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Rome Map

Rome was the first stop on our Italy tour with Rick and Dave in May and June of 2015. We got to the city, groggy and tired, from an Air Canada flight on a Monday, and immediately set out on long walks to discover this pretty and historic city. When we announced that we were going to Rome, people came out of the woodwork to tell us their horror stories about bad service and rude people, but we didn't find this at all, people were mostly gracious and welcoming. We spent more time walking in the out of doors than in museums, and also visited churches and other   

 

Photo List (Total 591 Photos)

Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour

  • Piazza del Popolo to the Colosseum (133 photos) - When we arrived in Rome after a long flight, we went for a meandering walk that last several hours. This group of photos begins at the Piazza del Popolo, and continues south from there to some of Rome's major "sights", like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. Both of these were under reconstruction, but crowded with tourists nonetheless. We were more taken with the Altare della Patria, which offered some lovely views of the city, and the ruins on the Palatine Hill.   

  • Piazza Navona and Area (125 photos) - This series documents a walk we took that started across the river from the Castel Sant'Angelo, in an area with lots of small lanes. Our day started with a charming impromptu tour of a museum attached to a church, something we hadn't requested but just sort of happened. We walked up the Via Guilia, exploring charming streets and piazzas just off the Tiber River. We went to the Pantheon, and finally the Piazza Navona. The series also includes a separate walk from the Piazza Barberini back to the river.

  • Evening-time Photos (16 photos) - We went to a concert one evening in the Church of San Marcello al Corso, and these photos show the central city, including the area around the Pantheon, in the evening. 

  • Prati (77 photos) - Prati is the neighbourhood where our hotel was located. It is the area across the Tiber River from many of the city's most famous sites, just north of the Castel Sant'Angelo, on the same side of the river as the Vatican. A few of these photos are in our hotel, but more of them are general shots taken in the area around our hotel. There wasn't a huge amount in this area to see, but there are photos of the Piazza Cavour, and the impressive Palace of Justice. I have also included two visits to the Castel in this group, one in the sun when we walked past and took photos outside, followed by a bunch of photos of the Ponte Sant'Angelo and the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, the Tiber River, followed by a second visit in the pouring rain where we entered the monument. 

  • Vatican (127 photos)  - We visited the Vatican area on two separate days. We took a brief look at St. Peter's the first day, but didn't wait for the Papal address as we had timed tickets to the Vatican Museum. We returned the next day for a long but jolly wait to get into St. Peter's, followed by a walk up it's great dome for views of the city. 

  • Villa Borghese (58 photos) - This large public park, containing a number of museums, was formerly a greenspace attached to a palace (the Villa Borghese) and became a public park in 1903. There is some confusion over the name, because it applies both to the park and to a building. These photos show trees, statues, fountains, and a few buildings intersperced in the park.

  • Esposizione Universale Roma - EUR (36 photos) - This area on the outskirts of Rome was intended to be the home of the 1942 World's Fair, which didn't happen. Quite a few permanent buildings were constructed by Mussolini in a style that might be called neofascist, and amounted to a kind of pared down classicism with vaguely art deco elements. This group of photos shows some of the buildings associated with this area, as well as some of the abundant surrounding greenspace.

  • Subway and Train Photos (19 photos) - Rome's two-line subway is underdeveloped by European standards, and didn't seem to go where we often wanted to, so we only took it a handful of times. More shockingly, when we first took the subway and it rolled into the station, the cars were completely covered in graffiti. I hadn't seen that since New York in 1984. The insides were not dirty, but they were also graffiti covered as well. There are also a few photos in this group of the Termini Railway Station, and the beginning of the train ride to Naples.