Exploring Rome

Today we explored Rome further, hitting a bunch of key tourist highlights!

We started our day with coffee at a local spot- it was delicious and inexpensive, both wins in our book!

Following coffee we started on a long walking day, heading first to the Pantheon. Apparently we are in Rome during their Italy Republic Day(equivalent to our 4th of July) and the streets were PACKED. Further, many military jets were flying overhead releasing red and green trails to symbolize the Italian flag, and tons of military helicopters were flying overhead in formation. It was pretty cool to see, and led to a lively environment!

The Parthenon itself was spectacular, and the most impressive ancient building we’ve seen to date, considering what great condition it is in! We explored the interior, and got a ton of good pictures of the exterior before moving on with our exploration day.

Our next stop was the Largo di Torre Argentina, which is a set of ruins built into the ground housing a number of buildings and the spot that Caesar was assassinated. These ruins weren’t in as great of shape as the pantheon, but were still amazing to see. There were also a ton of cats among them which was pretty cute.

Next we ventured to the Piazza Navona, which is a beautiful plaza built over the ruins of an old stadium, giving it an oval shape. The plaza was full of fountains and beautiful architecture.

After the plaza we journeyed to the Trevi Fountain, which was massive and honestly looked cooler than in the movies. That is a lot of water constantly funneling out! We took some good shots here, and headed out, as this was the most crowded spot we’d seen yet.

Next we traveled to the Spanish Steps, which are a massive staircase in a shopping district. These were interesting to see, but not as mind blowing as some of the other stops. We headed from the steps to a nearby street Via Margutta, to check out a less touristy area that had a more local feel. What was unique about this area was all the vines growing over the building facades, giving a nice green touch to the neighborhood.

We’d worked up an appetite at this point, so ducked into a side street for a fantastic authentic Italian lunch. We tried a variety of new bruschettas which was fun as we eat bruschetta a lot with our families, and we also enjoyed lasagna and margherita pizza.

After lunch we took the long way back to our Airbnb, exploring a number of unique neighborhoods. We also stopped at the Castel Sant'Angelo which was used by popes historically as a fortress and castle. Near the castle we found a fantastic gelato spot, and enjoyed in a sweet treat.

Once we got back to our Airbnb we relaxed for a bit and worked on trip planning for a few hours.

After the sun had descended a bit we headed back out, retreading our steps through a number of neighborhoods we’d already explored seeing how the city changed in midafternoon/evening. We wandered until we found a restaurant that looked good, and enjoyed an authentic Italian meal near our Airbnb. Finally we called it a night, with another big exploration day tomorrow.Läs mer