Rome Day 3 - Shopping and Saints

Our hop-on hop-off bus tickets proved useful this morning. It was a 24 hour ticket and we still had 2 hours left so we hopped one at 10am and got off at the first stop after St Peters. This was a piazza and street I had seen from atop the bus yesterday and I wanted to explore the shops more closely! My wonderful mother entertained my son while I popped in and out of nearly every shop in the street! Mum bought James a gorgeous top and I bought a fantastic dress and belt. Some of the fashion was way too outrageous for me and I could feel my credit cards cringing but I had a great time anyway!

The next bus came along an hour later so we took it to the stop near the Trevi. In the crowd yesterday we had forgotten to throw money into the fountain to ensure our return to Rome someday! This we did - James took all our money and 3 goes to get any coins actually in the water! It was hilarious. There are a dozen photos of his attempts!

I promised James gelati and we walked the short distance (slightly impeded by so many shops and photo opportunities) to the Pantheon. This is my most favourite building in Rome. I love the hole in the roof (occulus) and the beautiful marble floors. Apparently rain coming through the occulus is a sight to see. Before we entered I popped into a pizzeria and bought a ton of food (see these photos too!). We had 3 types of pizza (eggplant, mushroom and sausage), arancini (risotto balls) and potato croquettes. We sat on the step of the great Pantheon and sucked up the atmosphere and the mozzarella!

Consulting my map we headed for Caffe Giolitti, THE BEST gelateria in Rome. Martin and I had been there before and I was really looking forward to it. To entice James away from the fountains at the Pantheon I promised that now we would get a gelato. My map was decidedly misleading and we actually walked away from Giolitti. Sob! James gave up and fell asleep.Mum and I consoled ourselves with a caffe latte on the Corso Vittore Emanuele. We splashed out and paid 1 euro extra to sit down at a table! By this time we were pretty weary so we caught a cab back to St Peters.

To our surprise the queue to get into St Peters was relatively short (only one quarter around the piazza, as opposed to three quarters!) so we joined it and only queued for about 10 minutes. We had to go through security and park the stroller but it was a fairly quick process. Carrying 14 kilos of exhausted sleeping child (lucky he didn't have that ice-cream!) we entered the amazing Basilica which was very crowded, due to a large area around the altar being roped off. As Mum and I were sitting in a side chapel (silence for praying only and no photos allowed) James awoke suddenly and pointed out the 'huuuuge candles' around him. He followed that with a furtive look around and 'are there any little ones we can blow out?' I had to laugh, quietly though!

We passed a deceased pope in a glass case (Pius, died in 1911) in another side chamber. I explained to James that this man was once the 'boss of the church' but not anymore. He later relayed to Ninny that this man was asleep and not the boss anymore. I wonder how much will sink in?

Home again and another bath. We had dinner at the nearby restaurant Vittoria. Not as good as the previous night due to the staff being in-undated with large hungry groups, but we enjoyed our spaghetti vognole (clams) and ravioli with spinach and ricotta and antipasto. I felt not even a twinge of guilt ordering tiramisu again!

Photos are here.