First day in Roma

At this point in my trip, I had already been in Italy for a week for training. (In case you missed my Ciao Italia post). Pat flew in on Friday and we went to Rome on Saturday (May 14) for a full day of sight seeing.

We were planning to catch the 7:30am train from the Castel Gandolfo station, which takes around 45 minutes to get to Rome. While we were waiting at the station an announcement was made in Italian. Another passenger at the station came over to us and explained that the train was canceled. The next train wasn't coming for another hour or maybe two. Luckily she offered to drive us to the bus stop in town, which we would have never found on our own as it was unmarked, let alone even knowing which bus to take. She even gave us tickets for the bus and told us when to get off to get to the metro station. She was an angel! We were so grateful!

Once we arrived in Rome, our first stop was the Vatican museum. We wanted to get their as early as possible to avoid standing in long lines.

The museum was amazing and almost a bit of sensory overload. Everywhere we looked there was an incredible painting or sculpture.  We saw many famous works of art including the paintings in the Sistine Chapel (though we were not allowed to take pictures inside).  I've posted a *very* short summary of pictures here:

Sphere Within Sphere Sculpture in the Vatican Museum courtyard

A little size perspective...

Ceiling in the Hall of Constantine

 

Spiral Stairs leaving the Vatican Museum

View of St. Peter's Basilica

After the Vatican Museum we made our way over to Castel Sant'Angelo. Initially, we only planned to view it from the outside because we didn't think we would have time to go inside. But, once we saw it we decided to buy tickets and I'm so glad we did. This ended up being one of my favorite sites in Rome. In this building's lifetime it has served 5 purposes: a mausoleum, a papal fortress, a papal residence, a prison, and now a museum. AND it had some of the most amazing views...a really great surprise.

View from Ponte Sant'Angelo bridge

View of St. Peter's Basilica from upper terrace

Panoramic view from the terrace

After taking in the beautiful views we walked across the Ponte Sant'Angelo bridge and walked through some really quaint neighborhoods on our way to Piazza Navona to see Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers).

Fontana del Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune)

 

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi with Sant'Agnese in Agone church in the background

After Piazza Navona we continued on our way to the Pantheon. This is one incredible building!! It was built in 126 AD and once an ancient Roman temple, is now a church. The building also houses Raphael's (the painter) tomb.

Pantheon in busy Piazza della Rotonda

Amazing Pantheon dome

Next we walked to Piazza de Trevi to see the famous Trevi Fountain. This fountain is definitely worth fighting the crowds to see. It is magnificent!

Our U shape walk from Castel Sant'Angelo finished at the famous Spanish Steps. The Piazza was overly crowed because children were performing on the steps. It's extremely rare to see these steps empty in mid afternoon, especially on a Saturday. So although we didn't get to sit on the steps, it made for a great photo opportunity.

After the Spanish Steps we hopped on the metro and went back to the Vatican. The line at St. Peter's Basilica was extremely long when we were their earlier in the day, so we decided to go back around 5 in hopes that it would be shorter. It was indeed much shorter, but we still had to wait. Everyone must go through security and only a few stations were open.

It was well worth the wait. The basilica was absolutely stunning! 

The Swiss Guard

The outstanding view when we first entered

Backing onto Piazza San Pietro

HDR of St. Peter's Basilica

We tried to go up to the dome, but we spent more time in the basilica than we expected. By the time we went to the entrance to the dome it had just closed. Had we known it closes earlier, we would have done that first. It's really too bad, but you can't win 'em all.
 
We sure saw a lot, and that was only our first day in Rome. Post of our second day in Roma to come....