Ciao Italy: Walking Tour of Rome

Today after breakfast we followed Rebecca through the rain soaked Roman streets on a walking tour of the city heading in the direction of the Pantheon. Our hour walk took us through the Piazza del Popolo (which is where the Cigi Chapel is located inside Santa Maria del Popolo) and Piazza Navona (which has the Fountain of the Four Rivers on display).

Rebecca recommended a local pizza place/stall to either eat or grab a bite for later as it is one of her favorite pizza places… Pizza in Italy is not even close to the pizza you see in the US so the topping choices are what i would call interesting but sometimes just amazing combinations. I chose a slice which ended up being the size of a piece of paper in length and width- I had one with Potato and Onion while Robert had Sausage, Onion and Mushroom. We have a snack set aside for later which is a slice of Sausage and Broccoli for our bus ride to Sienna.

One of my favorite buildings so far was the Pantheon with the rain poring through the oculus into the temple where Raphael is buried along with many kings of Italy (including the last King). If we have time when we come back to Rome I would love to make it back here to have a second look around.

As we were way behind on time and it would have been an hour walk back to the hotel, so we suggested it might not be a bad idea to take taxi’s back to the hotel… that suggestion was much appreciated as we would have been an hour behind schedule if not. While the group was heading out in taxi’s mom and I waited for Robert and Judy who went off to seek a “smooth” cup of coffee (cappuccino) from a local café.

In route to Siena we made a stop at Fabro where there were samples of chocolates, hazelnuts, olive oil, and other local delicacies that provided quite a nice snack. Robert loved the smoked cheese with olive jam on a cracker… between him and our guide they may have ate most of the sample jar. The ladies also found their way back to the sale of 50% off of scarves where I picked up a light lavender shrug for 15 Euro.

Piazza del Popolo