My last post of pictures from the trip we took back in October!
Day Five
As I mentioned in my
first installment post about Rome, we didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted to in Vatican City for the one day we planned for so we had to go back on another day.
We started out by joining the queue to get into the basilica.
It was hot, but thankfully it went by fairly quickly.
We opted to pay the additional two euros to take the elevator up so we'd have to climb less stairs. 320 less steps to be exact. Totally worth it.
We stepped off the lift and walked up this ramp till we got to see the dome up close from inside the church.
The view looking down into the church from the platform around the edge of the dome inside before the hike up the stairs begins.
And the dome itself from the platform.
This was actually a wide part of the stairs we had to climb to get to the top. As you can see it's sloped because the stairs follow the dome up and around. It got to be pretty dizzying at some points.
But the view...You can see the courtyard with the bronze pin cone in this picture that's part of the museum.
After enjoying the view we had fun walking through the gift shop in the roof of the basilica. We got a replica of the bell in the clock tower and a gift for a friend as well.
We took the elevator back down and walked around the basilica. This is the view of the dome from the floor of the church.
St. Peter's tomb is below the alter.
Castle Sant'Angelo.
I couldn't resist one more picture of St. Peter's as we went on with the rest of our day.
We had lunch off this plazza, Plazza Navona
We spent the rest of the day looking for souvenirs since our time in Rome was coming to an end and we hadn't done any shopping yet.
Day Six
We spent our next to last day at the National Museum of Rome, which is actually comprises three museums at different sites in the city. We only visited two, Plazzo Massimo and the Baths of Diocletian.
The Boxer at Rest.
So many details.
Coin collection and history of money in Rome
I was amazed at how small some of these coins were and the detailed craftsmanship on them.
Gardens at the Baths of Diocletian.
These rooms were used to hold water for the baths.
Day Seven
Our last day! And our last chance to see everything that we could on our list.
The Spanish Steps. About this stop, we literally ran our the train station just so Matthew could see this. After activating our train tickets they're only good for an hour I think before it expired and our next stop was all the way on the other side of town, but Matthew really wanted to see the steps and since we had to change rail lines and the steps were close by, we ran...
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
We enjoyed a lovely lunch from the cafe at the basilica. Much needed after the running and the long walk from the station to the church, where we may have gotten a little lost.
Pyramid of Cestius, built 12 BC.
The wild cat population in Rome is pretty high, this is a dedicated sanctuary for some of the cats among the ruins of a temple.
Our last stop was going into the Pantheon.
See the rest of our trip, London, Paris, Venice, Rome {part one, part two}. View the whole photo album from Rome here. 
