Our Rome visit near Vatican City

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Erin found us a nice apartment in Rome near Vatican City, with a view out the back to the dome of St. Peter's basilica in the Vatican.

That wall contains the Passetto di Borgo which was an escape route for Popes in danger. Our apartment was just a few meters down the street through the gate.

St. Peter's Square in the Vatican is a really impressive place, and very busy even on a not particulary busy day:

I came upon the Spanish Steps by accident while walking around, which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna:

The church is the church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti and the Egyptian obelisk is a copy, but itself a very old copy. According to Wikipedia, “It is a Roman obelisk in imitation of Egyptian ones, originally constructed in the early years of the Roman Empire.”

All this is not too far from the H&M department store where Mira was shopping for clothes to replace those lost in her checked bag that Air France and/or Air Malta lost, and which still haven't been found 2 weeks later. Across the street is this interesting corner:

There are so many amazing churches in Rome, of course. Here is Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso, a fairly new one from the 1600s:

Finally, a view over the Tiber River (Tevere in Italian) that we frequently walked back and forth over:

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