Waking up in Rome was a early one, especially when you find out that the hotel ran out of hot water during the night - in the shower. But nevertheless we started off our day fresh as we headed towards the city center with our tour guide, Tiziana.
We started our visit in the downtown of "Bella Roma" in the bus, Tiziana explaining the historical and cultural backgrounds to many buildings, churches and piazzas. Little did we know about the Rolling Stones concert that was to be held in Circus Maximus (and actually driving by their hotel and trying to sneak a peak into their open window).
After spending our morning in the air-conditioned bus, we got a taste of the "typical roman weather" or in other words: 30 Celsius / 90 Fahrenheit, total sun exposure and Italian humidity. Taking advantage of Italia known as the country of Pizza, pasta e gelato, we spread out to have lunch in typical Italian restaurants and bars. After a pizza and some gelato or two we met back together with Tiziana and the rest of the group to take a look into the beautiful "Pantheon" (Greek word) which was a basilica of Santa Maria, built by the Romans, later used as a church and source of bronze (as the pope had the need of new coins and statues).
Heading our way through the flowing population of Rome we approached the Spanish steps ( -137 steps), actually just nicknamed such after the "piazza de Spagna" to the feet of the steps. Lucky for us the main shopping streets were not very far away, spending the next hour walking in the streets of Rome.
Since the sun of Roma was pretty hard on us, we quickly made our way to the famous Colosseum, originally called Flavian Amphitheater. Tiziana did an amazing job explaining us the background to this building, heading to an authentic Italian restaurant straight after this visit.
Bruschetta, Pasta and a dessert later we finally made our way back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will be heading to the beautiful city of Venice.
Buonanotte a tutti
Stefanie Wolff & Jennifer Roberts
(Austria) (USA)
Pantheon, ROME
Stop to take a picture with Pinocchio...
... and try a delicious Gelatto!!!
Piazza Venezia with Vittorio Emanuele in the back!
The famous Colosseum.
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