{adventures abroad} roma: day four - museums and churches

we slept in for as long as we could, but for some reason this morning was the horn-honkiest day of all horn-honky days outside of our hotel room. we got ready, ate breakfast in the dining room, and took the metro to termini station.
first stop: the national museum of rome: painted statues, portrait heads, roman copies of greek originals, ornate mosaics, incredible frescoes {the room-sized frescoes from the villa of livia were my favorite}.

 next stop: the ruins at largo di torre argentina, awesome for a few reasons: 

• first of all, it's just kind of sitting there in the middle of regular bustling city activity, a beautiful piece of ancient history surrounded on all four sides by modern buildings and streets. 
• second, it's home to the theatre of pompey, where julius caesar is said to have been assassinated. 
• but my favorite thing about torre argentina is the cat sanctuary. there are a billiondy cats living in this little ancient corner of rome, where they are given food and medical attention and lots of love. we spent a good hour there i think, looking at the kitties and petting the friendly ones. A had to tear me away, but only after i'd taken as many pictures as i could.

stop #3: the pantheon - during daylight/visiting hours this time {still breathtaking}.

next up: churches in the pantheon neighborhood - specifically, the church of san ignazio, with its incredible trompe l'oeil cieling. we tried to make it to the church of san luigi dei francesi to see its caravaggio chapel, but sadly it was closed.

after san ignazio, we headed over to the capitoline hill museum for more statues, a cup of coffee at the terrace cafe, and some stunning views of the city and the forum.

when it started getting dark, we left capitoline hill and wandered over to trevi fountain. we put together a little picnic for ourselves from a tiny store nearby and sat at the fountain to eat {you're not supposed to eat by the fountain but we are total rebels like that}.
after dinner and people-watching we made our way back to the hotel, passing through saint peter's square like always. but tonight there was a huge crowd gathered in the piazza and a ton of security on the perimeter. we looked toward the basilica and saw the pope himself! he was making some sort of speech {about what, we didn't have a clue}, and the crowd was cheering. we stood and watched for a while, but exhaustion won out and sleep was calling to us from our cozy little hotel room.