Europe Day 21 of 59, Rome

We slept in. It was heavenly. I even woke up, listened to some thunder and rain, and then went back to sleep again. Heaven.

The great thing about visiting a city for the second time is that there's no pressure. We've basically seen everything already, and it is up to us what we visit again. As it turned out, we decided to go for a walk headed towards Hotel Raphael, which is a personal favorite of one of Barbie's clients and he highly recommend we visit the roof, and figured we would hit whatever spots we felt like along the way.

Our hotel is close to the Trevi Fountain, so what the heck. It's pretty nice as fountains go.

Happily, Fontana di Trevi was less crowded than our last visit to Roma. Likely due to the weather. It was nice out, but the rain earlier in the day likely cut down the crowd size.

The point of shot number two is to show how directly next to a landmark you have stores and pharmacies. I kind of love how Rome built itself around its landmarks, comfortable not making a big show of them. I also kind of wish there was a big open park around every landmark, which would be the case if the French ran the show here.

Other than the Coliseum, I like nothing better than the Pantheon. It's a masterpiece. I took something like a hundred pictures of it in 2006. And still I came back.

Inside the masterpiece.

The masterpiece's ceiling.

As we walked away from the Pantheon, I got a picture of this bride and groom. As we passed I gave him a thumbs up and he gave me a wink. Male bonding on the streets of Rome.

Nearing the Hotel Raphael, we stepped through the Piazza Navona.

The funny iPhone moment of the day is that we walked towards the hotel and then didn't see it. I used Google Maps to get directions to it, and the directions showed that it was zero meters from our location. Barbie won the contest, by the way, spotting it first.

From the roof of the Hotel Raphael, we could see everything from the Vatican to the Pantheon to the Wedding Cake. I give you this show because pics come out best with the sun behind me. By the way, to the South the sky was clear blue. To the North, dark rain clouds. Uh oh.

Leaving the hotel, we grabbed some gelato in the Piazza Navona. The coffee flavor was just okay, but the chocolate was to die for. We plotted a relaxed course to the only point of interest we missed during our 2006 visit to Rome, the Sinagoga.

The Area Sacra, which would normally have a few hundred cats hanging out in it, mysteriously catless. You think they could sense something in the air? Perhaps rain?

Okay. This pic stinks. But I couldn't get far enough away to catch all I needed. See, if you could see the statue right next to this Italian man, you would see that he is taking the same exact pose as the statue while his woman takes a picture. Considering that Barbie and I have done this repeatedly for years, I had to take a picture. She did, too. Hopefully her pic has the statue in it.

The main Sinagoga of Roma. The Jewish ghetto of Rome was always very small, but in 1904 they pulled together the resources of 5 synagogues and made one big one. There's a pretty good museum in the basement, too.

The Tiber. I looked at a map and realized that in Italian this is the Fiume Tevere. And the neighborhood we love, where we have eaten so many great dinners, is Trastevere. What are the odds Trastevere means, "Across the Tevere."

Note the sky is less blue. Soon after this picture was taken, the sun went away and we were in a downpour. No biggie. And no chance to get taxi in the rain.

Your standard Gigolo Roma. They're all over this city. You have ten Euro?

The Wedding Cake, local nickname for the Vittorio Emmanuel II Memorial, in the rain. If you want to get blown away, and realize how poorly history is taught in USA schools, look up Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and see that Italy as we know it wasn't a unified country until 1861. Almost 100 years later than our USA became a country, Italy became a country.

We walked close to a half hour in the rain to get back to the hotel, and even bought an umbrella from a street vendor to make it home. We were soaked, but comfortable as it stayed fairly warm.

We ate dinner down the street from our hotel, because Barbie spotted this wood burning pizza oven.

As I was taking this picture of Barbie's risotto, she spun the dish. I'd repeat that art is frequently accidental, but I'm not sure that this pic counts.

Risotto, not spinning.

I swear, this is the best Eggplant Parmesan (Parmigiana di Melanzane) I have ever eaten. And depending on how well you know me, you might know that I have ordered this dish in several hundred restaurants in my life.

I told you it was the best.

Tourists stop and stare at the pizza baker. Sometime he smiles at them, but here he ignores them.

Our hotel during that magical time when lights have come on and the sun has yet to disappear. Tomorrow... laundry day!