Trevi Fountain

I slept in again today. I think that maybe the change in time zones is finally catching up with me. I didn’t really have a lot to do so I called Monica and we decided to go and get a long lunch together. Instead of wandering around aimlessly we looked in a couple of books that we had and the JCU handbook for some recommendations.

We decided on this nice little place called Augosto that is located close to our school in Trastevere. We walked in and the place was absolutely packed. We eventually get the attention of a waiter and he squeezes us in one of the back corners, the very last space that was available in the whole place. Also, we are still at that point where it is a little awkward to go into a sit-down restaurant because there is a lot of interaction with the waiters and waitresses and we don’t speak the language very well (and by this I mean we don’t speak the language at all). All in all the entire meal took about two and a half hours and the food was pretty darn good. We got three different courses: pasta, meat and vegetables, and dessert (we split them all because eating out is pretty expensive here if you want to sit down and take the time to eat in a restaurant). We tried the tiramisu and it was good, but still not quite as good as Popi Popi’s.

After lunch we went and got a few notebooks and some other supplies because class is starting tomorrow. We were going to head back home before we realized that it was the last day before classes started, so we went exploring again.

We walked by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (which I recently found out is actually the Monument de Vittorio Emanuele, the tomb is just the part of the monument with the marble and gold figure in the center that the guards are always standing on either side of) again and snapped a couple more photos and then went in search of the Trevi Fountain. We finally found it and it was absolutely packed. Actually pretty much everywhere we walked that was crowded with people. The Trevi Fountain was amazing. It is on the side of a building and just sprawls out into the big pool underneath it. I got a few shots but it was too crowded to for us to really take it all in and it was starting to get dark, so we continued on our way (we are definitely heading back when we have more time).

Trevi Fountain = Awesome

Next we came up to the Spanish Steps and they also were extremely crowded. We weren’t very impressed at first sight, but it was pretty dark by this time and we were concentrating on getting through the masses of people. The road that heads straight down from the Spanish steps is Via Condotti and when we turned down it, it was packed, from wall to wall with people. This is the road that has all of the higher end shops like Gucci, Prada, BVGLARI, Ferrari and so on. It was pretty cool. We took this road until we hit the river and then headed back home.

I couldn't really get a good shot of the Spanish Steps, but here is a shot of Via Condotti. Hopefully it gives you some idea of how crowded it was.