Rome continued - Under construction

Today started early for us, very early. At 11:30 yesterday evening we go multiple calls for someone named Franchesca. The first time we thought it was our wakeup call because we had been sleeping so hard from the lack of sleep the night before. The second time they did not reply. The third time I answered in German hoping that would deter someone who just wanted to mess with some Americans. After the forth call I left the phone off the hook for several minutes which finally worked.

When we finally woke up at 6:00 we got ready for our first real day in Rome. The day started by going to the Vatican Museum. Our local guide took us through quickly as we saw some of the highlights and ultimatley made it to the Sistine Chapel which was just as amazing as I had remembered it. We then headed to St. Peter's square as we found out that we would not get to go inside St. Peter's Basilica because the Pope here. This was a major disapointment because I that was one of the most memorable parts from my first trip and the view from the top is one of the best in "Rome". Since we couldn't go in the Pope blessed us even though we aren't Catholic. Okay, so maybe the Pope blessed us because he blessed everyone standing outside for his Wednesday blessings. Either way we left and headed with the group to the Colliseum and the Roman Forum.

We didn't stay too long at the colliseum, but we stayed long enough totake few pictures and look around. After the guide gave us the run down on the forum, we left the group and headed out on our own. We started by spending some more time at the forum. We then left the forum and headed past the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Once we got there we saw that the monument was under construction so it wasn't as impressive as I wanted it to be for Adrian. Anyways we left and headed toward the Piazza Navona to see the fountain of the four rivers. On our way we stopped in a small restarunt for pizza. We continued on our journey with full stomachs.

We finally arrived at the Piazza Navona to find the fountain of the four rivers was drained and under repair. Again Adrian missed out on seeing a truly amazing sight. We left and headed to the Pantheon.

As we walked down the small alley like streets, we came upon the amazing grandour of the Pantheon. Finally something that wasn't under construction.
We left and head to the Trevi Fountain. Once we arrived we made our way through the mob of people to toss our coins in and hope we one day will return. We left the fountain and headed to the Spanish steps passing down the via condotti (which is the Italian equivilent to Rodeo drive, and non we didn't buy you anything, or us for that matter). We arrived at the steps and rested. The attached picture is from our time there. Guess what, the obilisk at the top of the steps was under repair. From there, we left and headed back to our hotel with a great scenic walk through the Burghese Gardens. All in all the day turned out to be great, and we still haven't finished it off with dinner. Sure everything didn't turn out as we had planned, but we're in Romen and when in Rome...