Romantic Nighttime Strolls

Tom and I did our sightseeing in two shifts:  during the day we took walks and went to significant monuments--then we'd have dinner, take a nap, and head back out at night, each with a bottle of red wine. Our night strolls had no agenda, we just looked up, saw a pretty monument lit up in the distance, walked to it, and sat in front of it for awhile, staring at it, drinking our wine, talking, and gushing over the awesome sight.

The first night we hit up the Altare della Patria (fatherland's altar), the monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II.   Reigning over Piazza Venezia , at one end of the Roman Forum, it is actually a mausoleum:  a tribute to an unknown soldier who fell in World War I.  It was built in 1920, right after the war, as a monument to the absurdity of war.  Ironically, Mussolini stood in front of this same building when declaring war and announcing his alliance with the Nazis during World War II. But it is an awesome monument, one of my favorites.

Tom sitting next to me in Piazza Venezia.

Right next to this monument began the Foro Romano (Roman Forum), running all the way to the Colosseum.  The ruins looked awesome at night.

Another one of our nights took us all the way to the Vatican. We kept crossing back and forth over the River Tiber, gazing down at the rushing water.  Everything was so peaceful that time of year, and due to the weather, the city was blessedly empty of tourists.  This is part of the church of Saint Bartholomew on Isola Tiberina from the Ponte Palatino.

The next bridge over!!!

Our last night, we even hit up the Fontana di Trevi and had designer ice cream!!!!

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