Rome, Italy, Day 2

8am Woke up, had a shower, and breakfast.  I'm not a big eater in the morning.  Had a croissant, a mandarin and some coffee.  The coffee didn't go down too well.

10am We took a walk along "Via Nationale" to "Mercati di Traiano" (or Trajan's Market) which is a large complex of ruins in Central Rome. It was built in AD 100-110. We were here for hours, it's immense.

Large building along "Via Nationale"

All subsequent photos are taken in Trajan's Market.

 View of the corridor along the Great Hall

Cupids, check out the detail!

Some fancy art that's not Roman.

Incomplete statue of a Roman figure.  Many of the sculptures are incomplete.

View of another corridor

In the Great Hall facing one of the rooms

What the broken Roman's pose could have looked like...

This was taken on the 2nd floor of the Great Hall at the balcony

This was taken on the 2nd floor of the Great Hall at the balcony

This was taken on the 2nd floor of the Great Hall

View from the military garden which is outside and above on the 2nd floor

Roman well

More Ruins

A small part of the large hemicycle

Trajan's column with "Piazza Venezia" in the background, taken at the large hemicycle

Large hemicycle

Another photo before we leave, this is taken at the Great Hall

2pm Lunch was at "Via 4 Novembre", a pizzeria. I had some pasta that looked like hokkien noodles but it tastes like it was made from potatoes. Similar to the gnocchi that Lauren had.

Checked out a nearby shop, look at all the colourful pasta! I need some of that back in Norway. There's such a wide variety of pasta here.

3:40pm Arrived at the "Fortana di Trevi" (or Trevi Fountain), the largest Baroque fountain in the city and apparently one of the most famous fountains in the world. There were a lot of people.

4pm The Pantheon is a temple to all the gods of ancient rome. It was first built between 27 and 25BC. The current structure was built in AD 118.

Outside the Pantheon

Fountain just outside the Pantheon

Raphael's tomb in the Pantheon

More amazing Roman artifacts within the Pantheon. There's so many photos I wish I can upload all of them!

5pm Gelato time at Gelateria Giolitti. There was a long queue but it was worth the wait as you can see.

5:26pm Walked back to the Pantheon then to the "Piazza Navona" which is a huge city square. In the middle houses the "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi" (Fountain of Four Rivers) with two other fountains on either end. The one on the southern end is called the "Fontana del Moro" and the one on the northern end is called the Fountain of Neptune. There are also many shops along all sides of the square and a lot of people. That seems to be a common theme around here. :)

A shop selling sausages near the Pantheon

View of the "Piazza Navona"

"Fontana del Moro", the building to the left is the church "Chiesa Di S Agnese in Agone"

Behind me is the "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi"

"Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi"

Fountain of Neptune

There was a lamborghini exhibit which I was pleasantly surprised. A gold lamborghini. Nice. This was just outside the "Santa Maria Della Pace", a church close to Piazza Navona.

Gold lamborghini!  Me heart!

6:50pm We took an accidental turn off to "Palazzo Di Giustizia". At this point we turned back because it was getting dark. And we were hungry for dinner.

Graffiti along the street

Nice touch of planty green

"Palazzo Di Giustizia".  You can see a bridge just ahead.

7:44pm At the "Piazza Venezia" which is close to Trajan's market and shown in earlier photos.  Getting close to being completely dark at this point.

8:54pm We finally decided to have dinner along "Via Genova", another pizzeria.

Dinner is served! Sausage pizza, mushroom pizza, and two different salads. I ordered limoncello and Lauren had some red wine.

11pm Or thereabouts. Arrived back in the hotel. It's now 2am and I should go to bed. Blogging is hard work, and uploading these 40 photos took me at least an hour and writing took another hour!

Other ramblings

1. People think I'm Japanese.  Today having dinner the waiter thanked me by saying "arigato" and yesterday someone said I was Japanese at restaurant "La Famiglia"!  This has happened in Australia, Iceland, Italy, and pretty much everywhere that I've been to.
2. The taps where you wash your hands are powered by foot pedals.  I was wondering how to operate them and a little girl had to help me.  That was embarrassing.
3. Steps taken today 16756, number is probably closer to 18-19000 since I didn't have my backpack with me for several hours and my mobile phone with the pedometer wasn't in use.
4. The buildings here are simply immense!  The work and time taken to build them must've taken thousands of man hours.  The photos I've taken don't convey how huge the buildings are.  They must be seen in real life to be fully appreciated.