We are finding that Rome is a very walkable city and didn’t find ourselves lost even once. It helps to have 5G coverage and internet mapping because the old part of the city has zero right angles and thousands of ways to get confused and turned around.
For those of you that have visited this city with a paper map or a guide book in hand, we say “buono per la Tua salute“*.
We had a pretty simple itinerary for our first day. Wander around to get a feel for the city and see 3 of the nearby classic Roman sites. First we visited the Piazza Navona where the kids learned about the 3 fountains and the history of the horse races in this oblong plaza. No rented audio guides today – Dad hosted the tour.
We found a nice overpriced lunch place on the piazza where one of the kids had a pizza, one had a calzone, and one had tortellini. It seems like a long time ago when we were ordering kao pad prik in Thailand.
The Pantheon is only 500 meters away from the Piazza Navona but we had to take a number of narrow streets to get there. After emerging from one of these alleyways and looking left into this square fronting the Pantheon, we literally gasped at the sight.
This building is massive. It was, after all, built to worship (-theon) many gods (Pan). Sadly we couldn’t get in to shoot any photos so you will have to enjoy this one and wait for another day when we will try again.
After the Pantheon we followed the crowds to visit another important tourist site in this area. Up until this point we had not felt that there were too many tourists on a Saturday in May in Rome.
Well, that changed when we got to the Fontana di Trevi. It is a small space and was packed.
One of the things that we were noticing as we traveled around the world visiting certain unique travel destimations was the proliferation of younger people staging photos. Usually it would be an individual. Sometimes it would be a couple but there was always one individual within the couple (or group) who would insist on immediately reviewing the image taken and then insisting upon re-shoots. They take forever and while we generally try to be polite and take turns with other tourists, at some point it becomes annoying and ruins the experience. We’re trying to come up with a name for them – perhaps “narcissistigrammers”.
This fountain is renowned for the coins tossed into it (to help the poor of Rome) by the tourists. The saying goes that if you throw your coin in (right hand, left shoulder) then your wish of returning to Rome in the future is assured.
The 5 Adventurers fought their way close enough to toss in their coins and then back away from the hordes of image-obsessed tourists taking selfies (full disclosure; image above is a selfie).
In addition to seeing some sites, we are enjoying our local neighborhood right across the river. It’s called Trastevere and we have stopped into few places already that we would like to visit again before departing on Wednesday. A great first day in Italy!
*-buono per la Tua salute – Good for you surviving the 70’s!
5 Adventures Together 