Excavations, Pantheon, Piazza Navona

Our day began leisurely, it's Sunday after all, and after lunch we walked down to the tram and caught the number 8. We knew it would come because we saw it like a dozen times yesterday!

Our first stop was the Domus Romane di Palazzo Valentini, which is right beside Trajan's Column. Brad found this site in one of our tour books and I would certainly recommend it to everyone! It is a 90 minute tour of an excavation site where they unearthed a 4th century (ACE or AD for the older generations) Roman dwelling! You get to walk on these see-through platforms while lights illuminate what the voice over is speaking about. You weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was so cool! We saw the baths, how they heated their sauna room, their entry way, and their outdoor pool. We also got to see the parts of the Renaissance home that was built on top of it in the 1500-1600s. We were very pleased with having found this tour!

Next we wandered over to the Pantheon and joined the hordes of tourists. Seriously, today was like THE tourist day. I'm not sure there were any Italians around! Anyway, we got to see the beautiful domed ceiling and took a few photos and got out rather swiftly.

Brad then steered us towards Piazza Navona to see the huge fountains. It was shady and a good place to cool off before starting back towards our apartment. By luck, I saw a bike that said Roscoli and commented to Brad that I had marked Roscoli's as a place to go. Sure enough, the storefront was just a few paces away! So we ducked in and the man working was incredibly nice to us. He helped us pick out bread and two traditional pastries. One was like a hand pie filled with a sweet ricotta and cherries and the other was like a meringue with hazelnuts. Just what we needed to fuel our walk home.Read more