When in Roma...

do as the Romans do.

Our hotel in Rome is pretty close to the Spanish steps, so that is precisely where we went this morning. Since it's spring, they're covered in Azaleas! Oh, and it's Easter Sunday, so everyone and their mom was outside today. Luckily, it was gorgeous weather.

We had breakfast (real breakfast) at Babbington's Tea House, which has been around since 1896. Really amazing tea and some of the BEST toast I've ever had. Who knew that plain ole bread could be so good?! Actually, I have been having pretty BAD bread on this trip, so maybe that's why it tasted so especially delicious!

Then, us being the crazy tourist loons that we are, we went to Vatican City to see the Pope talk. We were really worried that there'd be lots of thieves and no breathing room, but to our surprise, it was quite nice. We were able to get into St. Peter's square and see a little dot that was the Pope.....or at least something with a pointy hat on it. Actually, we were about 100 feet back from the Obelisk in the middle of the square. We saw him on his balcony and then left since we know no Italian and are not Catholic. It was pretty cool to see though. I recommend it to anyone that's Catholic or just wants to see something once in a lifetime.

After leaving the "We love Jesus" crowd, we headed for the Pantheon, where we saw Raphael's tomb. Not much to say about here except that it's super old and there are no working lights in there.

We checked out pretty much every piazza in the neighborhood, including Navona. Pretty fountains everywhere....but not as pretty as....

The TREVI FOUNTAIN. I've been looking at photos of the Trevi since I was super young. It is amazing to see in person. I think it's my favorite fountain to this day. We're going back late tonight to get a more romantic view of it, plus less tourists.

The last thing we did today was visit the Vittorino, a monument for the first king of Italy. My favorite part about this was the view of the Colluseum. We didn't get to do the Colusseum today because we have a tour tomorrow, but it makes me anxious for it.

Oh, and gelato? After hearing the pope talk, I found some random shop (which I will not be doing anymore, since the best gelato comes from actual gelaterias and it was not recommended) We went to Giolitti's, the most famous gelateria in Rome. The line and the crowd inside was insane. You'd have thought that ice cream was going out of style, that it couldn't be made anymore, or that there was an "EVERYTHING MUST GO" sale there or something. They also had panna (whipped cream) and I'm kind of pissed that no other gelateria has offered such a treat before.

Stina's flavors- Cassata (or sicilian cake) from the random place. It was ok, except that it tasted like it had dried fruit bits in it, so maybe it was a fruit cake flavor. At Giolitti's I had melon with blueberry and cranberry! With panna of course...

Aaron's flavors- blackberry and Opera Italiano???? Aaron said both of these flavors were a miss and that he wanted a cone with just panna. So predictable.