Rome

Lucky for me, my daughter is currently studying abroad in Italy.  This gave my husband and me a much needed push to go there ourselves.  My head is spinning from all we saw over the last ten days. Today, I'm sharing a little of our wonderful Rome experience.

We stayed at the Hotel Splendide Royal.  This is one of the beautiful common areas.  Each morning we enjoyed a lovely buffet of cheeses, cold meats, pastries, fruits, and more with a great view of Rome from the sixth floor of the hotel.

We could see the dome of St. Peter's from our window and we were walking distance from restaurants, shops, the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.  

The Spanish Steps were under restoration during our visit, but we saw them through a clear barrier.

We learned that the Trevi Fountain is cleaned every Monday morning.  The crew pick up thousands of Euros for the City of Rome in the process.

Of course, we went back that night to see it with water and lights!  There were a few hundred other people there, too.

I was fascinated to learn that ancient Roman buildings survived if they were converted into Christian churches.  This is the case with the Pantheon.  Outside it still looks like it would have 2000 years ago.

You can see the Christian additions and the interior of the dome in the photo below.

Our guide told us that the Ancient Roman building below was preserved because a church was built inside it.

These photos were taken inside a former Roman Bathhouse that had become a beautiful church, Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

There were huge obelisks around the city that had been transported on ships from Egypt by the Ancient Romans. Quite an undertaking, don't you think?

Christians later added the crosses on top.

The fountains of Ancient Rome served a practical purpose in addition to their aesthetic one.

People still drink the water from them today.

Of course we toured the Colosseum, too.  Apparently, it had a complex system of trap doors and elevators to bring the live animals and trees up from a basement level for the events.  I don't want to think too much about the events.

The highlight of my visit was seeing St. Peter's Cathedral.

We attended the 5:00 p.m. mass.  I will always remember hearing the choir sing a beautiful Ave Maria.

The beauty and accuracy of the old maps hanging in the Vatican Museum amazed me.  

I must haven taken hundreds of photos in the Vatican Museum!

That's all for today.  I hope to post about our time in Tuscany in the next few days.

Heartfully,

Eilis

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