Honeymoon in Rome and Vatican City - Day 3

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The goal of the day was to see the Pantheon. The plan was simple: walk down the Spanish Steps and take a turn south toward the Pantheon. Well, things didn't go that simply.

We traveled south on Via del Corso, stopping by McDonald's to get breakfast. Unlike McDonald's in the U.S., the front of the restaurant had a cafe with pastries. Sophia and I got some cappuccinos and pastries, which were delicious. We stopped by a supermarket, passed under a tunnel, and reached the Mercati Traianei. We checked the map and found out we were too far south of the Pantheon, so we decided to travel northwest. We stopped by the Piazza del Quirinale, Giardini del Quirinale, and Quattro Fontane.

We double checked our map and found out we had traveled northeast, not northwest. So we decided to cut down a side street and walked west on Via del Tritone. We made it to the Piazza Colonna, then followed road signs indicating where the location of the Pantheon. After traveling down a couple side streets, we finally made it.

The wrong turns and long walk were worth it, because the Pantheon was a site to behold. The building is massive and stepping inside the building feels like stepping into another world. Light shining in through the big oculus in the middle of the dome illuminated the inside, which felt like a whole other world and whole other time. It was surprisingly quiet inside, considering the hundreds of people, but there were signs around asking for quietness because the Pantheon was converted into a Christian church. The altar at the front of the building was beautiful.

After seeing the Pantheon, we decided to visit the S. Ignazio di Loyola church, located east of the Pantheon. Once again, we took a wrong turn and headed west instead of east. We made it to the Corso del Rinascimento before realizing we were heading the wrong way, so we turned around, passed by the Pantheon, and walked down Via del Seminario to finally make it to the S. Ignazio di Loyola church. Unbelievably, the church was even more beautiful than the Chiesa di San Lorenzo near our hotel. There was a painting on the ceiling akin to the Sistine Chapel and lot of gorgeous chapels. The pews were set up and decorated with what looked to be a wedding.

After the church, we decided to walk back to the hotel. On our way back, we stopped by the Trevi Fountain so I could throw in a Showbiz pizza token, the same McDonald's we stopped by in the morning for some dinner, and a cafe for some more gelato.

We stopped by the Trinita dei Monti church to check on mass times for Sunday and then came back to our hotel room to turn in and talk about the next days plans.

Honeymoon in Rome and Vatican City - Day 2

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We accidentally overslept until about 3 pm and woke up to a rainy day. We were planning on visiting the Pantheon and the Colosseum, but decided try going to some nearby museums and possibly a nearby library. Once we got ready and left the hotel with umbrella in hand, we decided to just walk around the local area again because it was just too wet to walk anywhere far away.

We got a late lunch at a nearby restaurant. Sophia and I both got cappuccinos to start, which were excellent. Sophia ordered the lasagna and I got a special pizza with ham, artichoke, ham, and boiled egg. Both dishes were also excellent.

After lunch, we walked around the streets again taking more of the Roman culture. We found a nearby church called Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Lucina. The church was huge and the paintings inside were gorgeous. We were even able to attend a daily mass which was the same as any other daily mass in the U.S. except everything was in Italian. The only major difference was that the priest did not say a homily.

After mass, we made our way back to the hotel and decided to check out the building that was located at the top of the Spanish Steps. Turn out the building was another church called the Trinita dei Monti. We came into the church at the end of a Mass and, unlike the other church, this church had an organ playing for mass.

We came back to our hotel room and decided to plan for the next day. For dinner, I found a nice little cafe down the street which has sandwiches, drinks, and best of all, gelato! I got an eggplant panini, tomato and mozzarella panini, and a cup of pistachio and caramel gelato, which Sophia and I enjoyed in our room.

Honeymoon in Rome and Vatican City - Day 1

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Sophia and I arrived safely in Rome, Italy at around 11 am Rome time. There were know hitches in our trip from Fort Wayne, IN to Rome. We had 1 stop in Atlanta, Georgia and we almost missed our connecting flight, but we were able to make it to the plane on time. The plane that took us from Atlanta to Rome was very nice and on the TV monitors, when a movie or TV program was not being showed,they displayed various types of information. Airspeed, outside temperature, local time and time at the destination, and even a map that showed a graphic of our plane so we could see the progress we were making.

The Rome airport was not too confusing and we were able to get our baggage fairly quickly, but the travel books we brought came in hand right away. Some men were offering to give rides to hotels for a “low flat rate” of 85 euros, but we read that the taxis would be fine. We found one who brought us to the Intercontinental Hotel de la Ville where were staying and the cab fee ended up being about 53 euros. We tipped him generously by giving him 60 euros.

The hotel also tried to get us to spend more money by saying our room wasn't ready yet and that we could upgrade to a better room for a fee. We decided to wait for our room to be ready (which the receptionist said would take 90 minutes) and all of a sudden another room became available for us and we wouldn't need to wait after all.

After moving into the room, Sophia and I decided to take a nap and freshen up before embarking on our first Roman adventure. We decided to visit some sites that were close to the hotel, namely the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. It was late dusk when we left the hotel and the Italian nightlife was just getting started. The Spanish Steps are literally around the corner from our hotel, so it was our first stop. The dusk sky made a great backdrop to the Steps and the surrounding area. There were lots of people who were just sitting on the steps, hanging out. At the bottom of the steps was a small fountain which also attracted a crowd.
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From here, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain, which was several blocks south of the Spanish Steps. On our way there, we picked up some delicious chocolate and coffee flavored gelato from one of the many gelato shops and we stopped for dinner at the Caffe Accademia. The Caffe had a specialty dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce and bacon, but the bacon was a spicy Italian style bacon which tasted a lot like salami or pepperoni. We finished off dinner with tirimisu, which wasn't as sweet as we were used to, but it was very good.

The Trevi Fountain was very busy and there was a huge crowd surrounding it. There were also lots of hustlers who were selling little trinkets and roses, and unfortunately one hustler gave Sophia 3 roses and demanded payment. We gave him 2 euros and gave back 2 roses. This was yet another lesson learned. The fountain itself was a site to behold and we would have enjoyed it more had there been less people and no hustlers.

We ended our evening walking back to the hotel through various roads. Rome is exactly as you would picture it: old and new buildings bustling with life.

Honeymoon Pictures!

Pictures from our honeymoon are posted on Jonathan´s Flickr site. Just follow this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samuraislice/collections/
Enjoy!