Pantheon

Trevor was up and away for a walk at 5:30. There were lots of people heading to work. Today we didn’t have anything planned so asked the nice young gentlemen on reception where he thought we should go. He recommended we get a bus to see the Pantheon and the Castel Saint Angelo (for those coming to Rome you take the number 64 bus). That was fun – we weren’t quite sure where to get off and the bus was so crowded, Trevor was standing separate from me. We were on the right street and I motioned to Trevor that we should get off at the next stop. A lovely elderly gentleman said to me that we should get off at this stop so I got off but Trevor didn’t see me get off until I was on the pavement and the bus was starting to move away! Trevor’s lack of Italian made it difficult to tell the driver to stop, some nice woman helped him to stop the bus.

Beside the Pantheon there was a lovely café where Trevor decided to taste the Italian cappuccino and I had a gelato ice cream – sorry girls too hot to drink coffees

Then we set off to find the Piazza Navona – one of the largest Piazzas in Italy. This was beautiful and is known for its delicious eateries in the evening (more about this later).

A short walk (everything thing here is not far from each other – even though on the map it looks like miles its really a short distance) across the Tiber River and we were at the Castel Saint Angelo. This is near the Vatican and is a huge fortress type castle in very original condition. The statue on the top is the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword after the end of a plague (without looking up my guidebook I can’t remember when this was). There is a secrete tunnel from the Castel to the Vatican. The age of things and the beauty of them doesn’t stop amazing us at every turn.

Just down the street from our hotel is this fantastic store, a cross between diary, liquor store and deli – it is fantastic – we could learn so much from the Italians. They don’t seem to have as much bureauocracy here and the place is better for it – OSH would have a field day here and maybe it should be compulsory for them to visit Rome to see how anal they are at home.

Trevor is fascinated by the amount of scooters and how they are used here

This is just around the corner from our hotel.

We booked a Tour “Rome Illuminated” which was to be a tour of Rome at night. The only problem was that for the first hour and twenty minutes it was still daylight! As part of the tour we went back to the Piazza Navona – it was packed with people and buskers – really crowded – such a contrast to when we were there earlier in the day. Trevor had a look at the prices at the Restaurants – they averaged between 30-40 euros for a main ($60-$80nz approx).
We are off to Cinque Terre today not sure if there will be internet access there so may be a few days before I can do any posts.