Rome City Tour, Part One

Who’s ready for some Rome pictures?  Well, ready or not, we have a ton of them, so get ready!  😝 Are you like us and you tend to take a gazillion pictures on your first day of visiting a place, not wanting to forget anything, and then by the end of the trip you wonder, “Should I take a picture of this?  Eh.”  🤷 Haha!  So, for that reason we will be splitting up our first full day in Rome into multiple posts, because there are just too many pictures not to share!

Anyway… Andiamo!  Let’s go!

On our first full day in Rome we met up with our private tour guide, Federica, for a walking trip around the city.  We were introduced to Federica through another travel agent we met on a previous trip who highly suggested her for our clients, so we thought we would try her out to see if she would be a good fit for us, and she definitely was! Our first stop was to have a traditional Roman breakfast of a cappuccino and croissant (coronet) while standing at the counter.  It seemed a little odd to stand and eat and Americans, but as we both have worked in the restaurant business, this was nothing new for us (if you know, you know)!  The coffee and pastry were delicious and gave us the energy we needed for a full day of walking.

A typical Roman breakfast

Along the way Federica walked us through the Galleria Sciarra, a hidden courtyard built for a wealthy family in the Art Nouveau style.  Every inch of these four-story walls inside the space is covered by colorful frescoes of women and men surrounded by elegant floral designs. The women are the main focus, as the gorgeous artwork painted by Giuseppe Cellini is intended to celebrate women in the various phases of life.  We would quickly learn that we’d be accidentally stumbling into lots of incredible art and architecture like this all over the city!

Inside the courtyard of Galleria Sciarra and a closer look at the frescoes of women

Next we visited the famous Trevi Fountain.  Normally in the summer this area is completely packed with tourists and it’s near impossible to get a good picture.  Fortunately, since we were visiting in the off-season, it was still a little crowded, but we were able to get some good pictures.  Federica gave us each a coin to toss into the fountain to assure our return.  Did our coins make it into the fountain? Will we be returning to Rome? Stay tuned to find out!

The Trevi Fountain in the morning sun

Walking along the Via del Corso, Federica pointed out the ruins of the Auditoria di Adriano.  This used to be a public building where public readings of poetry and prose, and the teaching of rhetoric and judicial activities took place.  With large classrooms and bleachers surrounding a central corridor, the Auditoria Di Adriano sits about 6.5 feet below the modern street level.  The stamps found on the bricks of the masonry are traceable to the years 123-125 A.D.  Federica mentioned to us that since most of ancient Rome is below the present city, building new metro lines in Rome has become a bit of an issue, as every time they dig for new tunnels, they are often finding new ruins that they didn’t know existed!  We suggest that when you plan your visit Rome you should definitely pick some underground tours to get an idea of what this ancient city used to look like, and there are hundreds of sites to chose from!

Ruins of the Auditoria Di Adriano below the street level

More ruins below the street. These were not associated with the Auditoria Di Adriano, but we can't remember what they were. Most likely this was an altar of a church.

Since we were in the Capitoline Hill area, Federica took us to her favorite museums, the Capitol Museums, which deserve an entire post to itself, so we’ll be sharing photos from that soon.  They were not museums on our radar, and they were some of our favorite ones we visited!

Victor Emmanuel II Monument, AKA "The Wedding Cake" honoring Italy's first king, Vitorrio Emanuelle II.

Part two of our Rome city tour coming up!