A point if you can name this lake.
And Rome has something that the Netherlands has desperately been missing recently: the sun. There are some nice consequences of having the sun - happiness and sunsets.
Sunset, looking over the Ponte Sant'Angelo (the bridge lined with angels) and the castle.
A street named after Saint Pius X!
The streets of Rome have lots of fountains, plazas, and statues. There are SO MANY of them - in any other city, they would be a major site. In Rome, they're just another statue, just another fountain.
On the first night in Rome, we got really lost. The reason was that my dear husband thought that the orientation of the Pantheon on the map was the same in real life. It turned out this was not the case - and we walked about a kilometer before we realized that we had no idea where we were. Luckily the streets were lined with different formations of Christmas lights, so we were able to tell when we were walking in circles.
We were able to reach this monument - the Tomb of the Unknown Solider - and with that landmark, we were able to get our bearings once again!
During the day - the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.
The soldiers who always stand guard.
The flame that is perpetually burning.
Overlooking Rome.
Seagulls, overlooking Bram.
Rome is a lot like Paris, but a lot more colorful.
We visited Rome on Epiphany. This is the view from the top of the Spanish Steps, overlooking Rome, with a giant Christmas Tree equipped with a laser beam.
One of the many fountains in Rome is the well known Trevi Fountain. Hundreds of people come to people-watch, and participate in a bizarre tourist ritual.
This ritual involves tossing a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder. Many euros are lost this way, as the person taking a video or picture misses the coin toss, causing the entire ritual to be repeated again and again, sending another coin into the fountain.
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| Three girls toss coins into the fountain. |
Bram and I toss our coins together!
Bram tosses a coin in. You can actually see it go flying off to his right.
More wandering the beautiful back streets of Rome.
Lago di Vico! :)
ReplyDeletePS. LOVE the HDR photos (again), especially the Ponte Sant'Angelo, and the story of Bram getting confused by the map! Looks like you guys had a wonderful trip! :)
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of them I am guessing Lake Albano
ReplyDeleteSo do you make a wish when you toss a coin into the fountain? There is a tradition that if you threw a coin into the fountain you will return to Rome some day...either that or you will find your true love? DO you know?-- Ha ha, the answer is Destiny will allow you to return to Roma... Yep, one point for me!!!!
ReplyDeleteGood job to Jessa - it's Lago di Vico. Out of curiosity, how did you find the answer? I am curious because it took me multiple steps to find the answer myself (I looked up the flight path, then looked on google satellite to find a similarly shaped lake).
ReplyDeleteAs far as the coin/fountain tradition, I have heard different things - either you return to Rome, or you find your true love. Well, I already found my true love, so I guess for me, it will mean returning to Rome. In reality, my euro will be swept up and collected, and given to the Red Cross.
A magician never reveals her secrets! I am the Google Detective Extraordinaire! :)
ReplyDeleteActually, my M.O. was very similar to yours; I looked up a list of volcanic crater lakes in Europe, then narrowed it down to the countries roughly between the Netherlands and Italy (inclusive), and then searched Google Images for photos of each lake. The little mini-mountain inside the crater gave this one away, and luckily, someone on Flickr had taken a very similar photo to yours from his own flight and correctly identified it. Then I confirmed it when I realized how close to Rome it actually is and how low in the sky you were at the time of taking the picture (below the clouds), so either in your first ascent or final descent.
Actually, there is one extremely vital step in my process I failed to mention; I happened upon the blog post when it was only about 7 minutes old, so no one had a chance to answer yet. That, I believe, is the true secret to my success this round. :)
Rome is one of my absolute favorite cities and I'm so glad you guys got to experience it together!
Did you take the time to search out Valley street? Sjaak
ReplyDeleteHmm... given the fact I don't know what Valley street is - we probably didn't see it.
DeleteI mean that it just seems kind of biased to highlight a street named after your high school, and not find one named after Bram's... ; )
DeleteGuess you'll just have to take a trip to Panama next:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Valle_de_Ant%C3%B3n