the elephant and the pirate: Bucket Travel List

its seems a lifetime ago since our roman holiday. so much has happened since then, including my ireland trip and my cousin's visit. i'm determined (no really!) to get caught up with my blog posts before my bestie arrives next week. NEXT WEEK. ZOMG! So much to do to make sure she has a great visit!

we are already daydreaming about returning to italy, maybe florence? in this last installment (aren't you relieved ?!?!) of our roman holiday we visited the spanish steps, enjoyed the splendor of the gardens at villa borghese , and spent our last day meandering the streets of rome, including a little shopping at the oldest outdoor marketplace, campo de fiori, and the jewish ghetto, as well as more eating!

the spanish steps

we stopped into this church, trinita dei monti, located at the top of the spanish steps and listened to part of the mass in french

piazza di spagna

these were some of the very entertaining street performers

villa borghese

great jazz music in the park

from villa borghese we stumbled on this art installation in the middle of this beautiful square. and of course i had to leave our mark!

oh just pretending to guzzle the largest bottle of chianti ever.

our hotel at night

i think this is my most favorite picture of the colosseum

these next pictures were taken on our last day, including the next few from campo de fiori

meow.

if you want the BEST pizza in rome go to the jewish ghetto and this bakery.

we enjoyed our last meal at our favorite trattoria.

wistful about leaving...

the vatican, and the trevi fountain

i am still experiencing withdrawal from our roman holiday. and editing our photographs - reliving those incredible memories - has not helped! for part I of our trip, click here.

on our second full day we started early with a semi-private tour of vatican city, which included the museums, the sistene chapel, and st. peter's basilica. Unfortunately photography is not allowed in the chapel. Once the tour concluded we enjoyed a delicious lunch, then, in spite of the drizzling rain, we enjoyed walking around the streets that surround vatican city.

after enjoying a rest at the hotel we headed out to the trevi district. during our research for this trip one recommendation was to see some of the sights, including the trevi fountain, at night, when theoretically it is less crowded. it was still crowded but manageable, and totally worth seeing it at night.

st. peter's basilica

one of the many altars inside st. peter's basilica

inside st. peter's basilica

- some of the chapels were in use, including this one, where people were able to sit and pray

amazing ceiling inside st. peter's basilica

oh just my handsome hubby strolling through st. peter's square all casual like (totally contrived!)

my amazing lunch of gnocchi !

i enjoyed the most delicious gnocchi, and have never been so sad to finish a meal in my life!

if you are in the vicinity of vatican city you must eat here !

we had an easy time navigating rome's underground, there was a station just outside the colosseum, by our hotel

we stumbled on this little gem, gioia mia pisciapiano, after walking around looking for restaurants our guide book recommended that either we couldn't find or when we did locate them, turned out to be closed.