Roma Parte Due

DAY FOUR:
As I said at the end of my last blog Loving Husband was out working, so I decided to get myself out and about to do some Italian shopping! I hopped in a cab, since most of our other traveling had been done on the weekend I wasn't prepared for the MASSIVE traffic that Tuesday would throw at me (as Monday is often a lighter travel day even still since everything is closed most often) the cab ride took twice as long as the previous time we had gone to the Piazza di Spanga and of course twice as expensive, but I arrived and was not stolen by any gypsies, whew!

Piazza di Spanga:
I walked around looking at the steps and the shops. The shops there are quite small or they are built UP, some of them it is hard to imagine how they would be able to manage to make rent every month, but then you walk into them and see that there is nothing below 100 euro and then you understand. I didn't buy too much at any of those stores. What I really wanted to find was a bookstore. I walked a few blocks up and over and then I headed up a street toward Piazza del Popolo.

Piazza del Popolo:
Up at the end of the street there was an amazing courtyard area with a fountain and twin churches that looked interesting so I headed toward them. The area was called Piazza del Popolo which is a vast cobbled oval standing at the apex of the triangle of rads known as the Trident. There are twin churches Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto which were built15th century one of the churches is actually narrower than the other because of the area they were both build on and so the one on the right actually has an circular dome the other one has an oval one and thus the size of the supporting drums that face the piazza are identical. NEATO! The obelisk in the center is over 3000 years old and was brought to Rome by Augustus to adorn the Circus Maximus after the conquest of Egypt.

After I finished at that area I headed down another street back toward the Spanish Steps. I found a side street with a little cafe. They spoke no English there, so I decided to sit down and enjoy a few hours of vino, lunch and reading. It was really nice. I read some Harry Potter ;-) and then I headed back toward the heart of the Spanish Steps area. I headed back to the hotel so that Loving Husband wouldn't worry and so that I could end up with some room service. Loving Husband had to go to out for work, so I ordered the in-room entertainment and watched a couple of movies and ordered a burger and fries (they got the fries right.... burger... not so much).

DAY FIVE:
An excellent day! I did NOTHING. Yup that's right never even left the hotel. I woke up at the same time I had been, enjoyed breakfast with Loving Husband (not the greatest in this hotel, but ah well it's FREE!) and then I came back to the hotel, I enjoyed reading and doing some myspacing, gmail, reading the news. I then went down to meet Loving Husband for lunch! More free food! Excellente! After that I scheduled myself a massage and read for a while. I ordered a bottle of red wine and enjoyed some before my massage. I went down and had an hour massage at the spa here and then from there went over to the pool to lay out and read some Harry Potter. I did that for a couple of hours and then came back, drank some more vino, watched another movie... and then I fell asleep at 8:00pm... I woke up when Loving Husband got home at 11:15pm, I hadn't eaten dinner ordered Lasagna via room service and then went back to sleep.



DAY SIX:
Woke up again around 7 and grabbed breakfast again and came back and got ready for the day. Loving Husband had a short day for working on Thursday, so I bided my time for him to finish, showered got ready to go out. We decided to start at the Monumento a Garibaldi, so we hopped in a cab after we ate lunch for FREE again! I love Company-paid for food. :-)

Monumento a Garibaldi:
This monument is in an area called the Janiculum which has an amazing view over the city. This park area has a lighthouse which was built in 1911 (which we only took pictures of from afar there was a hill I didn't want to deal with) and the statutes of Garibaldi which was our point of the destination. Apparently every day at noon a cannon is fired which we missed since we arrived around 1. Ah well. The monument of Garibaldi has an inscription on the base of it that says "Rome or Death" and was quite pretty. The monument stands for the heroic events witnessed on the Janiculum when the French army attacked the city in 1949, Garibaldi's Republicans fended off the French for weeks. The monument was erected in 1895, the small sculptures around the base are battle scenes from that time. We next headed to Fontana dell' Acqua Paola.

Fontana dell' Acqua Paola:
The walk from the monument was very pretty, it was through a park area, where they have a row of busts outlining the park. Dating back into the 1800s. We arrived at the fountain which was very pretty and in a very nice overlook of the city as well. The fountain was placed there to commemorate the reopening in 1612 of an aqueduct originally built by Emporor Trajan in 109 AD. We sat around there for a while and then headed out to see another fountain. Which was far less impressive and actually not fully functional... but we crossed the river and headed into more of the city from there. We continued walking north toward the PIazza Navona, which was very pretty. We passed the Pantheon again and then we attempted to head toward the Trevi Fountain, but ended back up at the Spanish Steps. We stopped there and ate some gellato and enjoyed that area again, picked up a few things we had seen before there and then we headed back out.

Fountana di Trevi:
We finally arrived at the Trevi fountain, where a vendor handed me a rose... Loving Husband of course had to pay him to get him to leave... but it didn't cost us much. ;-) The Trevi fountain was amazing. The fountain was completed in 1762. The central figures are Neptune, flanked by two Tritons. These two symbolize the two contrasting moods of the sea. It was very pretty. Loving Husband and I took so pictures around there and tossed some coins into the fountain. Legend is if you throw coins in the fountain, you'll come back to Rome. So we did, we like it here. ;-) From there we walked down toward the Forum.

Trajan's Market:
We sat at a recommended restaurant to enjoy some dinner, vino and dessert. We sat there for nearly three hours and watched the sun set over the view we had which was Trajan's Market. We saw a bride and groom getting pictures taken from up in the ruins from where we sat... and Loving Husband called me the Cat Whisperer because there we kitties down in the ruins that were looking up at me meowing... but not at anyone else (made me miss my kitties!) It was a beautiful view.

Night Time:
After dessert we headed out to walk around the area and take some pictures at night! It was gorgeous. We then headed back to our hotel, uploaded some pictures and then went to sleep.

DAY SEVEN:
Today, I have awoken after sleeping in, drafted this blog and Loving Husband and I located some food and the head to the pool to relax, after Loving Husband frying we headed back for some reading and relaxing. .

We'll go out again this evening and have some dinner with some Company folks. Loving Husband's done working, so much of what remains is packing and hiding our goods so we don't have to pay taxes on any of them! ;-) It has been an amazing trip, and I"m off to enjoy the remaining day of it! Ciao!!