Walk of Fountains

The rest of the afternoon, we did another walking tour of Rome visiting on the way no less than 13 fountains! Our route took us via a playground then through a security gate and into the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore. It is apparently one of the must see churches in Rome as it is one of four major basilica which are the highest ranking Roman Catholic Church. Interestingly the Basiclia is under the jurisdiction of the Pope and therefore is policed by guards from the Vatican City, not Italian police. As we weren't going to the Vatican, we decided to have a peek inside.

From here we meandered for awhile before arriving at the top of the Spanish Steps. The whistle blowing from the police wasn't quite as piercing compared to the police at the Trevi Fountain, so we decided perhaps they were in training! As we were sitting halfway up the steps, we observed the scene around us and people watched. No sitting on the balustrades on the edge of the steps, no eating or taking off your shoes were some of the infringements we noticed.

 

Feeling peckish, we headed back to the gelato shop at the Trevi Fountain. Being a Saturday, the fountain was way more crowded than we had seen it.  Next on the list was the Pantheon the best preserved of all ancient roman buildings and what an impressive building it is! We followed the crowd shuffling our way forward between the huge granite corinthian columns and into the famous rotunda. Inside, this former Temple to the Gods and now church, one's eye is drawn upwards to the amazing coffered concrete dome with the central oculus. This 8m circular hole, is the only natural light source of the building. Once your eyes lower, you notice that the roundness of the room and the marble floor set out in regular patterns of squares and circles. Turns out that the height to the oculus and diameter of the interior circle are the same -  43m. Scattered around the room, are recessed spaces. Three are tombs - the final resting place of Raphael and two Italian kings - Vittorio Emanuele II and Umbeto I while the others are chapels.

Round the corner form the Pantheon, we arrived at Piazza Navona, a charming baroque square where we ticked 3 more fountains off - La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers), Fontana del Moro (Moor fountain) and the Fontana di Nettuno (fountain of Neptune) all with pigeons on them! Many restaurants and souvenir shop line the perimeter while tourists mingle with street theatre artists, pop up stalls and painters. The girls were happy to see another bubble man and play in his big bubbles!

 

Having ticked off all 'the need to see' Rome sights, we took our weary legs back down Via dei Fiori Imperiali past more street performers and buskers. We stopped to watch a spray paint artist create a picture and played once again in bubbles before skirting around the Colosseum once again.