Teeny Tiny's Travel Tuesdays: Last Day in Rome

Teeny Tiny spent three days in Rome, which was not nearly enough time, but until he buys his teeny tiny flat in Florence, he can only spend limited amounts of time in each of the amazing Italian cities he likes to visit. This post will be full of pictures from throughout the three days to chronicle the sights he saw that weren't limited to the Vatican and the ancient and classical ruins. From multitudes of Etruscan heads to more churches than you can count, he crammed in as much art and culture as he could.

He spent his nights in a lovely little hotel right off of the Piazza del Popolo, just down from the Spanish Steps and Villa Borghese. Hotel Okapi was tiny, with a lot of spirally stairs, but it was perfect for resting and putting the little guy in the mood to explore the wonders of Rome.

He was happy to share stories with his buddy Ernie Little after long days as a tourist.

The very first Roman sight to explore was one of the oldest: the Pantheon, where Raphael Santo lies and where the ancient and modern stand in stark juxtaposition. The evening we were there to explore the ancient temple to the Pagan gods, we had to wait for mass to end and the German oompah band to finish performing.

We then stopped into Santa Maria sopra Minerva, another church built on top of something ancient. Inside, under the brilliant blue vault, Michelangelo's Jesus of the Cross stands prudishly covered with a loincloth. Outside is Bernini's elephant and obelisk, the Pulcino della Minerva.

Teeny Tiny also pushed his way through the throngs to make his wish by tossing a teeny tiny coin into the Trevi Fountain.

He visited Lord Byron and stood proudly before the ruthless Florentine Dominican Savonarola in the beautiful grounds around the Villa Borghese.

He even paused to play a game or two.

On the bridge of Bernini's angels, a Frenchwoman recognized him: "Ernie!"

At the Piazza Navona, he enjoyed the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Before he left Rome, he made a point to stop by the hotel he stayed at more years ago than he cares to admit.

Teeny Tiny's Travel Tuesdays: Rome

Sometimes, I get ahead of myself. I get all worked up about something and pull some stuff together, and before I know it, I have mixed up everything, and created a disaster of all of my carefully prepared plans. Today's post is an example of that phenomenon. You will see, when you read below, that I was supposed to publish this post last Tuesday. Instead, I forgot to do so and published pictures from the Vatican. It's not a terribly big catastrophe, but I'm forcing myself not to edit the contents of this missive to be consistent with the actual timeline. The risks to the space-time continuum aside, I wrote some things below that I wanted to share, so why should I make things all accurate and consistent by pretending that I didn't mix up the posting dates. I leave it to you to pretend that you read this thing last Tuesday, and that today you are enjoying pictures of the pope's house.

Teeny Tiny--and a good portion of my family--have expressed irritation that I have yet to share my pictures from my recent (ahem) trip to Italy. "It takes time to organize," I protest feebly in response, but I don't think they are assuaged by that excuse any longer. Luckily, Teeny Tiny has decided to take control of the situation and devote Teeny Tiny's Travel Tuesdays to his take on our Italian journey.

Last week's shot of Teeny Tiny in the Colosseum revealed that our trip began in Rome. Rome is a city of layers, and each layer is filled with unbelievable art and story. Teeny Tiny's favorite part of Rome was the place where those layers are revealed all at once, like one of those cutaway elevation maps: the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Right next to the Colosseum are these archeological labyrinths where you can see Etruscan ruins under ancient Roman temples under classical Roman architecture under the remains of the medieval church.

Teeny Tiny loved this part of Rome because no one was looking. He was able to climb all through the old stone and marble without risking getting yelled at by museum officials or Swiss Guard. He did it for archeological purposes only; just don't tell anyone.