Barcelona/Rome 2012
The Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinita dei Monti) and Piazza di Spagna are overrun by tourists, even in the off-season. They give the Bourbon Spanish Embassy and the Trinita dei Monti Church more direct access to the Vatican, which in the early 1700s was probably much more important than it is today!
Crawling through the tourists and up the steps, we then went to Villa Borghese, walked around the park (quite nice for what amounts to a public park), and then into our scheduled viewing (reservations required) to the Galleria Borghese. The collection of sculpture is among the best in the world, and (at least to me) is much better done than the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. The art, too, is spectacular, but a bit of a small collection compared to some others. They do what they can, though, with the few large rooms they have being setup to take full advantage of the larger pieces in the collection. Sadly, no photos allowed...
Deeper into Northern/Central Rome for a late lunch at a random place (Dame) in what felt like embassy row or a business district. Pretty good, but we (ok, I) somehow missed ordering the gigantic prawns some other customers there had. Oops... must've missed it on the menu! (they eventually dug out English ones for us, but did I mention neither of us could read Italian?)
More walking to get to Church of St. Agnes (Church of Sant'Agnes fuori le mura). Felt very much like parts of Manhattan, very business-like and decidedly more open and modern than central Rome. Kinda nifty and a little unexpected, with roadside mini-gas-stations and everything.
The Church of St. Agnes is very unassuming, but like so many churches with ancient roots, its modest exterior reveals considerable beauty inside, as befits a minor basilica in the Roman Catholic Church. It's also one of the only surviving catacombs in the city (5 or 6 left out of... 65? Most were ransacked and are now almost entirely empty!), and contains quite a bit of history on the rich and poor alike. We only saw a tiny portion as they are massive, several levels deep...
Final wandering to Piazza Bolonga for gelato, a random stop at a grocery store, postcards, and back to the metro!
Side note: we never did figure out the bus system in Rome. It didn't bother us most days, but for today, it would've helped significantly. Other days didn't matter as much, but north-central Rome has scanty metro (subway) coverage. Either way, we averaged 6 or 7 miles/day of walking this trip. Ouch...