Roma- Forum and the keyhole...

We went to the Roman Forum after lunch and a gelato. The Forum is where the senate and Roman government had its start. It is also where the Vestal virgins who guarded the "eternal" flame had their temple, and where the Ceasar's lived. It is where the people of ancient Rome congregated. It was both Murat and my first time there and it was fun to walk around this giant place and surround ourselves in the ruins. Here are my favorite pics from the Forum.

Murat and Marco Aurelio in the Forum Museum ;)

After walking around the Forum, imagining all the people who were here before us, we headed out to visit one of my favorite places in Rome. In 2001, I read about a keyhole through which you had an amazing view of St. Peter's Basilica. The guide book would not say where it was, but it said that if you ask any "true" Roman, they would know. Unfortunately for me all the Romans I asked had no idea what I was talking about. On my third trip there, with Sarah, I finally found someone who knew. It was definitely worth the wait and all the hard work. I could not wait to show it to Murat! No pictures ever do it justice because you just can not see it clearly, but the dome is perfectly framed by the path.
The keyhole is in a very quiet area of the city. Just a residential area with small churches, quite streets, and small parks filled with Italian families and couples (with gorgeous views of the city). It was so nice to get away from all the crowds and just spend some time in this little known area...
It was a perfect end to a wonderful day!

Roma- Santa Maria Maggiore and Colosseum

The next day was beautiful and sunny (not to mention humid and hot!). I was having flashbacks to my trip with Sarah in 2003, and was hoping it would not get THAT hot. From our hostel we had to catch a bus and ride about 10 minutes until we got to the closest metro stop, Cornelia. Then we hoped on the metro to Termini (the train station in the middle of Rome). Today was our day to see the Colosseum, but we had to make a quick stop to fulfill a tiny gap in my trip to Israel ;). We made our way to the beautiful basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Sarah and I had stayed at a hostel very nearby on our trip and visited it then. I had no idea what the significance was then and it was just another basilica in Italy. Santa Maria Maggiore is where the Romans took Jesus' manger from Bethlehem. It was awesome to get to see it, and I took the picture so my dad and Terri can see it too, and be there through me =).
After visiting the basilica we ate lunch at the cafe Sarah and I used to get our cappuccino and pastry at every morning.
Then we headed downhill for the Colosseum. It had to top the list of Murat's favorite places. He did not want to leave=). It is a pretty impressive place just for the history alone. These are my fav pics from the Colosseum:

These are from the little museum inside the Colosseum: a mosaic of the animal handlers, a relief of gladiators, and a bust of Caesar.
We also zoomed in on some of the guys dressed as gladiators. If they catch you they ask for money, so we made sure we were out of reach.
Murat and I decided it was time for a light lunch. We found a nice restaurant across the street from our next destination, the Roman Forum...

Roma- Piazza Navona, Pantheon, and Trevi

Murat and I had a great lunch of pizza at the Piazza Navona, and I got to finally have my bufala mozzarella that I had been dreaming about. We took a quick tour around the piazza where wonderfully talented painters were selling their watercolors, pastels, and canvases of la bella Roma.

We saw Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers and Borromini's Sant'Agnese in Agone.
We found the Pantheon next and I told Murat about it's history and architecture (the stuff I could remember from Art History). How it had started out as a place to worship all the gods (hence the name), but when Rome converted to Christianity all the idols were destroyed and it became a church.
The Pantheon is also the burial place of the painter Raphael. The saying carved on his tomb really expresses the esteem this painter was held in during his lifetime (and to this present day):
Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he died, feared herself to die.

Next stop was the Fontana di Trevi so we could throw our coins in an insure our return to Rome (hey, it has worked for me many times ;).
These are some up close shots of the fountain's sculptures.
Nearby the fountain I met a fairy. Usually you have all the guys dressed up like statues or mimes. She was really different and unique.

At this time it really started to rain (it had been sprinkling and misting on and off), and we were approached by one of the many men selling umbrellas. We got the guy to sell it for 2 Euros instead of 10 (we heard people celebrating an 8 Euro acquisition). Murat is a world class bargainer. Later we would buy two sunglasses for 10 Euros when the guy started at 25 a piece!
After this we headed back to our hostel to watch Italy's Euro Cup match. They won that one, but would lose the next match which was with Spain (the future Cup winners). We were so tired from all our walking that we slept early that night. We had another long and exciting day ahead of us =).