I came, I saw, I conquered...

After a period of being lost in search of our hotel, we decided to purchase a street map of Rome (a note to fellow travelers: printed out Google maps are not detailed with all street names). The Kennedy Hotel was about a 3 minute walk from the Termini. The room was small and tidy with a cool view of some Roman monument outside the windows. After a quick shower we hit the streets for an 8 hour walking tour of Rome.



Kristin's co-worker had given us a check list of must-see spots in Rome so we searched the map and decided that the Spanish steps would be the first stop. Walking along the Roman streets I was quickly dazzled by the abundance of ancient churches, monuments and statues on every block. Arriving at the top of the Spanish steps we had a terrific view and were able to see the lay out of the entire city.




Next stop was Trevi Fountain which was a very crowded with throngs of tourists. After that we visited the Pantheon which I found fascinating. Built in the first century AD as a temple to the god's of ancient Rome. In the 7th century it was turned into a church (which means that some famous artists were commissioned to create a bunch of paintings and sculptures from Scripture for the pagan temple). I distinctly remember two things about the inside. First, how cool it felt on the inside on a warmish day. Second, how crowded the inside of this ancient church was with tourists.

And we saw so much more. Il Vittoriano, the Colosseum, the Forums, Constantine's Arch and Michael Angelo's Moses statue. By the time we were done making our circuit around ancient Rome we were ready to collapse into our hotel bed, slipping into a blissful oblivion. We woke up the next morning to breakfast in the hotel with our first taste of delicious cappuccinos. So delicious were the cappuccinos that we lingered over them a little too long. Realizing that we had only 15 minutes to get to the large Termini train station and find our train for Assisi we gathered our luggage and rushed off, unsure if we would catch our train.