On Saturday we moved to the A.Roma Lifestyle Hotel, the location for the MEF Meeting.

After having breakfast at a small cafe near our B&B (near the Vatican) we took the hotel shuttle from the Vatican to the hotel about 15–20 minutes south of the Vatican in a more suburban part of the city. We got there around 10:30 am and waited about an hour to check in.

We walked to the terminus of Tram 8 and took the Tram into town. We got off near the Jewish Ghetto area and walked over to see the Synagogue of Rome which is a pretty impressive building. (Eileen got to go inside a few days later.)

Synagogue, built 1902-1904. See Day 7 for details.

After the synagogue, we did a long walking tour of some of the major sites in Rome (following Rick Steve’s “Heart of Rome" walk). We started with Campo de Fiori. This large square had a large open market. It was a large vegetable, foodstuffs, gift, and flower market with many vendors. We bought some nuts to munch on while we continued our walk.

Along the walk, we stopped at Piazza Pasquino. On a corner is a 3rd century BCE statue. For 500 years, this statue has served as a community billboard, allowing people to complain anonymously.

Next on the agenda was the Piazza Navona. This is a long piazza with Baroque Roman architecture and three fountains, two large ones and a huge one. The huge and most famous one, in the center of the piazza, is the Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, topped by the Obelisk of Domitian. From Wikipedia: the four river gods represent four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the Americas.

Left figure: Nile (for Africa), head covered because the headwaters were unknown; Middle figure: Rio de la Plata (for the Americas), tumbles backward in shock wondering how he made the top four; Right figure: Danube (for Europe), holding the coats of arms of the Pamphili pope.

Ganges (for Asia), holding an oar.

From Wikipedia: At the southern end is the Fontana del Moro with a basin and four Tritons sculpted by Giacomo della Porta (1575) to which, in 1673, Bernini added a statue of a Moor, or African, wrestling with a dolphin.

At the northern end is the Fountain of Neptune (1574) also created by Giacomo della Porta; the statue of Neptune, by Antonio Della Bitta, was added in 1878 to create a balance with La Fontana del Moro.

From there we walked to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a temple to the gods built during the time of Augustus between 30 and 20 BCE. It is a huge round building with a huge dome. The only light is an oculus (opening in the ceiling) that is 30 feet wide. This building is amazing in both scale as well as design — made even more incredible by the fact that it was built over 2000 years ago.

We stopped at a little outdoor bar near the Pantheon for a glass of wine to fortify us for the next round of walking. The next stop was the Trevi Fountain. Of course Eileen had three coins to throw into the fountain.

From there we passed the Column of the Immaculate Conception and continued our walk to the Spanish Steps, Most of the staircase was closed for reconstruction (there is a plexiglass sheet in front of the stairs that is creating a dim reflection), and then, since clearly we hadn’t walked enough, we walked up along the left staircase, which was still open.

Looking back after as we walked up the steps you can see on the left side of the previous picture.

The Italian Stone Pine.

Nice rooftops.

Victor Emmanuel Monument (with the chariots on top) and more.

Vatican City.

Then we walked to the Villa Borghese Gardens past the Villa deMedici.

Bike rental, anyone?

We were amazed to find out that the garden connected to Pincio way above Piazza del Popolo, our destination the first day we got to Rome. We walked down the the piazza, caught the Metro to Republicca and then bus to Piazza Venezia and then tram 8 to Travestere. We had dinner at a touristy but okay place near the tram stop, and then after gelato, too the tram back to A. Roma Lifestyle. Our third 10 mile day in a row.

Our walk:

Link to Day 6 (no report for day 5, see note at the end of day 6)

Eileen and Larry - 23-April-2016