The next morning we took a bus to the Villa Borghese park that has a famous sculpture museum we toured. We weren't permitted to take pictures, but the museum contained various famous Bernini sculptures. I don't know much about sculpture, but you see the works of Bernini all over Rome and they are surreal. You think you are looking at live humans holding a pose, but it is all stone. (picture from online):
From there, we walked about a mile south to the top of the Spanish Steps and then down.
You are in the middle of Rome at the bottom of the steps. Walking through this part of the city, the roads are narrow and lined with shops and restaurants and closed off to traffic. We made our way to the Trevi Fountain.
And then over to the Pantheon, which was incredible. It's clearly been around for a long time.
The next morning we walked back to St. Peters and got in line to get to the top of the cathedral. You walk up windy stairs and come out inside one of the domes and can look down into the cathedral:
The inside walls of the domes are ornate with broken tile murals:
And you can walk around the top of the dome and get a panoramic view of St. Peter's Square below:
And all of Rome:
Inside St. Peters, it is a gigantic space:
And houses many shrines, sculpture, and this famous Michelangelo sculpture, depicting Mary holding the crucified Jesus:
That afternoon we made our way to ancient Rome and toured the ruins. You can see how advanced the city must have been. Here are some shots of the Coliseum:
And ancient city ruins:
We knew we were touring something awesome, but neither of us really knows much about ancient Rome.
That night we connected up with a couple from our ward here in Denver who just happened to take a trip to Rome at the same time as us. We got together for dinner near the Pantheon and got some gelato. The Pantheon and the piazza in front of it was lit up very nicely and busy with a lot of night life.
Our final full day in Rome, we took a bus to Piazza Novana and walked through other portions of Rome.
We toured the Trastavere neighborhood, which is a little removed from the city center, and grabbed some good pizza and fresh mozzarella with herbs and olives.
