Discovering Rome, the Eternal City

Roma, Rome, the Eternal City, where do I even begin. The bigest city in the world during the reign of the Roman Empire, it has witnessed so much history. Luckily, a lot of the old buildings, or in most cases whatever is left of them, have been really well preserved – It is both an archaeologist’s and a photographer’s dream. It is also a city I have wanted to visit for as long as I can remember and finally I got the chance!

 

 

 

One of the best things about Rome is that there are sites everywhere, and even if they all look like they are far away from one another on a map, they are all actually quite close. The first place we went to visit was the Piazza Navona, a block away from where we were staying. It is one of the bigger squares in Rome and was once home to a stadium. Surrounded by very touristy restaurants, it has two beautiful fountains at each end. In the middle of the square you can find the fountain of the four rivers with an Egyptian obelisk in the middle.

 

 

A few blocks further away, you get to one of the more famous churches in Rome, the Pantheon. Built in 113 AD the Pantheon was originally built as a Roman temple, however it was converted to a church in 609 AD. While the entire building is very impressive my favorite part is definitely the hole at the top of the dome, one of the main reasons that the dome is still intact almost 2000 years later. Apparently it is really cool to visit when it is raining as the water falls through the church – unfortunately it had just stopped raining when we visited so all we saw were puddles of water on the floor. We did however see the reflection of the sun in the ceiling which was ever so impressive.

 

 

After a quick gelato stop, we headed to the Trevi Fountain, where we joined the masses of tourists. While I did not make it down to the fountain because of all the people, I did discover a church with a good view point where I took some awesome photos. Just as I started walking towards the fountain it started raining again, and you could literally hear some of the tourists scream – luckily for me this meant that quite a lot of people went away from the fountain so I managed to get closer.

 

 

A little further up from the Trevi Fountain you have the Spanish steps, another must do tourist spot. The first thing we saw was a big column (there are so many of them throughout the city) just outside the Spanish embassy. Then you get to another square with a boat shaped fountain and the steps themselves. After several attempts I managed to get a photo without anyone walking right in front of my camera.

 

 

The Tiber river divides the city of Rome in two, and is perfect to walk along. There are markets along the river banks, selling everything from souvenirs to old books and even vinyl records. There are also plenty of beautiful bridges and sights to see along the way. One of them is the Castel Saint´Angelo, a round building close to the Vatican. We had walked past a few times before we decided to go inside to see what this building was – and get a small break from the rain. Turns out it was originally a mausoleum build for the Roman emperor Hadrian which eventually got turned into a Papal fortress, residence and storage space.

 

 

 

Another last highlight to any trip to Rome, or Italy really, is all the amazing food. Of course there is all the pasta and pizza dishes, but their cuisine has so much else to offer as well. And then there is the wine, and all these cute little enotecas where you can try all these different wines by the glass. Lastly, and most importantly in my opinion, is the delicious gelato – which I made it my mission to sample at a few different places.