Three coins in a fountain...

We walked the streets of Rome all day. They are narrow, crooked and paved with small black cobblestones which are four hundred years old. It is very picturesque but makes for difficult walking. With a backpack full of dirty clothes we walked to a "lavenderia" via the Trevi fountain. You can hear the water well before you get to the square and even at 9am it was teaming with people. We threw in our coins, took a fw photos and continued on to the laundry. The most difficult part of the day turned out to be working the payment system for the washing machine, but eventually we worked it out and with 35 minutes to kill, walked over to Santa Maria de constancionze, or "the bone church". This church has a crypt decorated with the bones of 4000 monks. It was sufficiently macabre to keep all the boys happy and we ducked back to move the clothes to the dryer. This time we had 45 minutes to kill. We decided to look through the Barberini house, which was the house of one of the Popes, turned into an art gallery. The house itself was spectacular and the art was a who's who of Italian painters but the boys were a little bored so we moved quickly. They did recognize a Hanz Holbein of Henry the 8th though. We picked up the laundry , had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then went back to the hotel for a regroup.Before dinner we wandered down to the Ghetto, the original Jewish quarter. We walked by the ruins of the building where Julius Caesar was stabbed. The history is everywhere and around every corner is something ancient still in use, or ignored and worked around. Two meters of column rise out of the pavement and you know that the rest of the building is somewhere underground. For dinner we tried a restaurant in the Ghetto. We ordered a bunch of entrees so we could try everything. It was ok but not spectacular. We are still waiting for great food, although we have had a few good snacks.We finished the day with an organized walking tour called "Dark Rome". Our guide, Massimo, walked us around the streets and told spooky stories about people and events. Although is was raining for the whole tour, we loved it. Josh gave it his seal of approval - "awesome" and we were all really pleased that we had made the effort (9 pm tour in the rain after a long day). At the end we bravely caught a bus back to the hotel and crashed in bed.