Avril 26 - Pantheon + Spanish Steps + Designer stores

Well Sunday is Flea Market day! – Wahoo, I just love markets, I can never get enough. Off we went, we had to catch a bus, this was a first for us. We had seen them of course and noticed how packed they are! If you imagine sardines in a can – that was us. Trying to watch pockets and bags was interesting. When the bus stopped it was virtually impossible to let people off the bus without the whole bus(nearly) piling out first then jumping back on in a hurry or you might not get on. We also had no idea of knowing stop names and we relied on a nice young man of African descent to tell us when to get off. We then had to transfer to a tram to get to our destination. The tram I must say was much more comfortable and we even got a seat. Still no way of knowing the names of the stops we guessed when to get off and fluked it right!
The market is long and covers everything. We made some purchases of different currencies, shoes, cap, tops and socks! The market shuts promptly at 2.00. so that was perfect to head into town and go to Piazza Navona ( the main square) where we had lunch in the sun overlooking another 3 beautiful fountains and amazingly another column! After a very overpriced and mediocre lunch we strolled through small streets in the oldest part of Rome.
Around the corner another treasure –The Pantheon! It is considered to be simply one of the finest buildings in the world, and a place to experience true splendour, harmony nad elegance of Roman Architecture.

This 2nd Century AD pagan temple to all of the gods is 1900 years later still almost completely intact.
The different marble colours is striking. What surprised me was an open dome, as we were discussing whether or not it was open a bird flew in and answered our question.
As an aside -Raphael ( the artist) is buried here.
We continued to the main shopping street – To purchase here you must have the dosh, we are talking designer stores all the way. Gucci opposite Prada, Cartier, Armani, Yves St Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino,Fendi, Burberry, Versace, Jimmy Choo etc… The list goes on! I will reiterate – PURPLE, the only colour that counts. Italy is really the fashion capital and everyone else follows later on. You pass all these shops on the way to the bottom of the Spanish Steps. These are 18th century steps that lead to….a church! Not really steeped in history but tourists flock here and sit on the steps. Before the steps up is another……fountain!! We managed to find a spot to sit and watch all the designer shopping bags go by. This was the only area that had a nice floral display. I am guessing by the amount of photos taken per day with this back drop Rome would have to look after their image.