Rome

Rome: The Pantheon

Published on August 25, 2009

August 2009

In many ways, the Pantheon represents what Rome is all about: a city with so much history it’s like looking at a mosaic of all the art history movements in one place – from Antiquity to Medieval, Renaissance to Baroque, Neo-classical to Modern. It’s a visual medley of periods, if you will.

From the outside, it is rugged and primitive – but inside it’s a sophisticated sight to behold. The impressive dome lumbers overhead while a burst of light shines through the open oculus, penetrating the dense, marble floors. Personally, it felt too impious to be a place of worship (especially compared to all of the other cathedrals we saw) but it’s no wonder this church has inspired so many other buildings – it’s truly amazing!

P is for…

Pigeons

Power

People

Portico

Pronaos

Patterns

Rome: An Apartment in Trastevere

Published on August 1, 2009

Italy/Travel/Travel Photography

August 2009

In Europe, it is very difficult to find hotel rooms that will fit a family of four (or more.)

Generally, beds are single sized (often two are pushed together to make a large double) and there’s almost always a limit of 3 twin beds (a triple) to one hotel room.

Seeing as this would not do, we started looking into other alternatives and found that apartments (and sometimes even houses) were a better and surprisingly more affordable option for our family. Not only do we prefer having more space, but I love to shop for and cook food in different cities.

Have you ever watched the show House Hunters International?

My husband and I enjoy watching it, as we hope to live abroad in the near future. It’s always interesting to see what homes look like around the world.

In that same vein, I also like to take photos of the places we stay in and thought you might enjoy seeing what a random Roman apartment looks like.

This good-sized, 2 bedroom flat was located in the medieval Trastevere neighborhood, near the base of Janiculum Hill. I’m not sure I’d stay in this neighborhood again (a little too far from city center) — but all in all, it was a quiet and comfortable place to live for our 4 days in Rome.

We booked this particular rental through Home Away, which lists vacation rentals all across the globe.