Italy, part XIV - Rome (iv): Rome Termini station, more Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, outer Pantheon, a bit of the Trevi Fountain and the Baths of Diocletian by night

Pantheon, outer facade

The Irish sun is shining, birds are chirping happily, there is a coffee machine in the house that works like the proverbial charm, the tables and my coffee mugs are all IKEA, and I am left to my own devices in this house, with no one and nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. No one can claim to know what perfection looks like, but to me at least, this is as close as it gets.

Back to Rome. Here are some pictures of the Pantheon's outer facade, since you've seen so much of the inner workings.

And some more of Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola and la bella Roma..

I turned a corner and accidentally walked right into the Trevi Fountain.

Walking back to the hostel and seeing this beauty rear up at me out of the Roman night.

My hostel was situated in the neighbourhood of the Baths of Diocletian and Roma Termini, Rome's main railway station.

The Baths, and I only got one picture in because I really couldn't see anything by night:

Then I sloped off to the shopping hub in Termini to get some late-night food because I was peckish, and the shops I passed were boring, so I figured I could get a wider range of choices in the Termini.

Where to this time?

I'm getting myself one of those fur-tipped jackets this winter

The hostel by day.

Italy, part XIII - Rome (iii): Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola, more Pantheon, more Roman Forum, and Palazzo/Piazza Venezia - add to that a dash of street violina and Roman panini (Pane e Salame)

Palazzo Venezia

Finally here with the Italian entries as I promised, but... eh, too much has happened between the intermittent 5 months or so (was it really only 5 months? It feels much longer...) for me to remember too much about my mood when I wrote these. Oh, there is one. It was when I walked out of the Pantheon and watched a street artist play his rendition of Clean Bandit's Rockabye, and then Despacito. I don't think I can describe my feelings wholly in words, nor would there be any words in the English lexicon adequate for me to illustrate them (maybe in German though), but watching him play these mainstream songs and listening to the crowd happily singing or just tapping along, was probably one of my happiest recollections from this trip. I recorded some of his rendition of Despacito, and whenever I felt I needed a pick me up, I would watch that video, over and over again.

Here's the one picture I have of the violinist, the rest of them were videos. I've never uploaded videos here before and I don't particularly intend on starting now.

Despacito, quiero respirar tu cuello despacito

I walked around a lot more - Rome's roads are quite easy to get lost in, but thanks to my phone's trusty GPS I found my way around without too much hassle - and found one of the restaurants that I had found using a combo of google maps and tripadvisor. It was called Pane e Salame and the paninis were apparently out of this world. Sure enough, when I entered there were several tables of east Asian tourists with their big cameras slung around their necks; telltale signs that this restaurant was definitely on the radar.

I thought it was okay ish but not raveworthy, but then again I've never been a huge fan of sandwiches. And yet that was all I had in Italy because apparently that was the only thing that the good restaurants served, else I've been given faulty information. I have no complaints though, the vibes in the restaurant were good and the waiters were super nice.

Here's the menu

And the rest of ancient Rome that you know ..

And what is Rome, Maximus?

Chiesa di Sant' Ignazio di Loyola

Roman Forum, with the Piazza Venezia in the background