Euroadventure stop 4: Rome: Days 3 and 4

For our third day, we decided to do less trucking around and more soaking and being. We started the day getting to a little park overlooking the Colloseum, which took us conveniently past the church of St Peter-in-Chains

Moses, by Michelangelo. This photo is awful. Hard to do a good shot from a point and shoot with no flash or tripod. What i can't figure out is why Michelangelo gave Moses horns?

These chains are actually two sets; one from Peter's imprisonment in Jerusalem and one from his imprisonment before his execution in Rome. According to sources, when the two relics were brought together, they supernaturally snapped together to form one solid line of chain. Are they real? Dunno. Are relics an important part of my faith in Christ? Not really, but if anyone wants to explain it to me I'm open to being convinced. Fire me an email.

Our picnic spot. Yep. That's the Colloseum in the background. We're like, totally over it by now.

 For the late afternoon/evening, we decided to take a walking tour from our guidebook through the "Heart of Rome"

Piazza Navona. Not only is it huge, interesting, and filled with gorgeous fountains and enigmatic street performers, but half of it is swarming with street artists. This used to be the site of a roman race course and is allegedly, I think, either the site or near the site where Caesar was assassinated.

We were really really impressed with this fountain in the piazza. The four figures on the base represent rivers from the four known continents: The Nile for Africa, The Indus for Asia, the Danube for Europe and some random one we've never heard of for South America, 'cause they hadn't found the Amazon yet.

 That is, until we strolled a few blocks further to find this:

Trevi Fountain. It was swarming with people but still very impressive and very romantic.

 After taking in the fountain we strolled just a few blocks further to a little high-class restaurant where we celebrated Alyssa's birthday belatedly but in style; with a sumptuous Italian feast. We practically rolled home, we were so full of good food and wine.

The next morning, our last full day in Rome, was another slow-itinerary day. We made our way back to piazza navona to read and soak up as much hot Italian sun as we could. Then, it was some market shopping and rustic Italian pizza in Campo di Fiori before retiring for a siesta in the hotel and prepping for the evening

Trajan's column. I took some other photos the first time we passed by, but this is the one that turned out

 It was Good Friday, and we stumbled upon a nugget of information: the pope does a stations of the cross service at the Colloseum on Good Fridays. So we jogged down to the Colloseum one last time in the evening to try and catch a glimpse.

Which is precisely what we got. Just a glimpse. This is the undeniable best of 5 or 6 awful photos. The crowds were massive. But it was him, alright. If we get to see the Queen this June, it'll be a really big year for world leader encounters.

The next morning we were up and early to catch our train to Switzerland. We bid farewell to the Eternal City with a heavy heart, but excited about the prospect of spending Easter weekend with the closest thing to family we have on-continent.