The Battle of Evermore: It never rains in Rome.

That was the word our token Italian gave us when we arrived. I guess "never" means "every other day" in Italian.

Our third day in Rome was a wet one. It had been drizzling the day prior. It was absolutely pouring this day. But we made the most of it.

Our first stop was the Pantheon. This was once a temple devoted to all the many gods of Rome, but then later converted to a Catholic church. It was built in 125 AD and was the largest dome in the world until 1781. It is the final resting place of some Italian kings and the famous painter Raphael. It is regarded as the best preserved piece of ancient Roman architecture. It was quite impressive, though I forgot to take a picture of the outside (partly due to the rain).

The Great Eye in the center of the dome.

The nicely decorated interior.

From there it was off to Trevi Fountain. This used to be the end of an aqueduct that brought fresh water into the city. The fountain was built in 1762. It's the grandest of the Baroque fountains in Rome. There is a myth that says if you throw a coin over your shoulder and into the fountain, you will return to Rome. With the current exchange rate, it was a pretty expensive gamble. But, when in Rome...

The story of the week.

I give the fountain one very enthusiastic thumb up.

I love Rome.
From the fountain we strolled on over to the Spanish Steps. The only things I really know about these things is that it's the "longest and widest staircase in all of Europe," according to experts, and "it's really pretty," according to girls.

They were not all that pretty to me.
As you can see, it was raining pretty hard. So we just left the Spanish Steps and headed home. We were already soaked to the bone and it was a little chilly. So, at Jess', we enjoyed two very frustrating games of darts (both of which Lane won) and a nice game of one on one rummy (which I dominated).