We started the next day pretty early.
Hans said we were going on a walking tour together. Our first stop of the day
was at the Pantheon. The outside of it was pretty unassuming and a little
decrepit in spots. The front was better but everything was pretty well worn.
The inside was beautiful though. The coffered dome ceiling was stunning and
better than I imagined it to be. I got an amazing panorama of everything that
impressed everyone. There wasn’t much to do here so we went to the next stop.
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| Pantheon |
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| Interior of the Pantheon |
We went to the Piazza Navona which was a
nice example of city/space planning and axial alignments. Just around the
corner from the piazza was a church called Santa Maria della Pace. It was a
small church that maximized the space around by butting up against the neighboring
buildings. It was a unique architectural challenge. The church itself was just
okay though. The funny part was seeing 40 people with skiing sticks (except
made to walk on land) and snow gear all walk into this church. It was a funny
sight.
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| Sant'Agnese in Agone |
Next, we crossed the Tiber River to the
Castel Sant’Angelo. It is a famous landmark that is built on the banks of the
Tiber River. It was cool looking but we didn’t go inside because we didn’t want
to waste time with a guided tour. Our next stop was much more interesting
anyway. Hans got our group together and told us what we were doing but said we
weren’t doing it altogether because we would get split up anyway. We were
grateful for that and broke up into our subgroups and walked down the street
the Vatican City.
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| Castel Sant'Angelo |
There were so many people. Thousands.
Tens of Thousands. Maybe even more. After going through security and finding a
spot it was time to listen to Pope Francis give his weekly address. Looking out
from his bedroom window he addressed the masses at St. Peter’s Square about his
trip to Mexico and his request for the death penalty to be suspended for the
year. He ended with a prayer. I found out what he was saying later on from a
CNN article because I couldn’t understand Italian. It was such an awesome experience
to listen to the Pope speak at the Vatican. Cross that on off my bucket list!
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| St. Peter's Basilica and Square |
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| Pope Francis |
We did our best to beat the masses into
the Basilica di San Pietro (better known as St. Peter’s Church). It is the
largest church in the world and it felt like it. It was so beautiful and so
ornate. A friend in our group decided to attend mass (which I’m sure is a
bucket list item of hers) so the rest of looked around and waited. Once we met
back up we wanted to go to the dome. So up the steps we went all 551 of them.
It was a challenge in itself but the reward was worth it, a thousand times
over. You could see all of Rome from the top. It was a breathtaking experience.
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| Interior of St. Peter's Basilica |
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| St. Peter's Square from the Dome |
After making our way down and a short
break in between, we stopped at a gift shop for postcards. Following that we
mailed them straight from the Vatican City post office. It was an opportunity
we couldn’t pass up. Seeing as none of us had eaten at that point, it was time
for food. We had an idea of where we wanted to go so we grabbed a bite to eat
on the way. I had pizza again which was just as good if not better than last
night. Once we were done, we continued on our way to Santa Maria in Travestere.
It was a medium sized church in a nice neighborhood. Nothing outlandish, just
charming. From there, we walked across the river and passed through Tiber
Island which wasn’t that special. Since it was dark at the point we went back
to the Colosseum to photograph.
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| Santa Maria in Travestere |
Once we got to the Colosseum the cloud
cover had cleared out which left a pretty much full moon behind. We got some
absolutely beautiful shots. While we were there we saw a guy renting out
two-seater four-wheel bicycles cars. I don’t really have a better term than
that for it. He was closing soon so we talked him down from €20 to €7. So the
three of us fit on this 2 person bike and rode around the Colosseum for half an
hour. It was the funniest thing. People were enviously staring at us. We had a
lot of fun and we even raced a jogger though he beat us in the end.
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| Colosseum |
We got back to the hotel to regroup and
we went back out to a bar called Cioccolata e Vino which offered shots in
chocolate shot “glasses.” They were very good but a little pricey for the size
they were. After spending maybe 20 minutes there we decided to go to a bar and
relax. I sat back and unwound with a White Russian. After sipping our drinks
for a while, we headed back out to the Trevi Fountain. It is almost midnight at
this point. Once we got to the fountain, there were only about 50 people there
which was a lot better than yesterday. The fountain photographed very well due
to it being lit up. Once we took all the pictures we could it was time to head
back to the hotel and call it a night. This might have been my favorite day so
far on my abroad trip. It was jammed pack and full of fun things. Hopefully it
stays this way!
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| Trevi Fountain |
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