Florence is apparently a walking city, as most of the highlights are concentrated in a relatively small area. I started my journey walking through the Piazza Santo Spirito, which was just a few blocks from the apartment, which my host recommended as a good place to find restaurants. As the place is located in the Oltrarno area, across the Arno river, I crossed one of Florence's many bridges and took in a splendid view of the city and of Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge lined with shops perched on stilts.

Our only major plans for the day were to visit the Galleria Borghese and the surrounding park area. We made our way to catch the metro and managed to catch a train just as it was leaving. It was a bit bizarre getting on, as there were a group of people standing right in the doorway that didn’t move at all, so we had to push our way in. At first, we thought it was just rudeness but continued commotion revealed that there may have just been an attempted pickpocketing.

This was to be the day for all things holy, as we were to be visiting Vatican City, the seat of Roman Catholic power. As such, we were sure to dress appropriately, with dresses of modest length and cardigans to cover our shoulders in the basilica. Vatican City was a relatively easy metro ride from our stop–a mere 15 minutes–and it wasn’t long before we were walking towards the wall of the tiniest state in the world. It was pretty much a perceptual onslaught of tour requests, so I was getting the sense that it was going to be a well-touristed day.

After the whirlwind set of sights we had yesterday, we planned a relatively smaller itinerary, though only in the size of the list. One big ticket item was on it: the Colosseum. As our apartment is located in relative walking distance to the site, we decided it might be nice to walk over. Our host had recommended we check out a church on the walk, and so we planned our route accordingly.

Despite staying up late planning our Rome itinerary, Angela and I both ended up waking up 15 minutes before our alarms went off. We got ourselves ready to go and had a quick bite of some breakfast-type food that our host had kindly provided. We made our way to the nearby Metro station, which was remarkably straightforward to use. It was only a few stops away, so it wasn’t long before we emerged at the Piazza de Spagna. It was literally just around the corner and we were standing at the base of the Spanish Steps.