Trinità dei Monti, the church at the top of the Spanish Steps.
Obelisco Sallustiano
Spanish Steps. Apparently it's the longest and widest staircase in Europe. Great place to hang out and people-watch, especially in the evening.
Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museum
The rotating sphere sculpture in the Vatican Museum courtyard. It reminded me of the Death Star, to be honest. Very curious object.
There are lots of painted domes in the Vatican Museum.
Can anyone explain why the Vatican Museum has such an extensive collection of Egyptian artifacts?
One of the muse statues in the gallery of muses.
The gallery of tapestries. This is an especially impressive tapestry by an unknown artist, based on sketches by Raphael.
My favorite, the gallery of maps. The walls are lined with antique maps, while the ceiling is adorned with impressive embellishments, and the corridor just goes on forever. The effect is amazing.
A view of St. Peter's Basilica from a window in the gallery of maps. After this gallery was the famous Sistine Chapel, in which no photographs were allowed. Not that you'd want to take any in there anyway -- it's one of those cases where photos simply just can't do it any justice.
A view of the interior of the main dome of St. Peter's Basilica.
A view of Rome from the top of St. Peter's Basilica. Totally worth the climb.
A view of St. Peter's Square from above.
Interior of St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world. If you go at the right time of the day, the interior is illuminated by dramatic shafts of light like this.
From this perspective, the light beams look like lasers. :)
Lots of chairs set up in St. Peter's Square, I'm guessing for when the pope makes his appearances.
A view of St. Peter's Square, with the obelisk and St. Peter's Basilica in the center.
It helps to go later in the day to avoid the crowds.
Day 2 started with a visit to the famous Roman Colosseum.
It's amazing how familiar it feels -- basically like going to a modern-day football stadium, except that it's 2000 years old and we had a really hard time finding anyone willing to sell us two hot dogs and a cold beer.
The area under the stadium floor (which was made of wood) had all these small rooms and corridors, which made it possible for them to install props and wild animals down there and then use a system of pulleys and trap doors to bring them up to the surface for scaring the heck out of the gladiators. Oh, those Romans were such crazy engineers.
Palatine Hill. Lots of impressive ruins.
Forum Romanum (Roman Forum). More impressive ruins.
We saw many beautiful red poppies all over Italy during our trip. There were also dandelion fluffs and various other plant matter floating around everywhere we went, which probably means that May is a horrible time to visit Italy if you're susceptible to hay fever.
The ruins of the Temple of Saturn.
Arch of Septimius Severus
Palazzo Senatorio (Rome's City Hall) on top of the Capitoline Hill.
National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the modern unified Italy (1861).
Piazza Colonna. The centerpiece of this busy area of downtown Rome is the Column of Marcus Aurelius, which has existed at that spot since 193 AD (!).
The Pantheon
The dome of the Pantheon. Built in 126 AD, this is THE original monumental dome, the one that all the other domes are based on, and still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. It's an amazing feat of engineering, especially considering the relatively crude tools they had at their disposal.
Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace). A great place to take a time out after a long, hot day of sight-seeing.
Piazza Navona
Fontana del Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune)
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers)
Campo de' Fiori
Pantheon
I couldn't figure out what concept they were trying to convey with this display. Toxic biohazard chic?
Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain)
Spanish Steps
