Walking Rome - 9 miles, 57 flights of stairs

Campo Dei Fiori*Largo Argentina*Il Gesu*Michelangelo's Stair Case*Piazza Campolino,*Victor Emmanuel*Saint Peter's Dome Climb*Saint Peter's Basilica*The Pantheon - 

9 miles

I've managed to get the keyboard up and working, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get my pictures to download in the right order and how to move them around on the blog. I'm not going o worry about perfection - otherwise, this won't get done.  Today we walked 9 miles according to my fit bit and climbed 57 flights of stairs.  That seems right considering we climbed Michelangelo's staircase to the top of the steepest hill in Rome.  We then climbed to nearly the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument before taking the elevator to the top.  Finally, we climbed Saint Peter's Dome (not from ground level - we cheated and took the elevator up 1/3 of the way first).  I think the kids really liked being inside the dome with it's twisty staircase and slanted walls.  

Gratefully we arrived later in the day to Saint Peter's and avoided long lines to enter the Basilica. Since it is a special year of Jubilee, the Pope has opened the Bronze door for pilgrims to enter.  Even though we aren't "pilgrims" we decided to take this chance to enter the Basilica through these special doors.  It won't happen again for another 25 years.  Of course the highlight inside was Michelangelo's Pieta.  Such a beautiful, reverent piece.

This evening we joined a free tour of the Pantheon given by a guy from Dublin.  We enjoyed the history lesson of the oldest standing church in Rome.  It's my favorite church in Rome.  As a missionary I loved to go here, wandering through the the labyrinth of old Roman streets to to be suddenly surprised when around the corner the Pantheon would appear.  It's an amazing neighborhood.  Our little apartment is about a 10 minutes walk from here passing Piazza Navona on our way.

We decided the view from the top of Saint Peter's is 10 times better than the view from Victor Emmanuel.  Rome just looks better with the Saint Peter's Piazza and the Tiber River out front.  For a moment we thought we could see the construction of the LDS temple and as we pulled out the camera to get a better look with the telegraphic lens, the sun went behind a could and it disappeared.  Hum?

Pieta

Pantheon

No caption needed!

View from the Dome of Saint Peter's

View from Piazza Campolino

Lunch of bread, cheese, meat, and fruit all purchased from Campo Dei Fiori

Campo dei Fiori

Piazza Campolino

Il Gesu - amazing frescos inside