Lawson Rudd Family: Italy - Day 4 - Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, cats and ghosts

Matthew and I still having middle of the night wake up and picnic parties! Glad I set the alarm for 9:30am. I was the only one who wanted to get up, so I got to have breakfast by myself - visited the same local coffee shop for he same breakfast, sat in the window and watched the crazy drivers in the traffic circle. Managed to get the other three out of bed and we walked two blocks to the metro station where we took the red line to the piazza spagna stop. It was a bit warmer at 48 today, but it was sunny and warm in the sun - Kaitlyn spent a good part of the day in her T-shirt. We climbed the Spanish Steps, checked out the church at the top and Babbington's Tea Rooms at the bottom. We then went to check out the fancy McDonald's we had heard about and met up with my friend, Therese, who was there with her husband Kelvin and his sister. We had macaroons, gelato and mozzarella bites at McDonald's! We stopped in at another church on the way to the Trevi fountain - there are over 400 churches in Rome and even the ones that don't look that interesting from the outside are all amazing inside. I was very impressed with the Trevi Fountain - it was just amazing! Also amazingly crowded - so glad we came in February, couldn't imagine being there in the heat with bigger crowds. Got some more potato pizza at a local pizza shop and walked down the main shopping street to the parliament building and down to the Augustus mausoleum. We didn't go in there - just loked through the windows and the sacrificial altar. We crossed over a bridge on the Tiber and saw people sculling on the Tiber (I want to try that!) and had a snack at a pastry shop - Matt liked the cream puffs, Kaitlyn had a fruit tart and Tony had a cannoli. We went back across the Tiber and tried to go to the museum of criminology, but it was closed for renovations. Matthew and Kaitlyn wanted to visit the cat sanctuary again so we stopped in and got to snuggle and play with a few kitties. We headed into the jewish quarter where the kids found a Harry Potter shop and had dinner there with some traditional fried artichokes (a bit greasy, but good). Kaitlyn and Tony were pleased with their seafood pasta, I had gnocchi - good, but not as good as Kaitlyn's from the night before. From there we walked to the Isola Tiberina (an island in the TIber). It's really small and is mostly a hospital now, but it was neat to see. Walked by the ruins of Teatro Marcello - an ancient theatre and stopped by a newstand to by bus tickets - found the resident cat there! Headed back to the apartment to do a load of laundry and relax for an hour, then caught the bus back to the s'ant andrea della valle church where our ghost tour started. (Kaitlyn's choice). It was a good tour with a good guide, but could have been more murder stories. The tour ended at castel st angello, from there we walked north to the Metro station to get back home. On the way we stopped for suppli (Roman street food- rice and cheese fried in a ball) and gelato!

the view from our balcony