24 Hours in Rome: Daphne Inn, TAD, Pantheon

By the Spanish Steps looking down Via del Babuino. What a beautiful day!

Catching up on my posts here:

It turned out to be a beautiful day (15 February) in Rome. When I checked into Daphne Inn Trevi, it was pouring. By the time, I had freshened up and headed out, the rain had stopped. By lunch time, the skies were blue.

It was a lazy laid-back day in Rome. I walked by Spanish Steps en route to checking out TAD, a trendy lifestyle store complete with hairdresser and cafe, and CM's family company Fabriano, a beautiful stationery shop a few shops down from TAD on Via del Babuino.

Just follow the McD signs on your sightseeing tour of Rome. There seems to be one at every major sight. No Starbucks in sight though. But who needs Starbucks when you've got the best espresso in the world.

My favourite view of the Pantheon. Wish I could lie on my back and bathe under the oculus' light.

From Spanish Steps, I walked down via Condotti to the Pantheon. It's the only ancient building (dating back to 125AD) from the first semester of my History of Art survey class that I like and really wanted to visit (I didn't really start paying attention until second semester when Prof Gridley McKim-Smith and Prof Steven Z. Levine, my two favourite professors, surveyed Baroque up to Contemporary). Its concrete-cast dome, with its open oculus, is mesmerising in both its beauty and its structure. CM had told me I should visit while it was still raining (because the oculus in the dome lets rain in, creating a very special atmosphere), but the rain had stopped by the time I got there.

After long nap, went to dinner at 9:30pm at Ristorante Matricianella (Via del Leone, 4; T: +39 6 6832100) with CM and her English-speaking friends. Dinner conversation was very lively and engaging, jumping from urban planning to Fascist Italians to ancient Venetian families that don't speak Italian (they speak their own dialiect) to Dante to Edward Said to Mickey Mouse (apparently, the drawings are outsourced to some town in Italy) etc. A great evening with great food, ending with a limoncello.

Daphne Inn is a B&B with very helpful staff. There's no elevator in the building, but Carl and Chris both helped me with my three pieces of luggage (difficult to pack light when one needs to pack for skiing and work meetings). I had a comfortable room with free wi-fi access, although I did have to share a bathroom. But then again, it was only Euro72 including breakfast (10% off the normal rate of Euro80 for paying in cash) and the location was perfect, right by Barberini and 5 minute's walk from the Spanish Steps.