Rome, Italy

I had the fortunate opportunity to go to Rome twice last year. One of my favorite places to visit was Piazza Navona. This is Fiumi Fountain that was in the movie Angels and Demons with Tom Hanks. Only they did not film on location, the whole scene was done elsewhere or on a set. The food and entertainment here was outstanding!

Fiumi Fountain by John Wolff, on Flickr

 

A shot of the Roman Forum

Roman Forum by John Wolff, on Flickr

 

Here is an early morning shot of the Trevi Fountain. I was surprised at the number of people that were milling about at 4:45 am.

Trevi Fountain by John Wolff, on Flickr

 

Here is one from walking inside the Roman Forum. The history in Rome is incredible.

Roman Forum by John Wolff, on Flickr

 

everyone should visit italy at least once in their lifetime, rome is chaotic, dirty, loud, quiet, unbelievably historic, the people are warm, friendly, the food is great, and folklore has it that if you stand at the trevi fountain, and throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain somehow, someday you will return to rome, the eternal city. it is absolutely astounding how much history is within about a compact walkable 2 square miles. so yeah, i loved every minute of it

 

LOL! It was just a 4 minute walk from the hotel to the fountain, wanted some time with no one around, funny that I had to deal with people. There is a police officer stationed at the fountain 24/7. He actually made me move my tripod back as they don't want anything but the coins thrown in.

 

I could not agree with you anymore Gary. From where I stayed in April, I could walk to pretty much everything, up to and including St. Peter's Square. My wife told me that I would be amazed at the history there as we have nothing like that here in the US. She was right about that.

 

Here is one from the daytime. I have to look and see if I took a shot from farther back to show how it looks like Main Street USA on New Years by the fountain.

Trevi Fountain by John Wolff, on Flickr

 

The Pantheon is a temple/church that was finished in 126 AD (or near there). This was just 2 blocks in the opposite direction from the Trevi Fountain. From the hotel it was about a 4 minute walk and the food at the restaurantes that are around it was fantastic. There was this mime that was hilarious in the evenings, just picking on all the people that were walking past as this was a very high traffic area.

Pantheon by John Wolff, on Flickr

 

approaching the pantheon after walking over from piazza navonna, by way of giolitti's gelateria, without doubt the finest gelato in rome, the line was out the door in the middle of the day but moved fast, if i had known ahead of time john i would have pushed you to go there, it's only 2 blocks away and one over from the pantheon, i use the streetwise folding laminated maps quite a bit, they are very good for european cities



aah, here it is, i knew i had a photo of a sign pointing the way to giolitti's

 

inside the pantheon, the mid roof ocular made it quite bright inside for photos

 

as you can see, the trevi fountain in mid day is hugely popular, i did not grab anything of the spanish steps, they were covered at the top in scaffolding for some restoration ongoing at the time, 2007

 

this is inside st peters, it is huge, it's so hard to convey the inside scale without seeing it yourself, this is a set of steps down to the grotto where many popes are interred, i did not take a photo of him, i thought this was too bizarre, even for my sense of humor, but off to my right and down a side corridor just a few feet is a dead pope under glass, full length under glass, something to do with him not decomposing as part of the steps towards becoming a saint?? he is deeply green though

 

indeed, looks like a banner for a brewhouse, the italians make and appreciate some great beers, i had more than one great cold one at a sidewalk cafe on this trip, this was the very first disney european cruise, on the wonder out of barcelona

 

for a little bit of scale, this is the main alter in st peter's



and st peters square from the top of the steps exiting the church

 

the front in the morning, we took the train from civitavechia port into rome and got off at the st pietro station, right outside the vatican walls, that is the security point line to the left, too long so we came back about 5pm, breezed right through in less than 5. we did not have to be back to the ship until 2 am, so we had a nice long day in rome

 

@gary I am pretty sure we connected through Facebook about that Gellato place, only I could not find it. As for the Trevi Fountain, that shot you had has about 20% of the people that are there now. It is wall to wall people in that entire place, thus the trip at 4:45 am

 

As for beer? I did not think there would be that many different beers as we don't have too many Italian beers here in the US. That being said, I was way off on that, during the two trips (April and July) I tried 69 new beers!