Pantheon

Our Trafalgar Grand Tour of Italy group met in the restaurant of our hotel at 4 p.m. We met Paolo Consoli, our tour guide, an Italian from Sicily, and also our other tour members: two couples from Canada, five couples from Australia, one couple from Australia plus brother, two mother/daughter teams from Australia, five American couples, one American sister team, one Filipino from the U.S. traveling with three Filipinos from the Philippines, and me. The Australians are our new world travelers––they get 4 weeks guaranteed vacation a year plus after 15 years they get 3 1/2 months of paid vacation. It is such a long trip for them to Europe from Australia that they often extend their trips much longer than we do. Later on, we met our totally fearless and expert bus driver, Mario. Paolo gave us his cell phone number in case any of us got lost––a tour conductor’s nightmare. One sad note: one of the Australian couples had just come from the police station. The wife had been pickpocketed––money and credit card. I found out later on that another Australian man on our tour also was pickpocketed––again money and credit card. I was warned about pickpockets from almost everyone who I told that I was going to Rome, so I wore a money belt, which, though inconvenient, did prevent that from happening to me. (It is not only in Rome where you have to watch out for pickpockets.) Tonight there was an optional tour to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona and an Illumination Drive of Rome. I had done part of this on my first night in Rome and also had seen the other sights but I decided to join the others and have some company for dinner. You pay extra for the optional tours, which was in the brochure booklet, and if you don’t want to take them (you already seen the sights, you are tired and you need a rest, or you want to do some exploring on your own), you don’t need to go on them. We got on our Trafalgar bus to meet a local guide who would take us on a walk to the Pantheon. This photo is of the Pantheon.

Pantheon

View of the Piazza Through the Pantheon

I have already put many photos of the Pantheon on this site, so I am now adding some photos of the Piazza della Rontonda at sunset. The colors of the buildings are quite beautiful with the setting sun on them.

View of the Piazza Through the Pantheon

Piazza della Rotunda

Buildings at sunset.

Piazza della Rotunda

Close-up of the Fountain

Close–up of the fountain at Piazza della Rotonda.

Close-up of the Fountain

Close-up of Building

Close–up of one of the buildings at Piazza della Rotonda.

Close-up of Building

Another View

Another view of Piazza della Rotonda at sunset.

Another View

Piazza Navona

We next walked to Piazza Navona and now it was time to have dinner. I had dinner with the two sisters, Clara Marie from Houston and Patty from Maine, at this little restaurant, La Fraschetta, on one of side streets off the piazza. I had bruschetta and canneloni. Both were very good but the bruschetta that I had in an Italian restaurant in Pioneer Square in Seattle is still the best I’ve ever had.

Piazza Navona

Vincenzo Franco

This is a photo of the owner of La Fraschetta. He asked us where we were from. I told him I was from Los Angeles and he said that he had lived there for awhile and that his uncle and brother owned a restaurant in Santa Monica and that he had not seen his brother in 20 years. He said that he came live in Rome by following his grandfather back here. So I took photos of both him and his restaurant and told him when I got home that I would go to his uncle’s restaurant, Marquis West, and bring the photos. He was so excited about this. However, this story ends sadly. When I got home, I found out that the Marquis West closed down two years ago. The restaurant that took over the Marquis West building still had the old telephone number and I was told by the new restaurant that the Marquis West closed because its owner, Guiseppi (I assume this was Vincenzo’s uncle) was 88 years old (two years ago) and couldn’t keep up his restaurant. So if any of you go back to Rome, would you please tell Vincenzo that the Marquis West is no more and that he really needs to keep in touch with his family. I think there must have been a very serious rift in this family for Vincenzo not to have known this––maybe the reason why he ended up in Rome.

Vincenzo Franco

Piazza Navona At Night

This is a very pleasant place to eat at night. Paolo recommended that we buy some gelato and do some La Dolce Vita walking around, which we did. Paolo also told us about the phone cards you can buy here––200 minutes of international calling for 5 euros and we bought some.

Piazza Navona At Night

Roman Ruins

The Piazza Navona was originally a Roman racetrack. This photo shows the original Roman entrance to the track––it is 25 feet below today’s street level.

Roman Ruins

Vatican At Night

We next went on an Illumination Tour of Rome. We were able to get off the bus to take photos of the Vatican at night. After viewing an illuminated Rome, it was time to go back to our hotel.

Vatican At Night