Summer 2014: Return to Europe: When in Rome... Sightsee!

Today we followed through on our plans to see many famous sights of Rome. We began with the Pantheon, where we ended up getting a guided tour in and around the building. Of course, Raphael is buried there, so we saw his tomb, as well as some statues of the gods. There is also an obelisk across the street, one of several the Romans took from Egypt way back when. Most of them are still in Rome!

When we had finished taking pictures there, we went back to Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a nearby basilica that our guide had showed us. Aside from being a beautiful Gothic cathedral, I also really liked it because it was nice and cool inside! "Sopra Minerva" means "over Minerva," so this basilica for Mary seems to have been built over an old Roman temple to Minerva... except it was actually a temple of Isis, but by then the church had already named it, so they just kept it.

We continued on to the Piazza Navona, finding lots of fountains and even a couple more obelisks. The pigeons here made for some very amusing pictures, the way they were sitting on various statues' heads or standing perfectly still like they were part of the scene.

On our way to Trevi Fountain, we stopped by the church of Santa Maria Maddalena. Again, it was nice to be inside! This was a baroque cathedral, a nice change as there was more gold and more colorful murals.

When we got to Trevi Fountain, we were disappointed to find a fence up around it, making it much more difficult to toss coins in. Still, we gave it a shot anyway, only to miss each time. Mine bounced off the rim of the fountain! I was so mad.

From there we went to the nearby Spanish Steps, which were a lot smaller in person. Not that my legs have recovered from the Duomo, but I think I could have run up them more easily than I imagined. Of course, it would have been difficult with all the tourists in the way.

From there we took the metro to the Colosseum! Naturally there was a ton of scaffolding (seriously, I think they're redoing every major monument in Europe right now), but I can still definitely see how it influenced Ohio Stadium. We also wanted to check out the Roman Forum, but it had already closed for the day.

We went back to the same restaurant as last night for dinner, right across the street from our hotel. Normally we wouldn't do the same thing twice so we could experience more of the local flavor (literally), but we really liked our waiter last night, and he even remembered us when he saw us this morning. So we returned, where he greeted us happily and asked how our day had been and if we got good pictures. He even brought us ice for our drinks, which was amazing! It's funny how much you can miss a little thing like that in just a couple of weeks. He's a really fun guy, and I'm sure we'll be eating there again before we go.