Day 5 Back to Roma!

Day 5 was technically our free day.  Half the group wanted to hang back at the hotel to enjoy the beach.  I didn't blame them one bit!  However, I was dying to see the Da Vinci museum and my new science teacher pal Emily and her crew were just as excited to go!  Stack wanted us to see an ancient shopping mall. Yep.  You didn't read that wrong.  It is now a museum, but holds some really cool artifacts! I digress...

One of the highlights of the trip, for MANY of our travelers, was to see the Trevi Fountain.  We didn't get to see it the first day, because Julio told it was under renovation.  Well, we just so happened to wander nearby and got to check it out!  It was sad to see no water and the facade covered in scaffolding, but it was still really cool to see it.  Here is a before and after shot.  If you are wondering, YES, I ensured my trip back to Rome!  That over the shoulder shot over a really high glass wall was not easy...

Trajan's Market is the ancient shopping mall we visited. Here are some of the photos.  There were tons of unique artifacts collected from this site and other sites all over Rome. 

I was constantly fascinated by the tiny, intricate, delicate detail of all the 3-D objects we saw in Rome 

I know these dice look normal size, but they are literally the size of your pinky fingernail or smaller.  Some of the jewelry and pottery was very beautiful. 

It was Selfie Sunday!

Rudi Wach's sculptural work was shown throughout the mall.  His large, organic hands were beautiful. My favorite were the bronze. 

Our group split up from here so we could go to the Da Vinci museum!  Stack's group went to the Pope's castle.  The Da Vinci exhibit was interactive, so it was really fun to play around with some of his inventions. 

This is a music box (obviously).  This is me not doing a great job using the music box (obviously).

Leonardo's fresh gear

We stopped by the handmade wood shop we had been eyeing each time we'd been in Rome.  The guy working there played the wooden pipe organ for us. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Too bad I didn't get a video.  The first photo is a magnet they had with an intense name...

A random man put this bracelet on me and told me it was good luck.  I am not supposed to take it off, instead let it fall off.  It is definitely on it's last legs! I should take a before and after...

The BEST dinner we had during the entire trip was eaten in this restaurant.  Yums to the yums. 

I mean, this tiramasu was to die for.

When you leave outside the walls, you are no longer in Rome.  Arrivederci Roma! 

This was from the morning, but still beautiful...