Earth day! Rome, Italy!

I visited Rome with my girlfriend during the Easter holidays. It was my first time there, and it is such a beautiful city. This is a somewhat grumpy fish overlooking Piazza del Popolo.

This is from Piazza Navona, a large square with awesome fountains and lots and lots of restaurants. We had dinner there more than once and the vibe of the place is just so relaxing, even during Easter.

A different angle of the fountains at Piazza Navona.

An outside view of the Pantheon. Here too were many restaurants, street vendors and ice cream parlors. The Pantheon was built by the emperor Hadrian in AD 119-128 and most of the building remains pretty much as it was then. Amazing!

This is the inside of the Pantheon. The light above is not a window. Rather it is a hole in the ceiling that during the daytime illuminates the main hall.

This is the column of Marcus Aurelius, finished in 193 AD. You can literally feel and see history around you everywhere in this city.

This is the Fontana di Trevi. The artistery and craftsmanship is mindblowing. We rented an appartment not 100 yards from here, which put us within walking distance of just about everywhere we wanted to go. Rome is mostly small narrow streets, so it's quite obvious why they love their little scooters there. It's really the most practical solution.

This dog guarded one of the entrances to the Vatican Museum. He seems like he would rather do something else. We weren't allowed to touch the statues for obvious reasons, otherwise I would have given him scritches...

Apparently there are over 900 churches in Rome, each one more beautiful than the next. We visited a few of them, and I dreamt of one day trying to visit them all.