The Rome Trip: Day 2

Day 2 of our trip to Rome, Italy, was probably the busiest and the fullest. We saw some of the go-to places you think of when you think of Rome and we did even more walking than the day before. But to balance that out we also ate more. Life is all about balance! 🙂

The Rome Trip: Day 2

Roaming Rome

On our way to see the Pantheon, we passed by some really cool stuff. We would go back later in the day to actually see all of the things we passed by, but I just had to get a photo with this Julius Caesar statue! I’m not going to say that this trip to Rome caused me to have a serious interest in Julius Caesar and his time as ruler, but that is also exactly what I am saying. History is fascinating to me and I was very interested to see the areas where Julius Caesar may have been.

The blue sky acts as the perfect background for taking photos! I just cannot say enough nice things about how beautiful the weather is in Rome!

The hotel we stayed at was not located in the city so it took us a little bit to get to the city, and then we had to take the subway to get to the area where we could walk to the Pantheon. Well, by the time we made it close to the Pantheon we were getting hungry. Luckily, Monika came prepared with some places where food was highly rated and we could just navigate to that area!

I took a photo of the shop sign so I could remember the name, but it was this wonderful little place called Pane & Salame! The sandwiches hit the spot and I would have one again right away if I could. I definitely recommend this shop to anyone looking for a good place to eat in Rome!

The Sant’lgnazio, Rome (The Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius)

A couple of streets over from the sandwich shop we ate at was this beautiful church called the Sant’Ignazio. We did not have this church on the list of things to see for our trip, but I am glad we ran into it. And it just goes to show how much history can be found in every single street of Rome.

The ceiling in the Sant’Ignazio was absolutely stunning! I couldn’t stop looking up at the beautifully detailed painting hanging above. The colors were incredibly vibrant and it gave so much depth to the church that I had never expected to see when we first stumbled upon this church.

The Sant’Ignazio Church was definitely an unexpected and unplanned highlight of the Rome trip! Overall, it was nice to just take a moment and appreciate all of the love and labor put into the church from the Italian people. Their devotion to creating a beautiful space to worship in should be an art form of its own.

The Pantheon

What is so amazing about the Pantheon is the age it currently is. This building alone is nearly 2,000 years old. However, standing inside this ancient building among several other people, it certainly did not feel like it was anything other than a regular place to be. Sure you would look around and see a cracked area of one of the ornate stone pictures built into the wall, but otherwise the Pantheon did not have a musty smell and the overall structure seemed solid.

If you go to the Pantheon expecting to see some great attraction or to hop on a rollercoaster, think again. The Pantheon is open to the public for them to visit and to appreciate the history it has withstood. For someone who knows relatively nothing about the history of the Pantheon building and someone who knows zero about architecture, I think the Pantheon was just slightly underwhelming.

Now before I have people feeling alarmed at me saying that, let me just say that I was basing all of my expectations The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003). All jokes aside, I am not sure what I was expecting from the Pantheon but whatever it was I did not receive it. Either way, if you do plan a trip to Rome you should probably still add this to you list of places to see, even if it is just for a photo.

The coolest part of the Pantheon, in my opinion, was the sun dial located in the middle of the building. I had never seen a sun dial in person before, and it was really intriguing to think about how people used the sun dial to tell time. It all made me wonder how the people in charge of taking care of the Pantheon covered the sun dial when it rains? These are the types of questions that cross my mind when I travel.

Sant’Agnese (Piazza Navona)

Although we did not tour the inside portion of the Sant’Agnese, we did spend a good amount of time just wondering around the Piazza Navona (basically that is just the area outside where the fountain is). If I were to go back to Rome, I would try to go inside and tour the Sant’Agnese. However, we did not have enough time to do that this trip and that is fine, the outside is absolutely gorgeous and a sight to see if you are visiting Rome.

The Food of Rome

It was fun to pause for a bit and watch the expertise of the Roman cooks. Pasta truly is an art form! Although we did not stop to eat at this sit-down restaurant, we did grab some pizza on our way to the next location!

The Altar of the Fatherland (Vitor Emmanuel II Monument)

The Altar of the Fatherland was one of my favorite places that we visited while in Rome. We had to climb some stairs to get there, but once you have the view of Rome is stunning! You can see so much, the Roman Forum is just right across the street!

This was one place that we just ran into because of its proximity to everything else we were trying to visit that day, but I am glad we stopped. and explored the area. This is another structure that was designed with so much detail. After climbing all of those steps and seeing the view, there is even an area where you can sit and relax a little. That is what I did at least. It was nice to look out at Rome and just take it all in.

Possibly one of the most special and meaningful parts of the Altar of the Fatherland is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guards when we went to visit. It felt right that the Tomb of the Unknown Solider would have so many people coming to pay their respects and remember all of those who are or have served.

A Roman sunset

After seeing all that we could at the Altar of the Fatherland, we wanted to also see if the Colosseum was still open for tours. However, we were too late by the time we made our way over there. We planned on touring the Colosseum the next morning and decided to enjoy the beautiful sunset.

Rome at night

We were then on a mission to find some food for dinner! Rome is a lot of walking which is good if you have solid shoes that will keep your feet feeling okay, but not so good when you are hungry. You become so desperate you begin searching for the nearest McDonald’s even though you are in Rome, one of the food capitals of the world!

The search for food was made a little bit better by the pretty Christmas lights that hung above in the streets. I enjoy seeing how cities and countries around the world celebrate the holiday season! Coupled with the stunning ancient buildings everywhere, the Christmas lights are made even more beautiful than they would regularly be.

After finally finding some food, we went to the nearest transit station. To get around the city we walked mostly, but sometimes we would take the subway. We used the national train service to get back to our hotel which was located out of the main parts of the city.

The public transportation in every form was really nice, I thought. Although walking around the streets of Rome was a good way to get a more in depth look at what the city is really like, I was always happy to have seat on the subway and train. The transportation was always spacious and never too busy. Also, it was easy to navigate around using all of the transportation systems!

After a long day of sightseeing, eating, and enjoying the beautiful Italian weather, it was time to head back to the hotel. We had one last day of sightseeing to go and we needed to be refreshed and energized in order to do it all.

Much Love,

Sarah