Weekends are busy in Rome...

We had a very interesting tour of the US Embassy this last week and learned so much of the history of the complex of buildings. It is located in a very elegant part of the city Via Veneto and within the gates there are early Roman statues and a fountain. We had our own private guides Laurel and Rick who are from Portland. No photos allowed inside but....Laurel swept us off to the rooftop of the Bristol Hotel nearby for an aperitivo after the great visit. Here are a few sky views of the city:

looking down to  Barberini square...Vatican is in the distance in center sort of:

Rather "heavenly" clouds wouldn't you say???

The clouds from the left looked like rain but it never arrived.

We could not stay on the rooftop lounge because there was a big reception happening there. They allowed us to take pictures however and then we went down to the very elegant and cozy bar in the lobby for a nice glass of vino rosso. It was a great afternoon:

We ran through traffic (!!!!!!) to catch our bus via Piazza Venezia and the sky cleared up...here we go on the way to the #8 tram such a nice view n'est-ce pas?

There were many things going on in Rome this weekend like this for example:

as far as I'm concerned this kind of festival is going on everyday here because there are so many stands selling gelato in this city and with flavors that would put Baskin Robbins to shame...we did not go to this one but it would have been interesting to see!

We did set off for Piazza Navonna only to end up at the Pantheon...I think I am not so great at map reading in this city as I think I am...here is a photo of the oculus in that very amazing building:

People are just thronging to get inside but once you are inside it is amazing to me how uncrowded it actually feels...maybe it is the open ceiling and the air coming in but it feels almost uncrowded (if you can say that for anything in this city)!

We went out to dinner to Antica Taverna and were seated inside with a group of students and parents on a school trip...love those ceiling antlers:

here was our appetizer course (partial photo) of antipasti della casa (we were six people):

notice how the plates are stacked ...those all held separate things... we had zucchini, eggplant, chard, prociutto and salumeri as well as a bean salad and I forget all the rest...DELICIOUS!

We did make it over to Piazza Navonna for the evening...they had a special notte dei musei where you could go into any of the museums of Rome all night for 1 Euro...at Piazza Navonna there is the Brazilian Embassy which is in the Palazzo Pamphili and the line went around the block to visit. I took this picture from outside near the fountains...the ceilings look amazing:

Love the color of the water in the fountain!

On Saturday there was a demonstration which closed down streets and bus lines to the center of the city but there is always something to see anyway: 

 This was in a kitchen shop:

 and what about this rose garden on the rooftop of a building in center of the city?

On Sunday we went over to the most gorgeous church: Gesù which is the center of the Jesuit order (the new pope is a member)...St. Ignatius is buried in this church and we happened upon the end of the service and were treated to marvelous music and really the entire church is just covered with  baroque frescos and sculptures and it is a really huge church. 

There is a mirror set up in the nave so you can look at the ceiling without having to practically lie down on the floor so I took this photo too:

Don't we just fit in with those cherubs up there????

On Monday we will visit the Palazzo Farnese which is the French Embassy...no photos allowed however. Have a nice week! This is our last week in Rome before we go off to Brittany to visit JC's maman!