A circuit of the Eternal City

Let's start with some math. What does sun+hot+Sunday=? The answer is crowds that would make Disney envious. I think everybody within the city limits of Rome was on the streets today. Before we headed out this morning we took another look at the width of our hotel room door. It is impressive. Needless to say, these rooms are really quiet.

To start off today, we thought we'd walk to the site of ancient Rome. I led the way and took absolutely the wrong direction. We ended up at Castello St. Angelo on the Tiber.

So, since the plan was to take the Hop on/Hop off bus today after our intial walk, we got on the bus earlier than expected.

The first stop after St. Angelo was the Vatican. Did I mention it was Sunday? St. Peter's Square was crawling with people enjoying an open air mass and a visit with "Papa Frankie", the most beloved pope in modern times.

The Rome Film Festival is currently on, so that may also have some bearing on the crowds today. We're keeping our eyes peeled for stars.

Our first hop off was to be the Coliseum, but for some reason, our bus didn't stop there and instead we got off at the Palatine Hill area and the former Circo Massimo in the foreground.

We wanted a walk anyway, so off we went to the Coliseum where we once again encountered wall to wall people. There was no way we were braving the long ticket lines, so we took our photos and got back on the bus.

The bus took us back by the most impressive Monument of Vittorio Emanuel - formerly Mussolini's hangout. It's nickname is the Wedding Cake. This place is the most prominent landmark view from our hotel's roof and is nicely lit at night. The bus' route also crossed the Tiber River numerous times, which is a less than impressive river.

Soon we were repeating our circuit on the bus and by now the crowds had overflown from St. Peter's Square so much so that the bus could no longer get close to the Vatican. Since it was now early afternoon, we opted for the stop that took us to the vicinity of Rome's Hard Rock Cafe. This place never seems to lose its popularity and we had to wait 45 minutes for a table. In the end we all had high fat, North American meals and loved it.

Our bus hopping complete, we now set out on a walking route that would eventually take us to our hotel. But before that, they were many noteworthy Roman sites to be seen, like the Spanish Steps. I guess they are called that because the Spanish Embassy is across the street.

From where the previous photo was taken, one could barely walk about with the gathered throng.

Next site on the route was the Trevi fountain. Bummer! Under construction! With no water, one could at least see the coins in the fountain - sing along now, "Three coins in a fountain".

Might I add that one is forbidden from throwing coins in the fountain.

As we continued in a hotel bound direction, we went a bit too far south and had to retreat north to catch a glimpse of the Pantheon.

Nearby, was the Piazza Narvona with its three impressive fountains.

Nearby was a wine bar we had read about back home called the Cul de Sac. It had an amazing collection of wines by the glass and bottle and netting to protect the consumer in case errant bottles should tumble down.

By then we were a short skip from the hotel were we enjoyed some air conditionning while Dawn enjoyed the roof. Later, after an aperatif on the roof, we headed across the street to the Restaurant Da Pancrazio. We wanted to sit on the patio and since no table was available, they just set up another table.

The food here was good - the best in Rome so far, with an artichoke starter for the ladies, while the guys had some deep fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with anchovies and mozzarella. Everybody had a different main course, with young lamb for Dawn, osso bucco for Tony, saltambucco (veal) for Jackie and lamb sweet breads for me. We shared a pear tart for dessert and quaffed another Nobile di Montepulciano. It was a fabulous day!