Pantheon and Piazza Navona

Can you imagine walking into a building that has stood intact just the way it was built for 2000 years? Who all must have walked on the same mosaic floors? Julius Caesar himself I bet! It gives me the chills just to imagine how old the Pantheon is and how amazing its architecture! I hope BB felt some of the magic, although it's hard for him to fathom what "old" really means. 

We started our day at the magnificent Pantheon that houses Raphael's sarcophagus along with many beautiful sculptures. The hole in the cupola is a marvel. 

From there we walked to the nearby piazza Navona which is as grand as a roman piazza needs to be. Decorated by Bernini's Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers) - Ganges included - as its centerpiece. The fountain represents practical but aesthetically amazing drinking fountains built and patronized by reigning popes all over the city. 

We lunched at the piazza before strolling around the Campo di Fiori market. Plenty of fruits, produce, olive oils and knock knacks would make this market heaven if it wasn't so touristy and overpriced.

Here's the extra long escalator at our Barberini metro station and a glimpse of random fountains around street corners in Rome - amazing!

Gondola Republic

Big on our agenda this AM was a ride in the gondola. Talinn was super excited plus BD had told me that I had to take BB on it. Knowing me, I may have thought twice about paying 80 euros for 30 mins. The guy at the stop near our house was suddenly over-the-top busy today. The day before he'd been begging us for a ride but today all the gondolas were packed. We decided to return In the evening.

Our gondola ride is what memories are made of! We went on a lovely loop around the smaller canals, before getting onto the grand canal with Rialto as the backdrop. BB and I wished that we could charter a gondola for the entire day and just drift around the canals. It's just so relaxing, languid, and perfectly Venice. 

What a great way to wind up our stay here and bottle up all the canal memories! 

Roma! Roma! Roma!

Can't wait to get to one of my favorite cities in the world! Took us barely half an hour to walk to the vaporetto stop and get to the Santa Lucia station. We were over an hour early. The shops at the station are wonderful and we stumbled into a Tiger store which is filled with inexpensive tchachkies. BB snagged a few items in a hurry before we got onto train to Rome.

More than half of our nearly 4 hour journey was spent chatting with a lovely mother-son duo from Argentina. We chatted about everything from culture to politics to food in Argentina, India, US and Italy. Their trip is the mom's graduation gift - from engineering school - to her son. I was impressed to see that the young chap had no electronic gadgets, chatted and sang with his mom the entire journey, and even gave her a full share of hugs and kisses. They said all his siblings live nearby and meet for meals often. Life is Buenos Aires is so good in general that no one really wants to leave. I don't blame them. I could live in BA! I asked BB - who was fully immersed in a Harry Potter movie - if he would ever do this trip with me again after he graduated from college. He said of course! I doubt it! I'll just enjoy what I have while I have it - shared attention with Harry Potter and all :) We did enjoy a few rounds of Uno after the movie got done.

Our train stopped in Padova, Bologna, and Firenze along the way. We alighted at Termini, took the metro to Barberini station where, upon emerging, we were greeted by Bernini's first free-standing fountain - King Triton on four Dolphins.

We checked into our weird apartment without a glitch but the heat was getting to us. The apartment had no sitting room, just two bedrooms connected by a galley kitchen. And no air conditioning! Just a couple of rinky-dink table fans!

Since BB is train sick (go figure!) he'd skipped lunch. We were starving and ready to see the Trevi fountain which is where we headed after a quick grocery pit stop. Woe is the word!!!! Trevi is closed for refurbishment! The best ride closed in Disneyland!!! Oh dear! If I can't drop coins into Trevi, does it mean I don't get to return? I was sad!

Dinner cheered us up a bit. Then we strolled to the Spanish steps and hung out there for over an hour, soaking in the crowds. Either all the Italians have left town in this heat or stilletoes are no longer the in thing. I can't get used to so many flat shoes in Rome!

Can you spot Waldo aka BB?

We returned to this lovely view of St Peters Badilica from one of our bedrooms.