A Few More Days in Rome

The day at Pompeii wiped all of us out. We slept in the next morning, lounged and slept some more. Finally, we got ourselves up to go out.

Kim found info online on couple of historic bridges nearby that we could cross so we did an evening walk, walking down to one, crossing it then walking along the river and crossing the other. It was a warm evening but along the river was nice and we got some walking in.

One ancient bridge in Rome

After the day of rest, we got up early and walked to St. Peters. This is a must see in Rome. The basilica was finished in 1626 and has a sculpture created by Michelangelo that is truly amazing. The basilica is huge and everywhere you look there are paintings and frescos. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saint-Peters-Basilica

View from the entry of St. Peters

St Peters

Michelangelo's Pieta

We did not, however, want to go to the Sistine Chapel. No one was particularly interested and having been once, I was fine with skipping it.

From St. Peter’s it is a very short walk to Castel Sant’Angelo, which was Hadrian’s tomb. This was of interest as we had walked under his arch in Athens and his library. As much as anything, it was nice and cool in the Castel! https://www.britannica.com/topic/Castel-SantAngelo

Fortunately, the day before Pompeii, we’d done the Rick Steves walking tour. Visiting the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and of course, coffee at the Tazza d’Oro. Iced coffee was perfect for the very warm afternoon. But be aware that iced coffee and frozen coffee are 2 different things, and iced coffee is different from 1 coffee shop to the other.

Zaya throwing a coin into the fountain, hoping that she can return

Dale and Zaya walking down the Spanish Steps

Michelangelo's Moses

Our stay in Rome had to include a visit to Capri before leaving the area. We really didn’t do much, just took the funicular (the cable car) up to Capri Town, which is up

Lunch view

View from the top of the funicular

Lunch

the mountain. We found a place to eat that had lots of gluten free options, then hoped a bus. We’d hoped to go to Anacapri where we could get on a boat to go out to the Blue Grotto. By then we heard that the Blue Grotto was closed, winds were blowing and it was getting to be later afternoon. It just made sense to walk a bit, go back to Capri Town, take the Funicular back down the mountain, catch the ferry to Naples and go back to Rome.

Capri was nice but the sky wasn’t nice so good photos were not really an option.

Time to move on to Florence.