Day 2 was not a good day for us and our map. Streets are very poorly labeled here, and we are somewhat challenged with directions anyhow. We went down for breakfast at the hotel at 8am, feeling rested after a good night's sleep. 
Breakfast is served in an original part of the former Pompey's Theatre--really neat. There are meats, cheese, breads, fruit, yogurt, and cereal served--very filling. We learned the seriousness of coffee here and all the distinctions. Cafe italiano is basically an espresso, cafe americano is basically tar, and cappucino is basically coffee with heavy cream. We're sticking with cappucino from now on.
At 9am we left for our site seeing. We stopped in Campo de Fiori to fill our water bottles.
There are lots of public water spouts for such here--very neat. We stumbled upon the Saturday market---awesome! Fruit, fish, veggies, and anything else you can think of. We milled around a bit before we left for the Spanish Steps (off centre sweep of a staircase designed in 1723 for King Louis XV). The weather was gorgeous, and the walk nice. 
We made it to the Steps without incident. There was scaffolding up so we were unimpressed.
We took our pics and tried to find the Villa Borghese, the amazing park leading up to the Gallery Borghese, touted as one of the world's greatest small museums in a 17th century villa in the park.
We made reservations ahead of time (only a 2 hour window visit is allowed, spots are limited, reservations required, tickets were 10.5E each) to pick our tickets for the gallery up at 10:30am. After much difficulty finding even the entrance to the park, we gave up and hailed a cab. One scary cab ride later (6E), we arrived to pick up our tickets. Not surprisingly, our self-guided tour through the gallery was swift. We enjoyed it though---a highlight was Bernini's "David". At noon we walked through the park and shared a slice of pizza for lunch. We sat and people watched in the park. It was full of families with their children--really lovely. The gardens are clean and well manicured with lots of trails and fountains.
We then walked to Santa Maria degli Angeli, a Diocletian bath house that the pope commissioned
Michelangelo to transform into a church in 1561. It really shows how massive the bath houses were. We then wandered around for an hour lost until we stumbled upon our destination, the Capuchin Crypt at 3:00pm. Advertised as a haunted house type place, it is decorated with the bones of monks. Don't know what led us there in the first place with that advertisement, but we confirmed it was not a repeat. After a frustrating day at map mis-reading, we decided we just couldn't stomach the rest of our schedule. The "no complaining while you're in Rome" rule was still in place, but my feet weren't cooperating.
We headed to Trevi Fountain (getting lost along the way).
We finally arrived and found a beautiful fountain that was overcrowded with people. The tradition is that you throw a coin backward over your shoulder to ensure a return visit to Rome. If we would have tried this, we would have missed and pegged someone for sure--the crowd was unbelievable. We watched some pick pocket tricks, too strongly noticed the scent of some of our fellow tourists who don't care to use deodorant, then left for the hotel. 
We were frustrated and done with site seeing. Much to our surprise...one long walk later, we found ourselves on the opposite side of the city from our hotel! 
Luckily, it happened to be at some sites we wanted to see but skipped because we were tuckered out so we mustered the strength to see them. We went in Santa Maria del Popolo and walked up to a stunning view of the city at Pincio. We were glad we had walked the wrong way---both sites were a treat. Too tired to walk back to the hotel, and with absolutely no confidence that we could find it, we grabbed another cab (6E) and took another life threatening ride back to the hotel at around 6pm.
One nap and shower later, we were off to dinner around Piazza Navona. The concierge made us reservations at La Foccacia at 8:30pm.
We actually had to order this time and did pretty well. Luckily, most everyone here knows some sort of English. I had a pizza (fresh from the brick oven) with buffalo mozarella and Italian sausage, and the Mr. had sea bass ravioli. Both were delicious. We ordered dessert and had some kind of custard with pureed raspberries on top. Very good.
We were told on the first day that dinner here is between 8-9:30pm. This is taking some getting used to.
Breakfast is served in an original part of the former Pompey's Theatre--really neat. There are meats, cheese, breads, fruit, yogurt, and cereal served--very filling. We learned the seriousness of coffee here and all the distinctions. Cafe italiano is basically an espresso, cafe americano is basically tar, and cappucino is basically coffee with heavy cream. We're sticking with cappucino from now on.At 9am we left for our site seeing. We stopped in Campo de Fiori to fill our water bottles.
There are lots of public water spouts for such here--very neat. We stumbled upon the Saturday market---awesome! Fruit, fish, veggies, and anything else you can think of. We milled around a bit before we left for the Spanish Steps (off centre sweep of a staircase designed in 1723 for King Louis XV). The weather was gorgeous, and the walk nice. 
We made it to the Steps without incident. There was scaffolding up so we were unimpressed.We took our pics and tried to find the Villa Borghese, the amazing park leading up to the Gallery Borghese, touted as one of the world's greatest small museums in a 17th century villa in the park.
We made reservations ahead of time (only a 2 hour window visit is allowed, spots are limited, reservations required, tickets were 10.5E each) to pick our tickets for the gallery up at 10:30am. After much difficulty finding even the entrance to the park, we gave up and hailed a cab. One scary cab ride later (6E), we arrived to pick up our tickets. Not surprisingly, our self-guided tour through the gallery was swift. We enjoyed it though---a highlight was Bernini's "David". At noon we walked through the park and shared a slice of pizza for lunch. We sat and people watched in the park. It was full of families with their children--really lovely. The gardens are clean and well manicured with lots of trails and fountains.
We then walked to Santa Maria degli Angeli, a Diocletian bath house that the pope commissioned
Michelangelo to transform into a church in 1561. It really shows how massive the bath houses were. We then wandered around for an hour lost until we stumbled upon our destination, the Capuchin Crypt at 3:00pm. Advertised as a haunted house type place, it is decorated with the bones of monks. Don't know what led us there in the first place with that advertisement, but we confirmed it was not a repeat. After a frustrating day at map mis-reading, we decided we just couldn't stomach the rest of our schedule. The "no complaining while you're in Rome" rule was still in place, but my feet weren't cooperating.We headed to Trevi Fountain (getting lost along the way).
We finally arrived and found a beautiful fountain that was overcrowded with people. The tradition is that you throw a coin backward over your shoulder to ensure a return visit to Rome. If we would have tried this, we would have missed and pegged someone for sure--the crowd was unbelievable. We watched some pick pocket tricks, too strongly noticed the scent of some of our fellow tourists who don't care to use deodorant, then left for the hotel. 
We were frustrated and done with site seeing. Much to our surprise...one long walk later, we found ourselves on the opposite side of the city from our hotel! 
Luckily, it happened to be at some sites we wanted to see but skipped because we were tuckered out so we mustered the strength to see them. We went in Santa Maria del Popolo and walked up to a stunning view of the city at Pincio. We were glad we had walked the wrong way---both sites were a treat. Too tired to walk back to the hotel, and with absolutely no confidence that we could find it, we grabbed another cab (6E) and took another life threatening ride back to the hotel at around 6pm.One nap and shower later, we were off to dinner around Piazza Navona. The concierge made us reservations at La Foccacia at 8:30pm.
We actually had to order this time and did pretty well. Luckily, most everyone here knows some sort of English. I had a pizza (fresh from the brick oven) with buffalo mozarella and Italian sausage, and the Mr. had sea bass ravioli. Both were delicious. We ordered dessert and had some kind of custard with pureed raspberries on top. Very good.We were told on the first day that dinner here is between 8-9:30pm. This is taking some getting used to.
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