Rome Round One

Days 4-5: Vatican museums and Rome walking tour

While in Florence, we stayed at a B&B because we knew it would be too cold for camping, but for some reason we thought we could handle the cool temperatures in Rome.

"Hello, we'd like a camping spot for two people with a tent, please."

"You'll be setting up a tent? Are you sure you don't want a bungalow... with a heater inside?"

Somehow we made it through three nights of sleeping in our tent with the temperatures dipping to below freezing -- not our happiest moments of the trip. Our days consisted of waking up early to take advantage of as many daylight hours as possible, walking and walking all over Rome, riding the Metro and bus back to our campsite, cooking a quick and cheap meal on the camp stove, jumping into our tent to get warm under our down blanket, and passing out shortly thereafter.

The sights in Rome, however, more than made up for our sleeping accommodations. Despite the cold and sometimes wet weather, we got to see a lot of the city.

Our first stop was the Vatican museums. Above left is a photo of the marble sculpture known simply as Laocoon, named after the mythological figure in the center who is depicted with his sons.

St. Peter's square with the basilica in the background

Piazza del Popolo -- I really wanted to go inside the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in this square (not pictured) to see the two Caravaggio canvases, but those darn siesta hours got in the way. Do you really have to close for four hours in the middle of the day? You'd think I would learn my lesson and plan our stops into these smaller churches around the siesta schedule, but you'd be wrong. I did it again the next day and missed four more Caravaggios.

The Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain -- no I do not want to pay you to take our picture, we can take one of ourselves, see?

Temple of Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra

At camp before our second day of touring

The column of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza Colonna

Pantheon

Castel Sant'Angelo

Cioccolata Calda -- hot drinking chocolate

Rome may have tried to beat us down with cold and rain and an overwhelming amount of stuff to do, but the Eternal City did not defeat us, and in two weeks time we'd be back for more...