Day 39 Rome:

Today we decided to do some walking. We are going to walk to the Spanish steps, then to Piazza del Popolo and then on to the Vatican which is about a 5km walk. We get started around 9:30 and it doesn’t take long to reach the Spanish steps. Our immediate impression is “Ok, there are some steps!!” We think that maybe there is some cultural significance relating to the steps or maybe there was a battle for the steps or something dramatic like that. Apparently not. It appears they were put there to help people get from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill. Wow. Sorry but this one falls under the boring category for us and we only give it about 10 minutes of our attention. We keep moving toward the Piazza del Popolo with a detour into the gardens (with the word gardens used loosely). We wander for a bit until we come to a lookout point looking over the Piazza del Popolo. We take a few snaps and then make our way down to the Piazza. This is quite a nice Piazza with a large fountain in the centre. We notice of to the right of the Piazza is a church, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo with a very unassuming facade but we decide we will go over and have a look. We walk inside and this church is amazing. Like most churches in Rome, the front facade gives nothing away to its incredible interior. The good thing is the kids are loving the churches as much as we are which makes it easy to spend some time in them. We look around for a while and admire the works. We take the exit and start our walk along Via Cola di Rienzo toward the Vatican. This is a beautiful road and it looks pretty clear to us that there is probably a bit of dough up this end of town. We turn left into the street that leads us to the Vatican entrance and like everything in Rome, you can’t take 5 steps without being hassled by someone wanting to sell you something, shoving something in your face or constantly approaching you like this particular group of guys trying to sell us tours of the Vatican. There is all sorts of guys shoving something in your face while you are quietly going about your day here in Rome, particularly the Asian morons trying to sell us absolute rubbish, there’s the “squashy ball guy”, the “scarf guy”, the “bubble blower guy”, the “handbag guy”, the “squishy face guy”, the “glass cube guy”, the “sunglasses guy”, the “umbrella guy” the “hat guy”, the “musical toy guy”, the “dancing mice guy”, the “dodge the paintings on the pavement guy” the “glow in the dark flick the thing in the sky guy” and it goes on and on and on and its relentless and beyond annoying. We finally make it past the gauntlet of morons to find ourselves at the front of St. Peters Basilica. What a sight from the outside this place is. We are looking forward to getting the opportunity to have a look inside. We didn’t plan to go inside today but just to come up and have a look and the queue is huge anyway so we decide we will catch the open top tour bus back to our apartment and grab some lunch. Once back at the apartment we decide to grab a drink along our street. We find a nice cafe, order some toasted sandwiches and a beer and wine and we are set for an hour or so. We are feeling a bit bushed so it’s back to the apartment and the kids watch a movie. After that it’s out for dinner. We are becoming sick of pizza and pasta so we need to order something different. We walk past the Trevi Fountain and up this street where there are heaps of restaurants and we find this restaurant that looks pretty good. This proves a great move. We all have something different and Kris has this steak that we all agree is better than anything we have had at Hippo Creek. It was very expensive but the food was fantastic and we walk out of there shaking everyone’s hand, the waiter, the owner and the chef. We head back down the street and pop in to see Valentino (he's our "go to" gelato guy) from Valentino’s Gelato and the kids get an ice cream. Then it’s off home to bed.