Rome, Italy (Day 3)

Day 3 of our Roman Holiday took us all around Rome!  From one end to the other!  We started out back at the Basilica di Santa Maria, which is right on Capitoline Hill, next to Michelangelo's steps.  The kids and I started hiking up and counted over 100 steps!
 

The Basilica di Santa Maria was an unexpected treasure.  It was so beautiful inside with a gorgeously ornate ceiling and tons of glass chandeliers.  I love a beautiful church!  This was definitely worth the visit and was my favorite church in Rome (more on that later...)

Check out those chandeliers!  It's hard to see the ceiling's beauty but it was really pretty.

After our visit, we realized that we had forgotten our handy dandy Rick Steves book back at the apartment.  Boo.  So Todd dashingly dashed off to retrieve it.  Meanwhile, the kids and I went up to the top of the Terrace of the Chariots.  Here the kids were giggling about something and I happened to snap a cute pic of them as we waited in line.

The view from the top was breathtaking.  It's definitely the highest point in Rome.  This picture is looking westward toward St. Peters in Vatican City.

 

This is why it's called the Terrace of the Chariots.  There are a couple of statues like this up on the top.

This is the view looking to the southeast.  You can see the Forum in the foreground and the Colosseum in the background.

Looking north.

Todd totally missed the views, because we left the Terrace of the Chariots and met him down on the ground.  From there, we went down to the Mouth of Truth (or as the Italians say, La Bocca della Verita).  Legend has it, that if you are a liar and you put your hand in the Mouth of Truth, it will bite you hand off!  You can see my dear, sweet Natalie has never told a lie! ;-)

In this picture we are recreating the scene from Roman Holiday where Gregory Peck scares Audrey Hepburn! 

The church that the Mouth of Truth resides at, the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin is actually pretty neat.  I wasn't overly wowed by the inside architecture but it's small and quaint.  It was first built in the 700s, and then completed in the 11th century. It's undergone many renovations and feels kind of all over the place (especially with some baroque touches!)

The coolest part?  The skull of Saint Valentine!  Whaaaaat?????? 

For a small donation, you can go beneath the church and see Hadrian's Crypt, built in the 8th century.  The man of the same "Hadrian's Wall" fame in England, he kept many religious relics here.

Afterward, it was time for a late lunch, and we walked across the Tiber River to the Trastevere neighborhood, where my former coworkers Rich and Erin had recommended a restaurant called Da Enzo.  I don't think I knew how big this river was!

Walking through the narrow street neighborhoods of the Trastevere.

We saw these signs everywhere.  They were so funny!  The obvious sign means you can't drive down here, but then someone puts these stickers on it to make like a guy is carrying something heavy.  I hope he set his back properly before lifting!

I pretended like I was taking a picture of Grant, but I NEEDED to capture this lovey dovey couple next to us at Da Enzo.  So cute and disgusting and Italian, all at the same time!

After a DELICIOUS lunch, we walked across the Ponte Cestio (bridge) to Tiber Island (Isola Tiberina).  Once on the island, you then get back onto the mainland by crossing the Ponte Fabricio.  This bridge completely fascinated me!  It's the oldest Roman bridge in Rome, built in 62 AD!  And it's STILL STANDING!  WHAAAT???? Meanwhile in America, we have to replace bridges every 50 years.  Sheesh.

The next stop was way across town to the Spanish Steps. And wouldn't ya know it!  They were closed and under construction!  Well, I guess we just have to go back to Rome someday!

I know the children were SO DISAPPOINTED that they didn't get to run up the Spanish Steps, so of course, we had to compensate with gelato.  You can tell Natalie is super heartbroken over all of it.

To the right of the Spanish Steps is a house that John Keats and Percy Shelley lived in.  No big deal, just two of the most important authors of the 19th century!  John Keats died of tuberculosis in this house in 1821. We didn't get a chance to go in (we really try to avoid most museums with the kids) but Wikipedia says, "The museum houses one of the world's most extensive collections of memorabilia, letters, manuscripts, and paintings relating to Keats and Shelley, as well as Byron, Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, and others."  Definitely worth visiting on another trip to Rome!

A beautiful column dedicated to Mary's Immaculate Conception.   

On our way back to our apartment, we once again passed Trevi Fountain in the evening.  I love it all lit up and I love the light color of the water.  

But wait!  One more stop before we go home because we cannot go back to Germany without having gone INTO the Pantheon!   I love my new camera and how beautifully it captured the lighting here.

Built during the time of Caesar Augustus, it was completed by the Emperor Hadrian over a hundred years later.  Two kings of Italy are buried there, as well as the artist Raphael, but it is now used as a Roman Catholic church, which you can see the alter, above.

Grant, pondering the works of Raphael, who is buried here.

At this point, it's pretty much time to go home when your kid is tired enough to sit down on the floor of the Pantheon!  He wasn't crying... he was just really exhausted!