The final three ticks ✅

A busy day seeing the rest of the main things I hoped to see in Rome - but had yet to see. You just can't see everything!

The 3 things left on my mental list for Rome were:
the Piazza Navona ✅,
the Pantheon ✅
and the Spanish Steps ✅.

Like many attractions in Rome there was scaffolding with shade cloth around some things. The Navona Plaza was first. It is large compared to most piazzas here as it started life in the first century AD as a stadium for athletic competitions. Now it has beautiful baroque buildings there.

The Pantheon wasn't very far away. The queues were huge and after waiting more than an hour in the heat and finally reaching the shade, the queue just stopped. After ages we found out that their computer system had shut down so no-one was being admitted. Eventually after waiting a while longer and then deciding to give it just 15 more minutes, it came online! So the Pantheon could be ticked off 😄

On the way to the Spanish Steps there was yet another beautiful church - there are hundreds - and looked inside. The elaborate decorations inside the churches are quite amazing.

After a while and turning a corner, there were the Spanish Steps. They're quite stunning but there were lots of them! I didn't come this far just to stand at the bottom and look up. After climbing them all, the views were great. Just over the narrow road at the top was the church you could see from below.

Later on, we went for a walk before dinner to the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. It's close by and we'd seen it many times in passing. It was built inside part of the ruined Roman Baths of Diocletian.

After many of the churches we've recently entered this one seemed very spacious and uncluttered. Maybe because at 6pm Saturday night it wasn't full of tourists! The church was constructed in the 16th century following an original design by Michelangelo. He was a busy man!Read more