Day Eleven: Florence and Rome

Warning: Be prepared for a TON of photos.

This was one of our busiest days of the trip. Thankfully, I packed the night before so I could go with Andy, Chris, and Mom to visit the Il Duomo di Firenze. Chris and Andy climbed to the top of the Duomo while Mom and I checked out the Baptistery of San Giovanni that's right next to the Duomo.

Here are my pictures inside the Baptistery.

Each layer tells different biblical stories.

After the Duomo, Andy headed back to our Airbnb and Chris, Mom, and I went to the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze. The front of the building has beautiful marble like the Duomo.

However the rest of the building is brick.

This statue is of Dante in the piazza in front of the church.

This is a monument to Galileo Galilei.

This is the monument to Michelangelo (not the Ninja Turtle).

They are currently restoring the paintings on either side of the monument to Michelangelo. It was amazing to see the scale of the paintings as well as how meticulous they are during the process. You can see white dots to help them keep track of where they are working on currently.

This is the cenotaph of Dante Alighieri.

I'm still not used to the idea of people being buried in the floor of the churches. It kind of makes sense, but it is still strange to me.

After we finished exploring the basilica, we went outside to the cloister of Arnolfo.

Under the walkway was an underground memorial. The floor was covered with markers.

The last part we visited was the Museo dell'Opera or the Opera Museum.

Inside it had markers showing how high various flood waters were in the building. You can see the highest one was just in 1966. The damage was extensive.

Since we got there fairly early in the morning, it was rather peaceful and quiet.

Then we made our way back to our Airbnb one last time so we could catch a train to Rome.

We got to Rome about an hour before check in time at our Airbnb thankfully we were able to leave our luggage with the doorman and we walked to the Trevi Fountain.

We followed the tradition and we each threw a coin in the fountain.

This leg of the trip was the part that I really missed Jonathan. He loves Roman history and I did my best to take even more pictures for him.

I was tempted to buy a large helmet, but I didn't think I could get it through airport security.

After we got checked in, we went out to lunch and we got sandwiches at Pane e Salame. The food was good and the music selection was hilarious. It was all American music but it was the most random playlist ever. They played the Beach Boys, Nirvana, and Enya along with other random artists.

After lunch, we passed by the Temple of Hadrian from 145 AD and my mom got harassed by a very drunk Roman soldier. I doubt she is the first woman to be harassed there nor the last one.

I thought this street performer was very clever.

I took forever walking anywhere because I was constantly looking down alleyways and taking pictures of the pretty buildings.

Mom wanted to get some pretty pasta to display in her kitchen. There was plenty of variety.

Our next stop was the Pantheon. It was mind boggling how large and spectacular the interior is.

There are people next to the columns to give you a sense of how large it is.

This is the fountain in front of the Pantheon. It is the fountain of Piazza della Rotonda. On top of it is an Egyptian obelisk from the era of Ramses II. One thing I was not expecting with visiting Rome was the large amount of Egyptian artifacts that I would see.

Back to the Pantheon. I can't really describe what it was like.

We passed by the Baths of Nero and it was just gorgeous!

Our next stop was  San Luigi dei Francesi or Church of St. Louis of the French. It was gorgeous!

Our next stop was the Piazza Navona where we saw the Fiumi Fountain as well as the exterior of Sant'Agnese in Agone.

As we were walking, I got a picture of the Santa Maria della Pace at the end of the street.

We came onto a square where there were two groups of kids. The older kids were playing soccer while the younger group was chasing each other trying to get a little piece of trash. It was really cute.

On this trip we learned the hard way that when we were prepared for rain it didn't rain and when we weren't prepared for rain it inevitably poured! It happened in Brugge and it happened again in Rome. We got some more cheap umbrellas and made our way across the River Tiber to see the Castel Sant'Angelo. The castle was amazing and had so many artifacts and rough as well as opulent rooms.

The views were spectacular!

After finishing here, Mom and I were ready to go back to our place. At this point of the trip, we took an Uber instead of walking all the way back. Day 11 was a fantastic and long day!