our final day in roma.

on our last day in rome, we toured the borghese museum and grounds, then had a nice lunch, did a little shopping near the spanish steps and then rested prior to seeing st peter's basilica and our night time tour of the city with a tour guided.


mom and i thought we might move on in, but it was slightly ornate for our taste. we weren't allowed to take pics inside here either...sheesh! but, there were some beautiful statues with probably the most famous being apollo and daphne by bernini. there were tons of famous artists housed in this home.


i love borrowing photos...this would be apollo and daphne.


outside of the home, there is a huge public park. this is one of the walkways and we meandered our way through the park.


outside of st peter's. so, it's hard to see, but there were thousands of chairs put up all over the place in front of the church (which is the largest in italy). that morning there had been an event with popes from all over the world - apparently 10,000+ were in attendance. when we'd gotten to the airport, i happen to notice quick a few priests and thought to myself, 'what, is there a pope convention in town??' luckily before i said it i realized how dumb that sounded, but told mom anyways so we could laugh about it. so see? turns out there really was a pope convention in town!!!


i was feeling artistic and trying to be arty!


inside the basilica... where for some reason they allow you to take pics inside.


i learned that there are NO paintings inside the church. everything you see is in stone. which means, if it looks like a painting, it's actually a mosaic. so cool! and beautiful!!


a pope statue.


the swiss guards talking to a pope.


dad and carl refill their water bottles... all of the fountains in rome are spring fed. loving those water fountains! so much prettier than our non-drinkable fountains. wonder if italians come over and try to drink from any of ours...


during the night time tour, we went all over. one of those places was a high hill/mountain road where we were able to look out over the city. it was breath taking! this big monument in this pic is the victor emmanuel memorial aka the wedding cake.


the fam with the parthenon and colosseum in the background.