Jared was supposed to have meetings in the morning but have most of the day off. So I slept in, got ready, and made it down to breakfast just as they were getting ready to clean up. After breakfast, I went and checked on Jared, who was out in the lobby chatting to some other nuclear folks. He said that he would be just another 30 minutes. So I took his IPad from him and went back up to the hotel room and spent 45 minutes playing in the internet. I was about to go back down to the lobby before he walked through the door, saying he was sorry and he had to attend some other meetings. Well, I wasn't about the spend my time in Rome alone in a hotel. All the other wives were already off doing something and there was no way to contact them. Jared didn't like the idea of me walking around Rome alone. I probably won't have liked the idea myself but after walking around the city before I felt very comfortable. The people are very friendly, outgoing, and most of them speak English. I reassured him I would be just fine and we checked to see if our text messaging would work. They did but I'm sure they cost a pretty penny. So I took off on the metro with my cell phone and Jared was going to text me when he was able to leave.
There was a large park that reminded me of the Golden Gate park (size wise) that I wanted to check out, so I headed that direction. At the bottom of the park was a large square called Piazza del Popolo (People's Square). It is surrounded by walls with an arch entrance that was built in 220 BC which was one of the main entrances into Rome. (I didn't realize that until I looked it up, so I don't have a photo.) On the other side of the square are two symmetrical churches, the Santa Maria dei Miracoli and the Santa Maria in Montesanto. They were built in 1658 and the street between leads straight into the heart of Rome. There is also an obelisk in the middle of the square that was taken from the Sun Temple in one of the oldest cities in Egypt and placed in the Circus Maximus after Rome conquered Egypt. In 1589 the Pope had it moved to this square.
This was a little scary to see on the side of the Church just before entering.
And here is a tomb inside the church that that filled me with reverence and broke my heart a little. I am assuming that mother and child died at child birth and were laid to rest inside. I am not sure since I can't read Italian or Latin which ever is was.
I looked up the words above the tomb "Post Tenebras Spero" and they mean "After darkness, I hope for light" I am curious to know who this lady was and her importance to be laid to rest inside a church.
The all seeing eye. This was on the one of the outer walls of the square.
I sat at the base of the obelisk and had my lunch that I brought with me while listening to some musicians play. 
After my lunch I headed east to the park. I stopped to take a picture but a street vender spotted me as a tourist and got in my way. I was warned not to take roses from street venders and that was what this man was trying to sell me. He told me roses were good luck and tried to force it in my hand. All I could do was repeatedly say no thank you and final had to walk away.
After my lunch I headed east to the park. I stopped to take a picture but a street vender spotted me as a tourist and got in my way. I was warned not to take roses from street venders and that was what this man was trying to sell me. He told me roses were good luck and tried to force it in my hand. All I could do was repeatedly say no thank you and final had to walk away.
Pincio Gardens:
This was a clock that worked by the weight of water. It was pretty cool.
Jared texted me before I got too far into the park. He didn't like the thought of me walking around Rome alone so he left his meetings. We decided to meet at the Spanish Steps. This is the view over looking Rome as I walked towards the Steps.
The Spanish Church
The Spanish Steps are said to be the widest steps in Europe and they were full of people coming and going or just having an afternoon break.
Jared and I wanted to find an ancient bath house, not realizing that there weren't any left. We were directed to an area that used to house a bath. As we walked we found the Planetario, it was closed by two days. I can just imagine how cool that would have been.
This is the Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was a beautiful church designed by Michelangelo and was built inside the walls of the ancient Baths of Diocletian. There was a really cool meridian line on the floor of the church used as a sundial. I didn't get a picture of it because it was so large I wasn't sure how to photograph it. But it was pretty neat.
The outside walls of the church, part of the walls of the Bath house
We walked past McDonald's as we headed back to the metro. Check this out, Kiwi on a stick. Why doesn't our McDonald's sell these?
We were supposed to go out to dinner with the entire conference. It was pretty costly for a spouse ticket. We were running short on time and tried to check or connecting metros as fast as possibly to be able to change at the hotel before the buses left. However we made our last connection in too much of a hurry and didn't realize that we were boarding the express metro that didn't stop until it was pretty far outside the city. I think we were about an hour outside the city once we final stopped. We found ourselves in a small metro train station in a small town where little English was spoken and hardly nothing was open. We weren't too sure when the next train to Rome would come so we stayed in the station. It was another hour and half before one arrived. And then another hour to get back into Rome. Needless to say we were late for our dinner and we couldn't get a reimbursement. We were told we didn't miss much, it definitely was an experience.
