St Peter and the Pantheon

After we had wandered round the Vatican Museums for a few hours we headed over to St Peter's Basilica which is down the road and around the corner from the museums.

To get into St Peter's Square you go through these huge gates. There wasn't a lot of people around, most Italians spend Christmas Eve with their families.

The square was all set up for the Midnight Mass that would be taking place later that night. There were big screens everywhere, and a giant nativity scene, but this was all covered up.

The Christmas Tree was pretty huge, almost the same height as the Egyptian Obelisk next to it. The Obelisk in St Peter's Square is the only one in Rome that has stayed standing since Ancient times.

We didn't go inside St Peter's Basilica since we had our bags and there was nowhere to leave them. We were really just killing time until we could check into our apartment. Plus the lines to get in were pretty long, much longer than any of the lines to get into the Vatican Museums.

After wandering around St Peter's Square for a while, we started to make our way to the apartment we were renting for our stay in Rome. It was about a 10 minute walk from Vatican City and in a residential area. We really felt like locals rather than tourists while we were staying here.

When we arrived the owner took us down to the local supermarket where we picked up some things for breakfasts and dinners over the next few days.

We actually only ate out once in Rome, when we had lunch on Christmas Day. Otherwise we cooked all our meals, using fresh pasta and pesto, plus tomatoes and mozzarella. It was definitely some of the best Italian we've ever had!

The apartment was little, only a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, but so nicely designed. The kitchen was fully stocked with everything we needed, including a stove top coffee maker which was fantastic. We brought one ourselves upon returning home, and we've used it every day since then!

Our first meal in Rome

The owners also gifted us with a huge Panettone. So delicious. But we only managed to eat half of it.

We stayed in the apartment for the rest of the afternoon and Skyped with Bradley's family before heading out just before midnight with the intention of going to Midnight Mass at the Pantheon. We heard this was not as busy as the Mass in St Peter's Square, and supposedly nicer.

We wandered through St Peter's Square, which looked amazing with the Christmas Tree all lit up, plus they had uncovered the Nativity scene.

It wasn't actually that busy at all, I'd say a few hundred people at the most. Nevertheless, we headed off to the Pantheon.

Rome is stunning at night-time, and being very late at night, almost deserted. We got extremely lost on the way to the Pantheon. Considering Rome has some huge landmarks, they are very hard to find. We got very lost trying to find the Colosseum the next day too.

Castle Sant'Angelo

We came across Piazza Navona in our quest to find the Pantheon. The Piazza is home to the famous Fountain of Neptune and the Fountain of the Four Rivers. The Fountain of the Four Rivers represents the four great rivers of the world, The Nile, The Ganges, The Danube and The Rio de la Plata.

I imagine it is usually a lovely place, but when we visited it was covered in tacky Christmas stalls which really took away from the beauty of the square.

The Fountain of Neptune

The Fountain of the Four Rivers

Sant'Agnese in Agone Church

We eventually came across the Piazza della Rotonda almost by accident. We came up the side of the Pantheon and didn't realise what it was until we were right in front of it!

The Pantheon is very dramatic looking at night-time. It is lit with very dim lighting and there are spotlights on the Fontana del Pantheon.

We arrived in time for the Midnight Mass, however they were only letting in one person at a time and it was being very badly handled. Quite a few people just left, including us. We had no idea how long it would even take to get in, let alone how long the Mass would be. Plus we were both exhausted since we'd been up since 2.30 a.m. the night before!

Fontana del Pantheon

The Pantheon

So we headed off to the Trevi Fountain which we figured would not be busy at 12.30 a.m.

We managed to find that quite easily, and there was hardly anyone there. It was definitely better visiting it at night and seeing it all lit up, rather than during the day where there'd be lots of tourists.

The only annoying thing, and this happened all over Rome, was being harassed by guys trying to sell you stuff and trying to take your photo with their polaroid cameras. I'm not sure if anyone actually falls for this, or how much they try to charge you for the photo afterwards. But it really takes away the beauty of the place you're visiting. We felt the same way about Paris, some parts are just so touristy.

The Trevi Fountain

By this time it was after 1.00 a.m. on Christmas morning, so we headed back to the apartment. Which took twice as long since we managed to get lost again on the way back!

We just collapsed into bed as soon as we got home, it had been a long first day in Rome.