Sam & Georgia's Travels : Rome

Italian drivers really are insane. Driving into Rome was ridiculous, cars are parked in any place where they may possibly fit or if there is no place for them they begin to encroach on the road and what was a two lane road becomes one. Rather than try to find a park people will just stop their cars in the road, switch the hazard lights on and head out to pick up coffee or bread, while everyone else struggles to navigate safely around them. There is also no such thing as give way, everyone just seems to go and hope for the best. We travelled pretty slow on our way into the city and managed to arrive at our accommodation safely.

We arrived in the late afternoon but decided we had to go and get a look at the city. So after figuring out we were only two metro stops away from Vatican city, we made our way in.
After crossing the river we immediately we fell in love with the ancient city, the buildings are beautiful and you can’t help but wonder just how long they have been there. The streets are narrow and lined with pizzeria’s, coffee bars and gelati stores.
Of course we had pizza for dinner before we grabbed some gelati and slowly made our way home.

After a sleep in that we needed after a few early rises, we headed back into the city, this time determined to actually see the sights.
Our first stop was supposed to be the Pantheon, but after we got lost in the tiny streets a few times, we stumbled upon piazza Navona.

Shortly after we found what we were looking for, the Pantheon. And it really was spectacular. The greek style columns lead into the huge round building and at the entrance guards were constantly telling people to keep moving as they stopped to stare at the amazing building. Around the building are tombs of some very prominent Italian’s, including the first and second king and the famous artist/architect Raffaello, as well as an altar. The occulus in the huge dome roof is amazing.
The whole place really is spectacular, after our first real Roman tourist attraction we were pretty impressed and eager to find the rest.

Next we headed for the Trevi fountain. We pushed through the crowds of people to get a seat on the edge and a photo with the beautiful fountain behind us. The crowds and heat were a little much for us and once we felt we had seen enough we moved on.