As we approached the end of our trip, I asked Ellen what place was her favorite. Her answer was Paris, with Rome a close second. My answer was Rome, with Paris a close second.
Did we need to spend a week in each place? No, but not because we ran out of things to see. When we started in Paris, we made a list of the things we most wanted to see, leaving off the Louvre because we had been before. There were 17 items on the list, and we made it to 13.
The same was true of Rome. We visited or re-visited most, but not all, the things we set out to find. But the issue is that both of these places are metropolitan cities, and as the days pass the tension of dealing with big city crowds and transportation takes a toll. In fact, in both cases we did a side trip out of the city at the end of our stay (to Versailles and Tivoli), and realized how much that recharged us.
We had done a one day tour of Rome five years ago (click here for pictures of that trip). So while we re-visited many of those sites, the pictures below will focus on the things we did not experience the first time, namely St. Peter’s Basilica, the top of the Emmanuel II Monument (affectionately known as the “wedding cake” because of its layers of ornamentation), the palace of Hadrian in Tivoli, and scenes from Rome at night. Enjoy!
