Italy, Italy, Italy!

Buongiorno!  It's been a couple of weeks since our return to England (blah), & I've had time enough to settle back into my work, exercise, & free-time routines, which in many ways I'm thankful for.  I like our life in Oxford (ssh), but I love Italy.  As soon as is manageable, I want to move there.  In the meantime, here's a bit of narrative & accompanying photos from our trip earlier this month.

Day 1!

Fi, Lyndsay, & I arrived in Rome late morning on Friday.  After checking into our hotel, we headed out on foot to see as much of the city as we could in a day.  Weather was a bit hit & miss (something of a theme for the week), so we couldn't really go anywhere without umbrellas.  This was a disappointing reality having just escaped England, but whattya gonna do.  It took the ladies a few minutes to get their bearings.

Not much later, though, we were on our merry way to the Pantheon, Fi's all-time favorite building.

Before entering, we stopped into a nearby pizzeria for some lunch.  That's fresh pizza (i.e. the toppings aren't baked -- surprisingly delicious), an arancino (a fried risotto ball with melted mozzerella in the middle), & beer.  Glorious.

The post-prandial stroll through the Pantheon was really pleasant, in large part due to the inside being gorgeous; see for yourself.

We rewarded ourselves for being so cultured with a grantia di caffe con la panna, which is a sort of frozen coffee dessert topped with whipped cream.  Heavenly.

We walked more, passing through various Piazzas, the names of which I'm struggling to recall.  The one below might be Navona

This stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, & it's emblazoned all over Rome.

The Victor Emmanuel monument, near Piazza Venezia.

The pix kinda stop there.  By that time, we were all exhausted & in desperate need of a shower, change of clothes, & delicious meal.  I didn't photograph any of these activities.  After dinner, though, we did pause at the Spanish steps.  Here's Fi among the crowd. 

Also, a brief aside about Roman public transportation: like NYC, some of Rome's older subway trains are still in operation.  Unlike NYC, many of these are covered in graffiti, like something out of The Warriors.  It was awesome.

Day 2!

First on the agenda the following morning was the Colosseum.

The first time I saw Gladiator, I remember thinking, 'Surely, there aren't birds flying around the top of the Colosseum'...

 
A sneaky attempt to freely photograph a pack of centurions (just over Lyndsay's shoulder), kickin' it while they await tourist photos.

The Arch of Constantine.

The Arch of Titus.  Wikipedia tells me this was the inspiration for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Various stages of the Roman empire, plotted on a nearby wall.

 
The Forum.

Hail, Caesar.

Trajan's column.

Rome was beautiful.  I would've loved to spend some more time there, but we had a reservation 4 hours due east on the Amalfi coast!