{"id":1044,"date":"2015-08-18T19:31:15","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2015-08-18T19:31:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T19:31:15","slug":"rome-day-2-exploring-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/rome-day-2-exploring-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Rome – Day 2 – Exploring the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC00088\"<\/a> \"DSC00090\"<\/a>
\nFountain Statues in Piazza Navona<\/p>\n

On Day 2 of our stay, we started off by taking a tourist bus tour to see the major sites of Rome , which made sure we didn\u2019t miss anything important.\u00a0 We drove past the Spanish steps, Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus, Piazza Venezia and a few others.<\/p>\n

We got off at the last stop right before the Vatican and set off through the old town ourselves. We headed toward Piazza Navona and spent some time poking around it.\u00a0 We found a little shop selling beautiful leather, paper and glass products and bought a few things. Stopped at a small gelateria on a corner of the piazza and had gelato.<\/p>\n

\"Side<\/a>

Side view of the Pantheon<\/p><\/div>\n

From there we walked to the Pantheon, which was originally a temple to all the gods, and has since been converted to a church. Very interesting interior. We then went around behind it and found ourselves in the only Gothic church in Rome, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, so named because it was supposed to have been built on the ruins of a temple to Minerva. It doesn\u2019t look gothic from the outside. In fact it<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

barely looks like a church from the outside, but the interior is amazing. It includes a wonderful collection of Italian art, and contains the casket of Saint Catherine of Siena. It\u2019s most impressive piece is a statue of the Risen Christ, which was begun by Michelangelo. We spent quite a while in the place.<\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/a>

Exterior of the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSC00104\"<\/a>

Interior of Santa Maria Sopra Minverva showing the casket of St. Catherine of Sienna<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC00105\"<\/a>

Statue of Christ Triumphant, begun by Michelangelo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Came out and from there headed to the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately for us, it\u2019s being repaired, so there was no water and half of it was covered in scaffolding. We could see enough to get the idea of what a gorgeous monument it is, though I\u2019m sure the water makes it amazing.\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n

It was hot (really, really hot) and getting on to midafternoon by then, so we started heading back to the hotel, but stopped at a small Osteria for snacks and drinks. We knew it was the right choice when we discovered a large display of watermelon. We bought a good-sized chunk along with a banana, a couple of espressos and several cold drinks. The owner of the place led us back to a private parlor in the back, which had an air conditioner, more comfortable chairs and a rest room.\u00a0 Perfect!<\/p>\n

Energized by the break, we continued on our way back to hotel. Since we were walking right by it, we stopped at Castel Sant\u2019Angelo and went in.\u00a0 Lots of steps up and up, going past a few displays of medieval and renaissance weapons, and a serious travelling art exhibition, and finally made it to the uppermost level, the angel courtyard, which sits just below the angel on the top of the castle.<\/p>\n

\"DSC00021\"<\/a>The place was fascinating, but we were starting to flag. Headed back toward the hotel, but stopped at a little bar\/restaurant which had a nice buffet. The waiter was a character. He adored Freya and brought her a few extras. He told us he was a \u201chistorical waiter.\u201d He\u2019s been in the job for 25 years, following an 18-year military career. We ate a lot, had drinks, got ripped off a bit on both food and wine, but the waiter was so entertaining, we didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fountain Statues in Piazza Navona On Day 2 of our stay, we started off by taking a tourist bus tour to see the major sites of Rome , which made sure we didn\u2019t miss anything important.\u00a0 We drove past the …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,26,34,33,27,35,12,36,25],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-castel-santangelo","tag-italy","tag-pantheon","tag-piazza-navona","tag-rome","tag-santa-maria-sopra-minerva","tag-travel","tag-trevi-fountain","tag-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}