We began day two of our stay in Rome with breakfast on the balcony of Maria's high-rise apartment. Located in the northeastern suburb of San Basilio, it is a quick drive from Maria's apartment to the nearby subway station - at least on the weekend. Today it took us just 30 minutes to get into the heart of the city.

We planned to take things a bit more slowly today and started with a morning walk along the southern slope of the Palantine hill, past the Circus Maximus . This gave us yet another view of the Forum. We stopped just before the Ponte Palatino to see the Temples of Ercole Vincitore and Portunus, then walked across the street to the Piazza della Bocca Veritas and its famous grotto. According to legend, the oracle in the grotto served as an ancient "lie detector". Anyone who puts their hands into its mouth and tells a lie will be punished, while those who tell the truth escape unscathed.

We crossed the Tiber and headed back through the Trastevere neighborhood to the Porta Portese. This is the location of Rome's Sunday flea market. Although we were looking for a flea market with antiques and other used items, we found mostly the clothes, shoes and housewares that we've seen at the other markets in Italy. Tempted by several items, we settled on some new cloth hats to add to the rotation of sun-shading head gear.

After an hour of strolling through the bazaar-like atmosphere of the market we decided it was time to head over to the Vatican . Up a series of steps (and more steps) we climbed to the top of Giancola hill on the western shore of the Tiber. Here a wonderful park, with spectacular views overlooking the city, stretches from Trastevere all the way to the Vatican. Entering the park we ran into a wedding party with three photographers - all shooting away. 

It took us some time to figure out the maze of roads and walkways, but we eventually made our way through the park. As we approached Vatican City we passed an area where all the cars and buses park. This complex of underground parking garages is massive and gives one some sense of the large number of toursists that arrive each day. Even though the structure is built into a nearby hill and largely hidden from view, approaching it as we did makes it looks more like something you would see at a government complex in Washington than at the Vatican.

Around the base of the hill and through an arched gate in the old city wall, we were found ourselves on the more recognizable streets of Vatican City . We walked over to Via della Conciliazione and up to the Piazza San Pietro and St. Peter's Basilica. Now nearly 1 pm, we were too late for the weekly opportunity to see the new Pope, so after a few more pictures and one or two more stops, we started looking for a place to eat. We ended up at a small cafe near the Castel Sant' Angelo.

After lunch, we crossed the Tiber and began our trek back across town. We made our way east past the Palazzo Chigi and Piazza Colonna to Piazza Trevi. We couldn't leave Rome without the obligatory coin toss in the Trevi Fountain. (Guess that means we will be coming back to Rome some day.) One more item off of our "bucket list", we were ready to head back to Trastevere. During our stroll there on Saturday night we had noticed several trattorias that advertised "appertivos" - the Italian equivalent of "happy hour" that we discovered in Florence.

On our way back to cross the Tiber we came across the Chiesa di Sant’ Agostino, another church our host had told us about. This church housed the Madonna dei Pellegrini, another Caravaggio painting. One more item off our list of sites to see, we crossed over the Ponte Sisto and walked through the now more familiar streets of Trastevere. We began the evening by tasting some Italian craft beers at the aptly named Bir & Fud, finished with some wine and appertivos at a trattoria near the Piazza San Maria.