Rome: Day 2

On Saturday, we got up and ate our delicious complimentary breakfast...(okay, actually, it was kinda a whole lot of carbs, nasty juice and some weirdly flavored Italian yogurt. Needless to say, we were hungry every morning)...

We started off with a walk up the hill by our hotel. We stumbled across this monument of some sort and Brad wanted to get a better look so, he hopped the fence and went in! Wellll....apparently he wasn't supposed to. See those guys on the right of the picture? They're chewing Brad out, in Italian. Hilarious. 

After enjoying the monument from the correct side of the candy-stripped tape, we kept wandering up the hill & seriously -- the views from our spot were breathtaking. Buon Giorno, Rome! 

We ended up walking along a skinny, one lane, road (with traffic going both ways) where the cars were literally a foot away from us, flying past, all while sharing the road with pedestrians & bikers. It was insanity! I did decide I could live on this road though...the houses were incredible (although, they were all blocked by huge cast iron gates...) 

Except, I don't think I would want to be their neighbors. Cah-reeeepy! 

Italians are notorious for their wild parking. I always wonder how the inside cars get out, if they're blocked in...? Life long puzzlement. This was just one side of the street. They leave a small narrow space in the middle of the street for cars who are actually driving. 

Finally! We made it to Saint Peter's Basilica. 

Did you know? If you stand on this circle in the middle of the square - it gives the optical illusion that all the columns are lined up perfectly straight!? Neato, right? 

Next, we hiked up the stairs to the top of the dome.

This guy was sitting so patiently at the top, just asking to have his picture taken! 

There were oodles and oodles of people up on top so we didn't stay too long before we headed back down and into the church. 

We tend to spend a lot of time...looking UP...while we're in these churches. The ceilings are just so incredibly beautiful! 

{okay...this one was down! such fun tiles!}

Rumor has it that St. Peter's tomb is directly below this memorial. Like, THE St. Peter. That's pretty fascinating! 

St. Peter's is also home to Pieta. It is a Renaissance statue carved by Michelangelo depicting Christ laying across his Mother, Mary's, lap after the crucifixion. Despite the hundreds of people, in the church, you can easily feel a sense of spiritual peace.  

If you rub the foot of St. Peter you'll be granted good luck! Umm, yes please!! 

After seeing all we could see, we headed back out side to get one last look at the cute Swiss guards & to send Kason a postcard from the Post Office. The Vatican City is quite unique, in the fact that they are their own little city-state, right in the middle of Rome. They have their own post office, mint their own euros, print their own postage stamps, and they even have their own flag and anthem! Crazy to think they do all of that within their 2-mile city. 

Then we headed over to the Museum! Fun Fact: there used to be secret passageways that you could take from the Basilica to the Museums but, they're not longer accessible to civilians. Lame. 

Because I had been to the museums before, I hardly took any pictures...

But, I did love these floor tiles. 

And how this statue looked like she was taking a 'selfie' ...

And how, in this wall-painting, if you looked at it straight on, you couldn't see the face, but if you look at if from a side angle, you could totally see the hidden face. Can you see the face? 

And of course the ever-famous spiral staircase. It's just so fun, I can't pass up a picture op!

We wandered across the street to have lunch at this super yummy, organic deli. They had the best bread!! They have smoothies, juices, salads and sandwiches. Highly recommend this little joint. Incredibly affordable, too!  

After finishing lunch, we made our way over to the Spanish Steps, got some more gelato (sadly, not GROM, I couldn't betray my ice cream love so, only Brad got some gelato this time...), and wandered the fancy-schmancy shopping streets. I love window shopping and realizing that people spend 2000-euro on a purse. Seriously? No thank you. It helps me feel very financially wise. Anyway! The Spanish Steps...

We wandered, and wandered, and wandered some more before we ended up, back on our side of the river for dinner. It was really nice to just meander through Rome with my love. I think I really loved this trip with him, even though Rome isn't my favorite big city. 

Dar Poeta was in our neck of the woods. The wait was insane. Like over an hour. But we were starving and it was supposed to be delish. So we waited. 

This is so typical of an Italian night: dimly lit cobblestone streets with graffitied walls, people wandering with gelato, mopeds parked off to the side and a little bit of cigarette smoke clouding the air. Strange perfection. 

Our pizza was alright. It was no where near as good as the pizza the night before & I don't know that it was worth the 60+ minute wait. But, it was food. And Italian pizza at that, so I couldn't complain. After dinner we grabbed some gelato and headed back to the hotel, passing some pot smokers on the way. Rome is fabulous.