Day Two in Rome

The second day in Rome we felt so much more comfortable......but we didn't let our guard down.  The girls took the lead on the Metro and got us from point A to point B and back again.  Just when I think no one is listening and then they  proove me wrong.  They absolutely loved the metro.  Learning how to get the tickets and read the subway lines built their confidence so much they said they were moving to NewYork when they're older and wouldn't be needing a car because they like the subway.  It is quite entertaining to watch all the different people getting on and off.

This is the famous track for chariot racing.  It was not well kept.  It was unrecognizable.

Piazza Navona was an art lovers dream.  There were hundreds of artists selling their wares, mostly paintings and sketches.  It was beautiful but a little  chilly. We enjoyed lunch and people watched but moved on too quickly I'm afraid.  We had three things we wanted to get to before they closed so we couldn't spare too much time lounging.  The bus didn't go where we wanted so we had to hoof it. 

It's not easy being fierce with a bird on your head.

This pizza was amazing, I can't wait to duplicate it when I get home.  They cut a big rectangle and then fold it over.  I haven't met a piece of pizza I don't like.  Today we had pizza with thin sliced potato on it...yum!

It was rare to find pizza with sauce and only some had cheese.
Simply olive oil, Roma tomatoes, cayenne pepper and a hint of basil.
I've come to reason that with an excellent crust you can throw anything on top!

The Trevi Fountain in Rome is centered with Neptune, the Greek God of the sea.  It has been the centerpiece of many movies.  The story goes that if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain you will return to Rome.  Dennis did it 30 years ago and he made it back!  The girls also tossed coins.  Every day 3000 Euros ($4500) are tossed into the fountain.  The money goes to a supermarket for the poor.

They are in front of the Pantheon. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.  It is one of the best preserved of all Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda"; the square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza del Rotanda. 

The view from the Spanish steps, the widest steps in Europe.  

The last event was the church of bones called Capuchin Crypt.  Wikipedia helps me to describe it.

When the monks arrived at the church in 1631, they brought 300 cartloads of deceased friars. Fr. Michael of Bergamo oversaw the arrangement of the bones in the burial crypt. The soil in the crypt was brought from Jerusalem, by order of Pope Urban VIII
As monks died during the lifetime of the crypt, the longest-buried monk was exhumed to make room for the newly-deceased who was buried without a coffin, and the newly-reclaimed bones were added to the decorative motifs. Bodies typically spent 30 years decomposing in the soil, before being exhumed.

I would like to come back to Rome someday and bring my mother.  All the history that she's read about could come to life.