This was the BEST pizza we ate all trip. We were in Naples for about an hour before taking a train to Rome, and we rushed to find this pizza place that the Lonely Planet raved about. It was truly rave-worthy. We got there, were seated immediately when the doors open, had our order taken one minute later, and our pizzas came out two minutes later. And they were so so good.
We hit the ground running once we checked into our hotel, and our first stop was the Trevi fountain. I remember really liking this last time I was in Rome, but Jonny remembers not being that impressed with it. We both loved it this time around!
After we took this picture, we realized that we weren't throwing our coins in in the proper way. From what I'm told, to make a wish in the Trevi fountain, you should take the coin in your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder. Once we realized that, though, we'd already gone to the trouble of having someone take our first picture, so we didn't want to have to wrangle another tourist to take a second one.
From the Trevi fountain, we made our way to the Pantheon. This was the hottest day in Italy so far, and our bodies are used to San Francisco weather so we were struggling to take the heat.
We continued our walk to the Colosseum. Both of us had been inside separately before, so we just marveled at the outside of the structure without going in.
One of my friends from work who grew up in Rome gave us great restaurant recommendations. At Da Felice, they make "cacio e pepe" pasta and mix it right in front of you. It was so so good.
On our next day, we went to the Vatican. We knew they required you to have your knees covered, so Jonny wore pants even though it was boiling hot, and I wore a long dress. Little did I know, you also have to have your shoulders covered to enter St. Peter's basilica. I almost got turned away, but a brilliant businesswoman was standing right by where I was getting turned away selling scarves that I would never have bought otherwise, and she saved me.
I was totally enthralled by the ceiling in St. Peter's basilica.
Rocking my hideous touristy scarf. It was hilarious to see so many women with these scarves tied around their shoulders and knees in St. Peter's.
These guards outside St. Peter's reminded me of Willy Wonka or Dr. Seuss.
I loved the letter boxes at the Vatican post office.
At the Vatican museums, rocking our audio guides, which were actually great. We loved being able to go at our own pace and learn about as much or as little in a particular room as we wanted to.
Jonny's favorite part was this gallery of maps. It was a whole hallway full of huge paintings of maps from hundreds of years ago.
I snuck this picture of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (don't tell!). I think because they don't allow pictures, I had no idea what to expect and it was much more angular and busy than I had expected.
After hours in the museum, it was nice to get back in the sunlight, and we spent a few hours just wandering the city.
Me with gelato in Rome at night = happiness.
We visited the catacombs, and we had to sneak pictures here too. The catacombs we visited, San Callisto, felt almost like we were visiting a big winery in Napa when we got there. They were super touristy, and they took large groups to tour the grounds. Luckily, we broke away from our large group and found a much smaller group to walk around with.
I don't think Jonny would have fit if he had to be buried in the catacombs.
Our final picture in our luxurious hotel. Goodbye Rome, on to Florence!
