Castel Sant' Angelo

Built between 124 and 139 A.D the Castel is the resting place of the Emperor Hadrian.
Today it is a museum but was once a fortress and part of the city's defenses. There are stairs to the top but we weren't in the mood to climb them today-what goes up...

To the left of the Castel you'll see the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope was giving a sermon here today.

The Castel draws a lot of visitors

This is a rare picture of me, taken by Carol, as I was taking shots of the river

You can see some of the people on the top. None of them jumped, like Tosca.

A lone tourboat on the Tiber. The river is underutilized compared to say the River Spree in Berlin which is alive with boat traffic. There are no cafes built on the water, which is a pity. As you can see there are river walks down below the bridges but we didn't have time to take them. Next time! (there should always be a next time in Rome)

You can see the crowd in front of St. Peter's

There's a quiet little park next to the Castel where you can sit on a bench in the shade and plan your next move. We decided to follow the river and cross back over using Campo dei Fiori (a market square on the weekends) as our goal. We chose this as it was next to our 2nd Tosca reference-Palazzo Farnese which in the opera is the home of the Police Chief (Scarpia by name) whom Tosca stabs to death within it's walls. There's a lot of bloodshed in the opera!

We had a folding laminated city map of Rome and we order one of these each time we visit a new city in Europe or the USA.

Looking toward the Palatine Hill

We walked next to the river, looking back at Castel Sant'Angelo

One beautiful bridge after another

We found a bridge to cross to keep us on track for Campo dei Fiori

This was that bridge

We were now back into the quiet narrow streets that we enjoy. Some are so narrow there is not room for a sidewalk for pedestrians so you get markings like these..

We found Campo dei Fiori. The square was filled with market stalls selling fruits, vegetables and flowers. We were in need of a cold drink after all our walking. Some of the sidewalk cafes there will only serve you if you are ordering a meal-ask before you sit down at a table. We found a cafe where they would be happy just to serve us drinks. I saw Warsteiner beer from Germany on the specials board and ordered a cold one (or two).

A quick stop and we moved on through the square....to yet another square!

Alas when we reached the site of Palazzo Farnese it was surrounded by a very high brick wall as it is now the French Embassy, so no photos to show, unless you like looking at high brick walls...

As always there was a pretty open square to rest in for a while before getting a taxi back to our hotel

Back at the hotel we would shave 45 minutes to charge batteries and ourselves for our next adventure...the Borghese Gallery. Carol had bought tickets online and we were booked for 2.30 pm.