Yesterday's travels:

Yesterday morning, we left the hotel around noon and found a place to get lunch. We got four slices of pizza. For future reference, you're not necessarily supposed to get one slice per person at the smaller places like that; it was entirely too much food, and each piece was cut in half, so we could have done with one piece for the boys, and one for the girls. Also, I think you're supposed to have your biggest meal for dinner. Lunch was our biggest yesterday. No biggie... we're still learning.

We did some walking around (including buying some groceries, so we don't have to eat out every meal), then came back to the hotel for a break. We ate sandwiches for dinner at the room, and took off exploring afterward.

We walked to the Pantheon... by the time we got there, it was closed - so we'll have to go back - but even just from the outside, it's quite impressive. It's been repaired a few times over the years, but the original building was completed around 126 AD.

After that, we wandered back towards our hotel, stopping briefly to commune with the masses packed around Trevi Fountain. It's a much more recent edition to the Roman guidebooks, with its completion date in 1762.

Rome is an interesting mix of old and new, with both receiving almost equal attention. The crowds around the Pantheon were not as thick as the crowds around Trevi... about as thick as the crowds around the Spanish Steps. That may have something to do with the time that we were there; I'll share my additional findings on that as I get more information. It's just a theory I'm working on.

In addition, a lot of the more famous landmarks seem to have been placed in the most unlikely places, and I believe it was done intentionally. Of the three major tourist spots that we've visited thus far, only the Spanish Steps was really out in the open; Trevi and the Pantheon are both in the middle of seemingly inconsequential plazas created by the mere presence of the landmark, surrounded by unrelated buildings which were built in those specific locations almost to keep the boundaries of the landmarks restrained. For instance, you have no indication that you're even approaching the Pantheon until you come around a corner and BOOM, it's fifty yards in front of you. You can't even back up enough from it to take a picture of the full building, because of all of the buildings surrounding it.

Two final items of note:

1. Whomever's in charge of enforcing the ADA would run out of ink in this city. I'm not certain I've seen a single "accessible" city block yet.
2. I don't expect any hydration problems here. The entire family has been drinking water constantly. We carry a water bottle with us, and refill it at the water fountains present on about every third street corner. Then we sweat all the water out, and repeat the process.