Day 6 started with a breakfast at the hotel. Same observation regarding Italians and dislike of salads holds here as well.

After having breakfast we went for a visit of various sites in Rome. First location was the glorious Pantheon. This great building stands in this place for about a thousand years and had inspired many visionaries including Leonardo da Vinci. It is inspirational indeed!!!

This place is a glorious mixed of antique and modern history with both pre and post Christian influences up to the establishment of the kingdom of Italy. It was to much to take in, in  a single visit so I decided to dedicate to it next morning.

From there we took a very short walk to Piazza Navona. Its history as a hippodrome is obvious from its shape. The  Fountain of the Four Rivers is every bit as impressive as I imagined and  so is the Church of Sant’Agnese in Piazza Navona (where photography is prohibited).

After this short dash Karen felt like her wounded leg needed rest but the kids an I decided to carry on.

From there we walked to the Trevi Fountain, Through coins into it making wishes and decided it was a bit overcrowded to really enjoy.

From there we walked to the Spanish Steps and went up and down while looking at the view of Rome from above.

From there as we had some time to kill we went into the Lego store!!!

 

We looked at the merchandise, decided we owned most of the interesting sets ( 🙂 ) and then helped Or select a Lego Duplo present for hiss baby nephews. There was a stand with various small pieces of Lego figurines and Roni spent some time assembling three figurines representing her good friends.

The plan for the afternoon was a visit to the Vatican museum. The taxi driver from the hotel let us off at the St. Peter’s Basilica. After eating at one of the near by Italian fast food joints we learnt, the hard way, that from there to the Vatican Museum. I took us about 5 minutes of walking to arrive there. It was about 40 degrees and the sun was killing us. Eventually we arrived at the museum, went through the security screening and waited for the tour to start. The place was crowded, as can be expected!

The tour guide told us that is one spends 12 seconds looking at each exhibit it will take 12 years to cover the whole of the Vatican. Obviously we didn’t spend neither 12 seconds nor at every exhibit so the whole tour took us about 4 hours only 🙂

What an extreme show of opulence. The pops had almost 2000 years to rob from the whole of civilization and it shows.

Obviously I can’t describe everything we saw…

When we got out it was raining! We decided nothing would be better than some ice cream and since the best ice cream parlor in Rome, Giolitti, was located next to our hotel we decided to go for a pre-dinner snacks.

After having these delicious ice creams and freshening up we decided it was time for dinner. Luckily there were quite a few restaurants next to the hotel and we went looking for one we all would like eating at. On the adjacent street to the hotel we passed a nice looking restaurant and remembering the fiasco from the previous day, after playing hard-to-get for a brief while we let the host talk us into eating there. We never felt disappointed with out decision 🙂

After having this great dinner and after walking for what seemed like an eternity I felt ready for bed.

All of us went to sleep early this day a the plan for the next day was a visit to the Colosseum!