mahdnc

No, our guide took us a different way. We went down a long set of indoor steps that was recently opened to the public. I know the shortcut you speak of. We used it years ago during our last trip there.

It is a nice lens, indeed. You are wise to not buy the DX lenses from a long term investment standpoint. I wish I had done that with my DX camera. My daughter has inherited it along with the DX lenses when I purchased my current FX camera.

Thank you. I am using a Nikon D780 body. I've brought two Nikon zoom lenses for this trip. Up to now I've been using the 16-35 mm wide zoom as my walking around lens. My iPhone Pro 12 is also put to use. I also brought plenty of patience. Last night, I stayed up until 2 am to reshoot the Pantheon at night. The photos I took two nights ago had three large lighter spots in the dark sky that came from dust and dirt on my lens filter. I didn't notice them until yesterday when I had a chance to view the photos on my laptop. Even though I use Lightroom for light post processing, I feel you should never post process "today" what you can correct by reshooting "tomorrow". So I went back out last night. I wasn't able to get my retakes done until about 2am because of a lot of interference. As I said, you have to bring patience. I had taxis parked at the taxi stand with their headlights stubbornly on as they waited for their next fare. I also had people that insisted on sitting down in my field of view for long periods of time which is their right--you just have to be patient or find another spot. Two of the people were a couple who were quarreling. The male wanted to leave, but the female refused to leave and would just lay on the fountain steps in protest. Unlike the night before, there were a group of seagulls that were a nuisance that night as well as some weird people that I had to endure. Once everyone finally left, I was able to take my photos fairly quickly! A technically better photo reshot last night.

After we finished at the Vatican, we took an Uber over to the Testaccio Market for lunch. We arrived at around 2pm which meant that about half the stalls were closing or were already closed. We found a nice place to enjoy a Roman pizza for lunch. For dinner we went to the Armando al Pantheon. The restaurant is located extremely close to the Albergo del Senato Hotel. We had a nice meal there. With the tables for two situated so close together, we struck up a long conversation with both tables next to us. There was a very charming British father/daughter pair who were concluding a trip that centered around Umbria including Orvieto. The trip was for his 70th birthday. On the other side was a gentleman from Honduras. He was staying at the Waldorf Astoria for a convention. Our 3 tables had a lively conversation which was a pleasant bonus to a nice dinner. We will be heading back there tomorrow (I checked on the reservation to make sure that everything was good. It was). The afternoons for our whole week so far in Rome has been fairly warm especially if you were standing under the sun. That with our jet lag put a damper on any afternoon sight seeing plans. So we decided to pay a visit to the Trevi Fountain after dinner to see it at night. The fountain was predictably jammed with people taking selfies and throwing coins over their shoulder. Still, it was at least very comfortable to view without the heat and glare of the mid-day harsh sun.

Today was our day at the Vatican Museum. We did not book our tour through the Vatican, but rather 3rd party tour provider. It was a small party group tour of 6 people plus a guide. The tour started at 7:30 am and it concluded by around 10:45 am. The tour was designed so that we would enter the Sistine Chapel before the general admission ticket holders were allowed to enter. It did allow you to see the Sistine Chapel in a relaxing way with no rush and no crowds. I wanted to climb the basilica dome, but Marcia's feet an for the entrance for the Scavi Tour that we would take tomorrowd ankle were too sore for that so we skipped it. Before we left, we looked for and found the entrance for the Scavi Tour that we would take tomorrow.

I did not have time to update this thread and it is 230am here now. Our trip to Ostia Antica went well. Ostia Antica is the ancient sea port for Rome and is a very well preserved archeological site. Very much like Pompeii but without the volcano stuff. We spent 3 hrs there with Marisa. It is a very impressive place. Most amazing to me were the preserved tile art and the store signs that you could easily read like it was made a few years ago. I will review it more later. For now I will post this photo:

My wife and I just did a self Covid test and we both tested negative. We are going to take the proctored test (final exams) tomorrow afternoon.

The front desk told me that in November the roof top bar is only open on days when the weather is good enough. So you cannot count on it being open, but it is not just simply shut down for the season either.

The key piece of equipment is to have a camera tripod which most people including myself are loathe to lug around with their luggage. It keeps the camera steady to preserve the sharpness of the photo. However for this trip, I had these photos in mind since I knew I was staying at them Albergo del Senato. The other key thing is to be able to trigger the shutter without having to touch the camera to further reduce the possibility of camera shake. Some people use the camera’s self timer. I used the Nikon camera app to allow me to start the photograph with my iPhone

No problem, I’ll ask. I asked about it for our 5 night stay this week. And they said it would be open.

The square in front of the Pantheon is still pretty lively in the evening. It has a Disney World feel to it. I had to wait until after midnight to take these two 30 second shutter speed photos: The nice thing about long exposure photos is that most, if not all, the people in the field of view don't show up as long as they are not standing in ones spot. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the white taxi in the lower left hand corner of the picture to turn his headlights off while waiting for his/her next fare. It's almost 2 am, time for bed. When I wake up tomorrow, I should have my body clock on Rome time.

I promised myself that tonight I would take some night time shots of the Pantheon and fountain. This photo was taken from our hotel room balcony.

Dinner was very good. It was a fabulous place to have dinner because of the people there. The restaurant staff was cheerful and the diners were all happy. Kind of like a cruise ship!

This is da Enzo. We are getting closer to the front of the line. This means that we can smell the food..... Last night we had dinner at La Ciambella which is behind the Pantheon and hence close to the hotel.

Thanks. I'll have to look for it. David

We are currently waiting in line to have dinner at Trattoria da Enzo al 29. It is located in Trastevere area. "Narrow streets of cobblestone" come to mind. The restaurant does not take reservations. We got there 30 min before it opened at 7pm. The line was very long. I hope it's worth it. At least the evening is very comfortable.

After walking through several areas in the underground, the guide showed us the arena level. The tour ended up concluding there. Afterwards you were allowed to walk around to the other areas in the Colosseum that was open to general admission ticket holders. We walked around a bit although it was getting fairly crowded by then. It was 1pm by then and it was time for us to to head back our room. I had only slept 4 hours last night, my stomach was empty, and I was starting to fade.

Under very clear skies, we visited the Roman Forum and Colosseum this morning. I very much wanted to see the Roman Forum on this trip because the last time we were in Rome (Jun 2007, Millennium), it was a port day and so our touring plans did not include it. We met our private guide, Marisa (photo), at the main entrance to the Roman Forum at 9 am. She spent 2 hours with us that morning. Marisa worked as an archeologist which included field work and digging at the Forum a few years ago. It was clear that the Forum was her passion and she covered a wealth of topics including ancient Roman culture and politics. One note of caution, many of the sidewalks were old Roman roads made up of uneven cobblestone with large gaps and so the footing was tricky which made walking a bit of a chore. Because we started early in the morning, the Forum and Palatine Hill was very quiet and not busy which was nice. However by the time we finished at 11:00, it started to get very crowded as the early morning Colosseum crowd made its way to the Roman Forum. I originally wanted Marisa to be our guide at the Colosseum, however I told her I was interested in doing the Underground Tour (something we did not do during our 2007 visit). Marisa told me that she does not do the Underground Tour because the admission tickets (34 Euro pp) are extremely hard to get because large tour companies instantly snap up the small number of tickets that are released on the Colosseum website for each day (one month in advance). She emailed me specific instructions on how to attempt getting the tickets directly from the Colosseum website (it involved getting up at 2:30 am Central Time exactly 30 days before the tour date). The bad news was that I overslept and missed getting them! The good news was a couple days later, I found 3 tickets available for my date and so I snatched two! With our precious tickets in our hands, Marisa did a nice job in walking us over to the nearby Colosseum and making sure that we got to the right spot for people attending the Underground Tour. The group size is 25 and the tour lasted about an hour. The tour is guided and involved going up and down stairs. The nice thing about the Underground Tour is that the area is relatively cool temperature wise.

9:15 am

Our Rome plans: Day 1 (today): Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps. We didn't do the last two because we were tired. Day 2: Private guided tour with an archeologist for Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Then do the Underground Tour of the Colosseum. Afternoon is open. Day 3: Private guided tour of Ostia with the same guide. Afternoon is open. Day 4: Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel. Afternoon is open. Day 5: Scavi guided tour, St Peter's Basilica and Dome climb. Afternoon is open. During the afternoons, we will be fitting in other things.

I will give you our thoughts in a few days. So far we are very happy. Room is nicely appointed and clean. Front desk is friendly and competent

We then visited the Pantheon which is only a few seconds walk from the hotel. The admission is free, but we purchased a guided tour (25 euros pp). Then it was back to the hotel because we were tired.

It is now 525pm. We are pretty jet lagged because we didn't sleep hardly at all on the plane. After our early check in, we spent time in the room taking showers and getting settled in this morning. We went out to grab lunch. And then we visited Piazza Navona which is only a few minutes walk from the hotel.

Good morning, Noreen. Looking forward to meeting you and Peader! We checked into the Albergo del Senato at about 945am this morning. We have a nice view of the Pantheon:

Good morning, Italy. Looks beautiful from 40,000 feet