Europe Day 22 of 59, Rome

For our last day in Rome, we figured that we would visit a few hotels as well as the only landmark we know of that we had never visited before, the Piazza del Popolo. Between our hotel and Piazza del Popolo one finds the Spanish Steps. It's not like we were going to go out of our way to not see the Steps again.

We came in from the back; here is the obligatory "from the top of the Steps" pic.

Here is the obligatory "from the bottom of the Steps" pic. I know you have seen this pic a hundred times, so I figured I would experiment with an iPhone app that let's you mess with the colors of a pic.

Okay, not so great. But the hippies in Berkeley, CA would probably like it.

By the way, one can often hear Italians mention that the French should return great works of art that were essentially stolen from Italy. I wonder if the Italians are interested in returning obelisks such as THIS to Egypt. I kid, I kid.

Walking towards the Piazza del Popolo, the first thing we could see is another obelisk. I sincerely love these things. Pretty cool that our (potentially Masonic) founding father's copied the design for the Washington Monument.

I am unable to not take pictures of obelisks as I pass them. I even look at the hieroglyphics as if the meaning will jump out at me.

We walked home through the Villa Borghese gardens, where the views we better than we'd ever seen before.

Il Vaticano is right THERE. I'm actually pointing directly at St. Peter's Basilica. It's unlikely yet not impossible that the Pope is looking out a window in my direction as I take this pic, perhaps even staring at me with binoculars and thinking, "Why is that guy pointing at my basilica?"

Another view of Roma from the hill.

Leaving the gardens, almost to our hotel, we enter through the city walls. You know me, I love city walls. And I feel safer knowing that the Excelsior is on the right side of this wall.

This is exciting. We were walking to pick up my laundry, and I saw yet another Smart. They're everywhere now, whereas when we visited over two years ago we didn't see any. In fact, we'd only seen them in France at that point. Anyway, I saw a few Smarts scattered around and thought, "I hope I can get a picture of a bunch of Smarts parked together." At the end of the block, Bam! Two parked in front of me with one across the street. How could I resist taking thispic? See, I told you this was exciting. (I would say how badly I want to get one of these cars when I get back home, but then I'd hear it from my brother. So I'll not share that.)

We went to our friend's favorite Roman restaurant, Miraggio in Trastevere. We at with our friend Sean's friend Benedetta, who we consider our friend after spending time with her a few years ago in Florence and Rome.

Me with my Florentine girlfriend who live in Roma, Benedetta.

Barbie with her Florentine boyfriend who lives in Roma, Nic.

There was one reason I wanted to eat here: grilled calamari. This stuff makes the calamari I've had in the USA taste like a dirty sock.

Eggplant Parmesan. You cannot have it too often.

The day's blog ends with dolci. Early flight tomorrow. Going to be unpleasant when the alarm goes off.