Rome 2014 Day 4

Saturday was a really big day for us. The weather was just as sunny and beautiful as it had been on the Friday, so we started out by walking along the river from our B&B to the Castel Sant'Angelo.

We passed the Palazzo di Giustizia on the way, what an impressive building.

Lucas and Nathan got in for free here, but unfortunately they couldn't go everywhere as there was a lot of very steep stairs. Linnea and I had to discover the very top by ourselves. There was an elevator up to the main part though, and from there we all had fabulous views:

The courtyard, with the cannons and bullets:

The treasury room:

Ponte Sant'Angelo:

Let me take a selfie! Well, sometimes it's the only way to get into the photos! :)

We then walked all the way from Castel Sant'Angelo, again along the Tiber, down to the Trastevere area. Our main goal was the Santa Maria Basilica, one of the oldest churches in Rome, known for it's magnificent gold roof:

We stopped for lunch at this touristy place in one of the little alleys in Trastevere. Sure it was touristy, but well priced and the staff was really friendly and cheerful; plus the pasta was actually some of the best pasta we had! (The kids had fish and chips though... sssshhh!)

We then walked (again, I think we averaged at least 15-18km a day this week!) past the huge and impressive Vittorio Emanuele II monument and onwards to Larga de Argentina.

Somewhere along there we decided it was time for the gelato of the day, and we ended up having fancy ice cream sitting down. As the weather was absolutely gorgeous, we really wanted to enjoy it!

I had fresh strawberries with cream and ice cream, mmmm! They tasted so good, it felt like eating summer!

In the afternoon we took the tram from Piazza Venezia out to the Casali area, because we were invited around to Carin and her family for dinner. It was really nice to see their home.

The kids first hung out and chilled for a bit like this, but after dinner it all took off and they played like they had known each other forever!

Carin had prepared a traditional Italian buffet for us with grilled veggies, mozzarella cheese, ricotta, pizza, hard cheeses with chutneys and jam, Italian wine, bread, ham and salami - oh my I ate so much!

So did the kids!

And for dessert, of course - home made tiramisu!

It was such a nice evening and I wish we could have stayed even longer (we weren't home until long after 10pm), but with more busy days ahead, we needed some rest.