All of Rome in 5 days!?

Last Friday was the long awaited reunion of Rosie and I as travel buddies in Rome!  As an added bonus I got to start the weekend early because I went to the airport to collect Rosie instead of going to school - my days of being a good student are well and truly over :-S

From the airport we went to my apartment to eat and relax for a couple of hours - I think I had the sympathy jet lag again!  Then we took the tram into Rome and I took Rosie around centro, Piazza Venezia, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.  We ate some gelato, of course and at night went out for pizza with some friends from school.  We came home pretty early...we had a busy weekend planned!

Post arrival snack in the apartment - pasta of course!

Afternoon trip to Piazza Venezia

Gelato in Piazza Navona

The Pantheon...after a cappuccino break at Cafe Tazza D'Oro

Inside the Pantheon

On Saturday we spent the day exploring the Colosseum and the Roman Forum and on Sunday we walked to the Vatican in the morning to get a good spot to see the Pope speak, because why not? - when in Rome...!  There was a crazy amount of people in St Peter's Square - I can't imagine how many there must be in the summer. (Un)luckily we had arrived 45 minutes early and so had a prime viewpoint, although we were quite cold by the time the Pope appeared at his window!  Unfortunately for Rosie he spoke only in Italian and I'm not a very good teacher/translator!  But I understood quite a lot :-)

We had lunch near the Vatican and afterwards went into St Peter's where we decided to climb to the very top of the dome - 551 steps - at first it was easy but later the corridor became very narrow and slanting which was a bit dizzying!  For 2 euro extra it was possible to take a lift for some of the way up - but that's not the way we like to do things!  Plus, we could buy another gelato with that extra 2 euro!

Afternoon at the Roman Forum

Il Colosseo

Inside the Colosseum

Considering the history!

San Pietro on Sunday...before the crowds arrived

Il Papa

Altar inside San Pietro

San Pietro

Climbing the stairs to the dome - this was the easy part before it got narrow and slanted

Looking down from up inside the dome

Scarier....

....Made it!

Views from the top of San Pietro

The Vatican Guards

Pizza and beer after a hard day's sightseeing!

On Monday and Tuesday I had to go to school in the morning while Rosie could get up late and relax :-( She came to meet me in the city for lunch each day and we continued our tour of Rome in the afternoons.

On Wednesday I didn't go to school - instead we went to Villa Pamphili in the morning and spent the afternoon eating pizza and gelato and drinking coffee - to make the most of Rosie's last day here!

Nice bin - this will be one of my pics!

Castel Sant'Angelo

Fontana di Trevi - bigger than the one in Vegas....!

Piazza del Popolo

Tour guiding in Musei Vaticani

The Map Room - Musei Vaticani

Out on a night time walk... 

Yes, pasta again!

Villa Pamphili

Yay - I have my photographer back!

On Thursday morning I took Rosie back to the airport - Grazie for a great 5 days in Rome Ros!  Ciao Bella!!
Afterwards, I think I felt a bit homesick for maybe the first time in 5 years!  However, just one week left until my first real return to the UK....ci vediamo presto xxx