The rest of the first day in Rome

After a little rest in the apartment, we decided to take a walk to explore the area where we were staying.

I find that it's hard to tell the scale of a place until you have been there, Rome seemed big, but the central area where we stayed was very walkable. Luckily I brought very comfortable shoes with me!

 The best part about this walk was that it kind of just happened as we went along. 

The route we took was walk south along the Via del Corso, a wide street with shops, churches and lots of people. We cut across some streets to head west to the Piazza Navona.  It was actually a bit drizzly on the day we were there, but that didn't dampen my surprise and delight at seeing this beautiful space for the first time. 

After spending some time taking pictures and taking in the beautiful sculptures, we decided to keep on with our walk. We headed east, and arrived at the Piazza della Rotunda and the Pantheon.

What I didn't expect was to see such beautiful buildings right in the midst of everyday life and right in the centre of town. Maybe I didn't have many expectations. But I was once again wowed by the building that you really didn't even have to queue to get into or even buy a ticket. It was super busy inside, but there was a church service taking place as we walked around. It felt like a good place to say a little prayer.

After going inside the Pantheon, we walked east and crossed over the Via del Corso again, this time heading for the Trevi Fountain. 

Again a beautiful place, but boy was it cramped! It was one of those situations were I tried to take picture of the fountain above people's heads, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of just how crowded it was too! And lots and lots of teenagers and young people for some reason!

We ended up eating dinner close to the apartment that night, enjoying out first Italian antipasto platter and me having melanzane for dinner (aubergine bake). 

We also managed to discover a really good gelato spot called Venchi right around the corner from apartment. They also sold beautiful chocolates, but the gelato was enough to keep us returning night after night while we stayed in Rome. These are some of the chocolates, I was too busy ordering and eating my gelato to worry about photos!