Ciao! Italy 2014: Day 2 in Rome

Hi everyone!

Here's the last post that I will be sharing with you guys about Italy. I will be talking about my second trip into Rome.

There was so much to see in Rome that I wanted to go back. My friend and I decided to give it another try before we left for Palermo the following day.

Again, we were stunned at the beauty of the Piazza del Popolo when we arrived. We also noticed that there was a Leonardo da Vinci museum right there in the plaza. We wanted to go in but we decided to leave it after we visited the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately, things didn't planned out the way we hoped.

The outside of the Leonardo da Vinci museum

The Piazza del Popolo

We took a different street from the last time to get to the Spanish Steps. When we arrived, it was incredible to see how many people were there.

The Spanish Steps

As I waited for my friend to finish taking pictures of the steps, I admired the fountain at the bottom of steps and witnessed something interesting. I saw a woman walk up to the fountain, took her water bottle out, filled it with the fountain's water, and drank it. I have to admit, I was stunned and a little grossed out. Being a germaphobe, I began to imagine all this bacteria going into the woman's system. However, I found out that the water in Italy is very pure and in fact the water coming from the fountains are drinkable. Will I ever drink from a public fountain where people walk into and throw coins in? Most likely not, but at least I learned why the woman did what she did.

Fountain at the bottom of the steps: Fontana della Barcaccia

Afterward, we decided to look for the Trevi Fountain. We thought we knew how to get there because the map showed that it was an easy trail. Boy...we got lost...And yes, the museum closed while we searched for this famous fountain. 

Beautiful monument whose name I don't know

We were told to walk through the tunnel to get to the fountain

We're lost

It took us almost an hour to find our way, but were disappointed to learn that the fountain was being remodeled. Walls closed off the fountain but there was still access to see it. A bridge was constructed that allowed tourists to walk right inside the fountain since there wasn't any water. It was amazing to see how massive this fountain was. I can begin to imagine how gorgeous it was with water.

Inside the Trevi Fountain

We had to head back and again we thought it would be easy to find our way back. Sigh...we got lost again! We didn't panic though because we had a lot of fun being lost. We came to encounter many great things as we tried to navigate ourselves. 

One, we learned that Pinocchio is huge in Italy for it's an Italian tale. I wondered at first why many souvenirs were of Pinocchio, but getting lost the second time answered my questions. We even came upon a wooden shop dedicated to our wooden friend.

Pinocchio/Wooden Shop

We then came across the Pantheon (we soon learned that this was the complete opposite way of our destination). Entrance was free and we could not miss the opportunity to view the inside. All I have to say about it was that it was gorgeous!

The Pantheon

Inside the Patheon

One of many statues

When we finished, we focused on getting back. We arrived at the metro train station realizing that we were lost for two hours the second time. We were having too much fun to realize how long we were lost. 

Well, peeps...that's all for now. I did many other things such as visiting Palermo (my favorite place!), but this will be all that I will be sharing. I hope you did enjoy what I posted and I thank you for taking the time to visit.

Happy reading!!!