Rome, Day 1

Landing in Rome! "I can't believe we're here!" was a common phrase throughout the trip. I went with my friend Julie who is just as enthusiastic about art and museums as I am.

Our hotel, Colonna Palace Hotel, is within walking distance to all the sites we visited the first day. Also, it's in the same square as the parliament building, and therefore guarded around the clock with security. We felt very safe there!

Here's the parliament building. We would walk past these barricades with security guards to get to our hotel.

The Pantheon pops into view as you turn a corner. It's called "the temple of all the gods" and is one of the oldest, best-preserved buildings, having been initially structured around 25 BC and restructured after some damage in 125 AD.

We arrived fairly early in the morning before crowds got heavy. (We weren't able to check into our hotel yet, only drop off our luggage.)

We ate breakfast at a little restaurant across from the Pantheon with this as our view.

The inside is just as dazzling.

That hole at the top, the "oculus," is fully open, and when it rains, water pours in. But no worries--there are holes in the ground to drain the water. (It should be noted that we didn't encounter any rain while we were there, despite being equipped with rain coats.) Also, we listened to Rick Steves' audio guide for this one, which was super helpful.

Here lies the tomb of beloved artist, Raphael.

We also visited the Trevi Fountain that morning, one of the most iconic and beautiful fountains in the world. Though the fountain was built in the 1700s, the water source is natural and ancient.

The famous Spanish Steps, which we did not climb. Keep in mind that we'd just flown on the red eye flight, hadn't had decent sleep, and needed to preserve our feet for future steps (which we very much used later).

Our lack of adequate sleep, however, did not stop us from getting gelato.

Dinner at a little "trattoria" or smaller, less formal ristorante. At this point I'm deliriously tired and accidentally ordered tomato dishes for both my appetizer and main dish. (Though both were delicious.)