Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and Coliseum at Night

Today was a pretty relaxing day. I was able to sleep in a little bit and then I just went and explored. I met up with Monica and we decided to go to the Spanish Steps and spend a little more time in the north-eastern part of the center. As we were walking up a back road to the top of the steps, I walked by a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti (to be honest I didn't really know anything about the car other than it looked really expensive and cool). Later I found out that it is equipped with a V12 and has over 534 horsepower. Not exactly a car I would buy and just park along the street (especially in Rome).

Here it is. The Ferrari 612 Scalietti. A beautiful looking car with a V12 and over 500 horsepower.

Just as nice from the back-side.

This is a view of the city looking out from the top of the Spanish Steps. It looks really dark but it was only about 4 PM.

The area below the Spanish Steps has been absolutely packed every time I have been there. The road that leads away from the steps is Via Condotti and it houses all of the really nice and ridiculously expensive restaurants like Prada, Gucci, BVLGARI, and the like (it is the same street I posted at night a couple of weeks ago).

At the top of the Steps, the area is lined with a bunch of street artists displaying their work.

At the top of the Steps rests the Trinita dei Monti. In this church there is no talking at all and you have to be properly clothed. Also, there are many signs that say that flashes are not allowed. So, being as sneaky as I am (remember the plane on the way to Rome), go up to the front and kneel down real quick and snap a photo. I thought I had turned my flash off. I hadn't. So again, I messed up. Instead of standing up slowly and waiting for the guy in charge to come yell at me (which Monica informed me later was standing right behind me when I took the picture) I just stood up really fast, turned around, and walked right out the door. Oh, and look how stellar of a picture it turned out to be. Not.

After I was done embarrassing us at the Trinita dei Monti, we started walking a little farther north to Piazza di Popolo. It is actually pretty close to the Spanish Steps and is a huge Piazza. None of the pictures I took really do it justice. We stayed here during sunset and even ran into a crowd of people decked out in Star Wars costumes before we started to head back.

Monica in the Middle of Piazza di Popolo. In the center way in the background is a huge balcony with a ton of people overlooking the Piazza. We plan to come back and find our way up there.

These were two identical builings on either side of Via del Corso, one of the largest, busiest streets in Rome that leads up to the Piazza di Popolo.

This was the best shot I could get of the Star Wars nerds. I didn't want to get too close, but looking back, I'm sure they would have liked the attention.

After the sun had set we were going to head to Villa Borghese but we decided to wait and check it out during the day. When we left Piazza di Popolo, we walked down Via del Corso and it was at this point that we realized how close and easy everything was to get to in Rome and how clueless we were of that fact. Basically when we started walking down Corso, we could see the Monument de Vittorio Emmanuelle at the other end (which is quite a ways away but still looked close because it is so huge). After making this realization and walking to Popolo from the Spanish Steps we started to put everything together. Everything is actually really close together. We walked all the way from Popolo to the Coliseum and checked out Vittorio Emmanuele and the Coliseum at night. I would have taken more pictures but the battery in my camera died after the first couple I took of the Coliseum.

The Monument de Vittorio Emmanuele at night.

The Coliseum at night. Even cooler to look at than it is during the day.