When in Rome…

Where better to start our walking tour of Rome than the ancient gateway to Rome, Porta del Popolo and the Piazza del Popolo (the “people’s square”).  From there, we headed to the Spanish Steps and then onto the Trevi fountain where we stopped to have some gelato.

After our break, we headed to the Pantheon and onto Piazza Navona and the fountain of four rivers, before splitting up for dinner where we sampled some more Italian cuisine. After dinner we headed to the Piazza Venezia and onto the Roman forum before ending up at the Colosseum. We took some photos at the Colosseum before catching the train back to our hotel for the night.

The next day some of us got up early and were dropped off for our optional extra – a tour of the Vatican Museums. We arrived early and had a pre-booked tour before the museums open up to the public. Even going early there were still many tours happening at the time but we were lucky enough not to wait in line (someone said the line was over three hours long by the time we came out around lunchtime). The artwork in the Vatican is amazing – the mosaics, paintings, sculptures and tapestries throughout the museum are so detailed and stunning. There is also a gallery of maps which have been painted thousands of years ago with no modern measuring devices which when examined now are amazingly accurate. And of course the roof of the Sistine Chapel is magnificent.

After our tour had finished we stopped for lunch and then headed back to the hotel. Some of the others that had done the Vatican tour with us headed off to do the Colosseum and Roman Forum, but I was happy enough having seen it last night. We headed out to a nearby restaurant for dinner with a couple of the girls from our tour.

• Posted in: Europe 2013 ♦ Topdeck European Odyssey Tour
• Tagged: Colosseum, Pantheon, Rome, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, vatican city