Rome I

The next morning the ship docked at Civitavecchia, the old port of Rome.

We boarded a bus and headed to Rome, which was about an hour away.

It was going to be a hot day in Rome, over 95 degrees F in the shade, and there pretty much was no shade.

We walked until we reached our first stop, the Trevi fountain.

The fountain, completed in 1762 is rather famous, starring in multiple movies including Roman Holiday. 

Very crowded, but we made our way down and did the traditional coin toss with the right hand over our left shoulders into the waters of the fountain.  The single coin over the shoulder allegedly means we will return to Rome some day.  All four of us scored with hits in the fountain, which is really hard to miss, but a few tourists managed it.

Coins worth about 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day, or over 1.5 million dollars a year.

The papal coat of arms surmounts the fountain:

Lots of fountains and water fountains in Rome, with lots of free water to drink as you wander to cool you off.

By the second fountain, I decided to douse my hat to cool off.  By the third fountain, the hat was almost completely dry.  It was that kind of hot day.

Such a hot day called for reinforcement to the water:

Gelato!:

The real Italian stuff, wonderfully creamy and tasty and just the thing to help you cool down.  I highly recommend the classic Limone flavor, but the others were awesome too.

So we continued our walk through Rome admiring the huge Palazzo Inail:

The building is absolutely huge.

Then we walked on to see some ancient Roman sites.