June 8, 2:00 pm, Home B&B
Well, once I finally fell asleep last night, I did get a good amount of sleep. I woke up around 10, checked email, and had some breakfast. Then I went back to bed because I was still so tired. Slept about 3.5 more hours. While I was asleep, Alfred made plans of what he wanted to do for the rest of our Rome stay, which was AWESOME because I am totally a plans-oriented individual. He decided that today he would like to take a walking tour of the area across the Tiber east of Vatican city in North Rome and the Pantheon Neighborhood. There are a lot of monuments, ancient buildings, and piazzas there that were recommended by our Rick Steve's Pocket Rome guidebook. So, now we're about to set off!
June 8, 2:00-6:00 pm, Walking Tour of North Rome and Pantheon Neighborhood
We took our walking tour, which was really cool. We were able to see several different areas, which would take forever for me to list, so I'm just going to give the highlights. As Alfred joked on the walking tour today, the best part of our guidebook is we can use it to remember what it is that we saw and took pictures of ;-). That's certainly true, and it has come in handy even as I have worked to set these thoughts down tonight.
We saw the Spanish steps, which are GORGEOUS. I love the effect of those white steps leading up to the church and all of the flowers planted along the way up them. So beautiful. Also, we were able to see the Fontana di Trevi, which is famous place where people throw in a coin (the story says that if you throw one in you will return to Rome one day). The fountain was pretty cool because it is in front of a building whose facade looks like it is hewn out of the rough rock at the base and as though all of the statues and the fountain itself were all carved out of a giant stone. Further along, as we approached the Pantheon, we noticed Tazza D'Oro (a coffee bar that my friend Sarah had recommended) and I stopped for a cappuccino. It was phenomenal! The best I've ever had! Then we saw the Pantheon, and actually went inside. It is pretty incredible to realize just how much history is housed in that one building.
We took a break here to go to a bookbinder's shop that Sarah had told me about. She regretted not getting herself a leather bound journal when she had traveled to Rome last year, and asked me if I would be willing to go get one for her. The shop was so cool, once we found it. It was this tiny little shop, and had some really interesting book and paper/writing goods. I found a journal that matched the description she had given me, and Alfred bought himself a wax seal with a C and a smaller spiral bound journal for me that has butterflies and this amazing matte paper cover. He had told me to find something for my birthday present in Italy, and I was happy to have found the journal which I will love using in the future.
We went back to the walking tour, and at some point later on, we went into Chiesa de San Luigi dei Francesi, which was a church that housed not one but three original Caravaggio paintings of different scenes from the life of Matthew. I have always wanted to see a Caravaggio, so that was pretty neat. Then we went to Piazza Navona, which was a huge piazza that, in addition to fountains and such also had a large artist population selling their wares. While we were in the piazza, we watched a man doing spray paint art that was really impressive. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. Very cool. Then we headed to Campo de Fiori, which had some gorgeous flowers sold by the vendors.
June 8, around 7:00 pm, Pizzeria Del Poeta
For dinner, we crossed the Tiber into the Travestere section of the city, and went in search of Pizzeria Del Poeta, another recommendation of Sarah, for dinner. I'm so glad we found it! The food was FANTASTIC! We ordered bruchetta and split a pizza and the house white wine. The pizza was a white sauce pizza with mushrooms and soft sausage. Most delicious! Sarah's recommendations are now 3 for 3!
June 8, around 8:00 pm, Santa Maria di Travestere
After dinner, we spent some time walking in circles trying to find this church. Once we finally made it, we went inside and listened to the organ music for awhile, leaving shortly before a silent prayer service was about to start. As we walked out, our attention was caught by a trio of street performers playing a bass fiddle, a guitar, and an accordion. We sat on the steps around the fountain in the piazza to listen for awhile before heading back for the night.
June 8, 10:30 pm, Home B&B
Back for the night, after quite the excursion trying to figure out bus and metro routes back to our B&B. We ended up on a bus that took us to Termini, the main metro station in Rome, the opposite direction of our destination. Then we took the metro to Cipro, the nearest stop to our B&B. From there we started walking back but saw the 990 bus headed toward our destination so we chased it down and climbed on. Trust me, it was worth it to avoid climbing all the way up the hill on the way back! It is a long, long steep hill! We actually got off of the bus one stop too early, but were able to find our way back, and in fact arrived the same time as the bus, which had not been able to take the shortcuts between buildings and up a set of stairs that we did. The good news about all of this crazy adventure was that we now have a pretty good idea of what we need to do in order to go to the Termini station for our train to Florence on Thursday. I am also thankful to make it back and shower and be able to write down as many of these thoughts as possible before the rest of our Italy trip drives them completely out of my mind! And, I am thrilled to gchat with some good friends tonight before I go to bed. All the extra sleep today, while necessary, has left my biological clock still not quite aligned to Italian time!
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