Touring Roma (UPDATED)

[UPDATE: All the pictures from Day 1 have been posted to a gallery.]

Saint Mary Major Basilica.

Fortune smiled upon me today, and I was able to travel to many destinations in Rome, mostly around the Vatican. After walking past Saint Mary Major Basilica (picture above), I walked to the Trevi fountain (a nice place for a pickpocket, I would think), progressed to the Triton fountain, and then hopped on the Italian subway (the Metropolitana, or something like that).

Trevi fountain. Not much room around this area.

One of the subway (metro) stations in Italy - they're pretty nice.

I hopped off at the Ottaviano station, and walked down to St. Peter's Square. After taking a few touristy pictures, I walked with some St. Louis seminarians down to a wonderful little pizzeria (with some excellent 4-cheese pizza!), and then to a gelateria (for REAL italian gelato!).

Mmm... real Italian gelato! I had the Crema Fiorentia and some Biscotto in a cup.

We finally visited the North American College (NAC), which afforded an extremely pleasant view of the entire city of Rome, and most especially the Vatican:

In front of St. Peter's Basilica (photo taken atop the NAC).

Throughout the trip, I took a few pictures of the many occurrences of 'SPQR,' standing for Senatus Populusque Romanus, "The senate and the people of Rome." The inscription appears on almost all public works-related objects in the city. This image was taken in the "Piazza Navona," near Bernini's "Fountain of the four rivers:"

S.P.Q.R. - Get with the program.

To top things off, here are a couple more cool shots of the Vatican (more will be posted as time allows!):

Beautiful fountain in St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Basilica, as seen from the Tiber river.