Pantheon et al

(Scott named this one. I take no credit.)

So much walking today! We did the walking tour I ripped out of the Let's Go guide (well, like 1/2 of it bc we had already done some of it yesterday.) We started off with a trip to the underground grocery store and the underground walkway that cuts through the Borghese Gardens and shoots you at at the Spanish Steps! Cool! It was def shorter and less hilly, but a lot less scenic...


At the Spanish Steps, there are all these gypsy guys who try to sell you jewelry, fake purses and sunglasses and hand the women roses and make the guys pay for them. So irritating! :) But, this morning I couldn't locate my sunglasses so I had to bargain w/ him. I don't love them, but you know, they helped me not squint all day.

This picture is dedicated to Kelly Fuddy - buongiorno principessa!: (See, you can totally get by with Italian you learn in Vita e Bella!)


To start off our tour, we walked up on a street high above the city and ended up at Piazza del Poppolo. It was really a great view of the city. The Piazza was quite big, and really stunning.


From there, we went down the road a little to the Pantheon! It was soo cool! Its design was so innovative it inspired St Peter's Basillica, The Duomo (in Florence) and even the US Capitol building. Until 1960 it was the largest dome in the world... and it's mathematically cool bc it's as wide as it is tall so there's a balance to it. This is why Scott thinks it's cool. Raphael is buried there, as are 2 former rulers. They still have church services there and ppl get married there too. Oh, and it has an oculus - an open air circular opening at the very top of the dome.



The bottom of the dome is made of concrete 20 feet thick - and it gets thinner as you near the top. Here you can see the ornate marble designs, concrete w/ the squares cut out, and just a little of the light coming in the open top.

We had a delicious lunch at a place close to the Pantheon called Miscellania. It was a fantastic pizza, and they gave us a free glass of strawberry wine after the meal. And it was yummy. Everything is yummy here, pretty much, I should stop saying that.

To complete our walking tour we saw the Piazza Navonna and I almost started crying (well, that's a little overstated, but still) bc the Four Rivers fountain was under scaffolding. Screw scaffolding. I was so excited to see this statue & fountain and it's pretty much obstructing all other views of the Piazza. We tried to cut it out of the pics... PN was pretty neat otherwise - lots of very talented artists selling stuff and weird ppl painted up and acting like statues. Sorry, I don't give folks like that money.

We also went to Campo di Fiori which was supposed to be neat but Scott and I just looked at it and said...eh. It felt very dirty and overly smokey (which is saying a lot bc seriously, everyone smokes here.)

Then walked back to hotel to put our feet up and relax until dinnertime. We're trying to find a restaurant and it looks like lots of stuff is closed on Sundays. Boohiss!

...
So, we were totally beat tonight, but made ourselves go out on the town for dinner. We went out to the Trevi Fountain area and decided to do what we did last night, kinda/sorta look for some of the recommended restaurants in the Rick Steves guide, and a lot of times, the streets those places are on will have a bunch of places and we can look at menus & stuff. So we did... we made it down to the Pantheon before something caught our eye and we ended up at a place called L'Arcana. It was really good! They had some space heaters so we could comfortably eat outside and the food was amazing.

Scott had gnocchi, his fave:


And I had cannoli for the first course (firsties, as Scott likes to call it) and roasted chicken for secondi (the Italians really call the second course that...) Now, I don't think I've ever raved about meat. I mean I eat it bc I know my body needs it but I can't honestly remember ever talking so much about meat I ate. But this chicken was the best ever. The meat fell right off the bone. So flavorful and tender too... I didn't know it could be this good!

Oh, and you'll never guess who we saw on the street next to our hotel on our walk to dinner... Amy and Chad! It was such a crazy coincidence. They were just arriving from the train. Small world - in a town of millions of people we randomly meet up on the street with a homey. :)

Trevi - night vish: