Days 204-209- Italy Trip Days 2-7

Italy Day 2 🇮🇹

Flying High over the Alps 

Italy Day 4 🇮🇹

Enjoying a classic Aperol Spritz on a sunlit afternoon in Rome is a great way to unwind after a day of travel.

Molino - Bakery Bar & Cucina in the San Giovanni district of Rome is a contemporary, multi-functional culinary space. Rather than having a centuries-old history, it is a modern, rapidly expanding Roman brand that blends a traditional Italian coffee house, pastry shop, pizzeria, and restaurant.

A view from our Airbnb

Italy Day 5 🇮🇹

Day out walked by the Colosseum

St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro) is a monumental Baroque plaza in Vatican City designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1656 and 1667. Commissioned by Pope Alexander VII, its iconic elliptical colonnades were built to symbolize the "maternal arms of Mother Church" embracing believers from all over the world

Designed by Ennio De Rossi in 1886, Rome's Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II connects the historic city center to the Vatican. Plagued by decades of delays, it finally opened in 1911 to mark the 50th anniversary of Italian unification, functioning as an ornate, monumental tribute to the nation's first king

Italy Day 6 🇮🇹

‎⁨Basilica of St. John Lateran⁩, ⁨Rome⁩, ⁨Lazio⁩, ⁨Italy⁩

The Basilica of St. John Lateran, founded in 324 AD by Emperor Constantine, is the oldest and highest-ranking of Rome's four major papal basilicas. As the official cathedral of the Pope in his role as the Bishop of Rome, it holds the supreme title of "mother church of all the Catholic faithful" worldwide

The Trevi Fountain is Rome's largest and most famous Baroque masterpiece. Completed in 1762, it is fed by a 2,000-year-old ancient Roman aqueduct. The monument's name stems from Tre Vie (three roads), as it sits at the intersection of three historic streets

The Trinità dei Monti church and the Spanish Steps form a monumental Baroque masterpiece in Rome. Built in the 1720s to link the French-owned church at the top with the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See at the bottom, the landmark connects two European powers through stunning architecture

Spanish Steps

Italy Day 7 🇮🇹

Porta Asinaria is one of the most historically significant gates in the Aurelian Walls of Rome. Originally built between 271 and 275 AD as a minor, single-arch passage, it later served as a strategic military entry point, witnessing key sieges, betrayals, and papal conflicts

Cestius (Piramide Cestia): The only ancient Egyptian-style pyramid in Europe, built between 18–12 BC as a tomb for the Roman magistrate Caius Cestius. It is located at Via Raffaele Persichetti.

The Lateran Obelisk is the oldest and tallest ancient Egyptian obelisk in Rome. Dating to the 15th century BC, it was quarried in Aswan and originally stood at the Temple of Amun in Karnak. Emperor Constantius II brought it to Rome in 357 AD, and after falling and being buried, Pope Sixtus V re-erected it in 1588. 

The incredible journey of this 455-ton, 32-meter red granite monument spans millennia and two continents

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Rome War Cemetery was established immediately following the liberation of Rome on June 3, 1944. It contains 426 Commonwealth burials from the Second World War

Roman aqueducts were complex systems of channels, tunnels, and bridges that used gravity to transport fresh water from mountain sources to cities. They supplied public baths, fountains, and private homes. These engineering marvels revolutionized urban sanitation, public health, and leisure throughout the Roman Empire

Established in the 18th century, the Cimitero Acattolico (Non-Catholic Cemetery) in the Testaccio district of Rome is one of Europe's oldest continuously used burial grounds. It was founded as a practical solution to house the remains of non-Catholics, who were historically forbidden from burial in consecrated Catholic ground.

The Pyramid of Cestius is an ancient 12 BC Roman tomb built for the magistrate Gaius Cestius. Located near the Testaccio district and Porta San Paolo, this 37-meter-tall structure is clad in white marble and is remarkably preserved because it was later integrated into Rome's defensive Aurelian Walls

John Keats: Buried in 1821; his poignant, name-less tombstone reads, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water". Percy Bysshe Shelley: His ashes were buried here in 1823. You can also find the graves of Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, Goethe’s only son, and the striking Angel of Grief sculpture by American sculptor William Wetmore Story

Sant'Omobono is a church in Rome at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in rione Ripa. It was built in the 15th century and called San Salvatore in Portico. When the church was given to the "Università dei Sarti" in 1575, the church was dedicated to their patron saint, Saint Homobonus.

San Nicola in Carcere is an ancient titular church and minor basilica in Rome near the Forum Boarium in rione Ripa. It is constructed in the remains of the three temples of the Forum Holitorium and is one of the traditional stational churches of Lent

The Temple of Hercules Victor or Hercules Olivarius is a Roman temple in Piazza Bocca della Verità, the former Forum Boarium, in Rome, Italy. It is a tholos, a round temple of Greek 'peripteral' design completely surrounded by a colonnade.

The Porticus Octaviae is an ancient structure in Rome, Italy. The colonnaded walks of the portico enclosed the Temples of Juno Regina and Jupiter Stator, as well as a library. The structure was used as a fish market from the medieval period up to the end of the 19th century

The Temple of Apollo Sosianus is a Roman temple dedicated to Apollo in the Campus Martius, next to the Theatre of Marcellus and the Porticus Octaviae, in Rome, Italy. Its present name derives from that of its final rebuilder, Gaius Sosius.

The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum, is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.

The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument, also known as the Vittoriano or for synecdoche Altare della Patria, is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill