Rome (Day 4)

Sunday in Rome was the perfect time to do a tour of churches, which was pretty easy to do with a church on every corner.  First, we walked through the Piazza Navona, an oval plaza built over a Roman racetrack.

Piazza Navona

We also made a stop at the Trevi Fountain.  According to legend if you throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain you'll return to Rome.  This was the most crowded area we experienced.  The streets were so crowded that the pedestrians were walking in the streets making it hard for cars to get around.  It gave us a taste for what Rome must be like in the summer.

Trevi Fountain.

We decided to try roasted chestnuts.
Isaac liked them.  The rest of us thought they
were pretty gross.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Of course we also had gelato.
We opted not to pay the extra 5 euros to eat
inside the shop but instead ate in the freezing cold.

This was an interesting model at Sant' Ignazio.
The large middle section was surrounded by models of
churches from all over the word.

Sant' Ignazio

The Pantheon was a Roman Temple that was converted to a Christian church in the 7th century.  The dome is the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.  

Dome and oculus.

The Spanish Steps.

Church at the top of the Spanish Steps.

Everyone taking pictures.

Before heading home we stopped at a church close to our apartment to go to mass.  It was nice to have the option to go to mass at all hours of the day (including 5:30pm).  Santa Maria in Trastevere is a beautiful 12th century church.  It may have been my favorite in Rome.  Mass was interesting in Italian.  Isaac wanted to make sure we stayed for the part where you got to shake hands with people, which we did.

Santa Maria in Trastevere

Every night we came back to the apartment, did a little school work, ate dinner, and watched a movie.  Sunday night was my turn to pick.  So here we are watching Roman Holiday in Rome.  Pretty great.