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Italy - Day 3 - Rome

We did not schedule our industrial maintenance alarm for today, so we didn't wake up until 11 am! Getting off to such a late start, we needed some serious breakfast to hit the ground running. We decided to head south from our apartment, stopping along the way at Emma. The breakfast pizza was delicious, even if Zoe wasn't too thrilled with our choices.



After pizza brunch our first stop was the cat sanctuary. Located among the ruins where Julius Caesar was murdered, we saw a number of cats including what we all determined was the Italian version of Peanut! Zoe really wanted to take one home, but the whole place was making Cheryl a little itchy, so we left without a new pet.



From there we began to make our way to the Pantheon; however, we ran into a bit of a snag. Someone spied macaroons across the way, so we had to make a pit stop and get a half dozen.



Snacks in belly, we continued on to the Pantheon. We came up to it from the backside, which is a huge, round, exposed brick wall. Making our way to the front, the columns were pretty impressive, but as soon as we stepped inside the scale of the place was incredible. It was impossible to capture how large the space is, regardless of which camera was used, but even Zoe tried to capture it.



The next stop on our list was Trevi Fountain. Before we made it there, we decided to stop at the Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola. This church was originally supposed to have a dome; however, they ran out of money and had to install a flat roof. In order to make it look as if there is a dome on the inside, they hired a painter to paint one on the ceiling. If you stand in the right spot, it really does fool the eye, but moving further into the church spoils the illusion.



When we arrived at Trevi Fountain, we weren't surprised to see it packed with people. The scale of the fountain and the statues is impressive. Luckily we were able to find a free spot around the edge to sit and enjoy the water. Zoe even did a little journaling and took a brief nap.



Listening to the police blow their whistles every 90 seconds at tourists too close to the fountain, we decided to head to our next stop, the Capuchin Crypt under the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. On the way there Zoe spied a toy store and with the euros Nana gave her (thanks Nana!) she bought a number of new dolls with exchangeable hair. It also was the first time we put on our rain coats, since it rained for a bit. Before arriving at our destination, Zoe wanted to do her interpretation of the Venus in front of a lovely fountain.



There was no video or photography allowed inside the crypt, so we weren't able to document how interesting it was, but you can see some pictures on the Atlas Obscura page. We did take this one picture of Zoe, who was really disappointed because the crypt was not underground. Above-ground crypts, disappointing seven year-olds for centuries.



After the crypt we needed to re-energize, so we stopped in a cafe for some gelato and drinks. Zoe unboxed all of her new dolls and allowed Cheryl and I to play with her for a bit. She's so good at sharing!



Our next stop was the Spanish Steps. It was a beautiful plaza with a large, boat-shaped fountain. Zoe hopped up on a ledge and did some more journaling before we made our way all the way down the steps to head home.



After a short rest at home we made our way out to a local plaza for some dinner. The food was great! We brought a new game we picked up earlier in the day. It was a card game where you either have to make a sound or pantomime what's on the car while the others guess what it is you're doing. As you can see from the pictures, it was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure that the locals appreciated it as much as we did.



And that brought us to the end of the day. Be sure to take a look at Flickr because there are a lot more pictures to see.

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