church - checking out all the altars and tombs and sculptures and paintings and gigantic glory!!! Truly a unique site to see on a seriously grand scale.
 |
| St. Peter's Square - No pope sightings |
 |
| Inside St. Peter's - pondering the artwork and the meaning of life |
After touring the church and the crypts below, we then made our way to the Vatican Museum (after stopping for a gelato break, of course!). We went to the museum on a night when it would be open late, so it wasn't too crazy crowded and we had a decent amount of time to go through all the rooms. However, this still was not enough time to really even begin to take in the massive collection of art and cultural artifacts at the Vatican. Hallways and galleries go on forever!!!
 |
| FAVORITE! |
We did manage to find my favorite sculpture, Laocoön and His Sons, and of course took a spin through the Sistine Chapel (I could sit there for hours!).
And with that, we concluded our final day in Rome and sadly our last day in Italy. Such an incredible trip with the best travel buddies you could ever ask for! This was an incredible way to spend my little vacation time between the 2nd and 3rd year of medical school. Certainly a trip none of us will ever forget!!! 4 awesome cities, 4 fantastic friends, and one incredible proposal!
The End
Love some of your pictures, and copied a couple. I like the Trevi at night photo a lot. Liked your comments about reading from the Rick Steves books. We'll have to try that ourselves. Overall, it looks like you had a fantastic trip. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete