[ May, 2017 ] At the weekend in Rome, after the delicious lunch we went back to the hotel to check in.
Once we got in the room, we felt very tired probably because we got up very early that morning, so we decided to have a short nap.
But we seemed to have slept deeply and when we wake up, it was already 7 pm.
I was planning to visit a church near the hotel, but it was already closed.
We could not do anything about it, so we looked at a map and found that the famous Spanish Steps seemed in walking distance, so we started walking there.
Fortunately the day time was long in this season, so we had a plenty of time.
One of the first things you would notice in Rome is the pine trees.
The thin spindly trunks are stretching up and the branches are spread only at the high position.
We walked quite a lot looking at pines and other things and finally we reached the top of the Spanish Steps.
We could see the skyline of Rome from there.
This staircase was built in 1717 to get the better access to the 16th century church called Trinita dei Monti at the top.
I did not count, but apparently, there are 138 steps.
The reason why it is called ‘Spanish’ is simply because there used to be the Spanish embassy here.
In the 18th to 19th centuries, it was an artists’ and bohemians’ gathering place.
It is famous that this staircase was used in the old Hollywood film, “Roman Holiday”, but also apparently it appeared in “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, the film which was the remake of ”Plein Soleil” in which Alain Delon was brilliant.
We went down the stairs to Piazza di Spagna and walked in Via Condotti in front.
This street is famous as there are many high fashion brand shops.
The shops were already closed at that time, so we just enjoy looking at the windows.
This street crosses with Via del Corso and if you turn left, you will arrive at Vittoriano and to the right, Piazza del Popolo.
The last time we visited Rome was about 3 and a half years ago and I remembered the geography a little.
This time, we turn right to Piazza del Popolo and then walked towards The Tiber.
On the river, there were boats, some of which looked like residential houses and others were restaurants or pubs.
Because it was a Saturday night, many dressed up people were heading for the restaurants on the river.
The stairs going down to the level of the river was very long and I was thinking it would be a hard work for them to come back up.
We crossed Regina Margherita Bridge and walked along the river and crossed back on the Cavour Bridge.
I was half expecting to see Castel Sant’Angelo from the Cavour Bridge, but I could not.
Rome is a big city…
My husband was happy walking around Rome saying “Rome is really nice”.
