Final Favorite Photos of Rome

It's had to describe the richness that is Rome given its history, architecture and art but here are some of my favorite snapshots of my last visit offered with the exhortation to add it to your "bucket list" if you haven't already.

First of all, you have to love a city that has such beautiful ticket stubs!

Piazza Navona is a magnificent square, one of Rome's showpieces with three fountains and artists' stalls everywhere. It's a great place to sit and people- watch and soak up the vibrant energy and atmosphere.

Here's one of the sculptures in Piazza Navona that's considered a "lesser" fountain to Bernini's marvelous central fountain, the Fountain of the Four Rivers. This is the Fountain of Neptune.

And finally, the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone with the Brazilian Embassy next to it in the same piazza.

The Trevi Fountain with its marvelous sculpture is considered the most beautiful of Italy's many fountains.

I like the whole shabby chic vibe going on here.

The Pantheon is one of the best preserved ancient buildings not just in Italy but in Europe. It's largely unchanged in almost 2000 years and where I found that statue of St. Anne (2 posts ago) that I love so much. It was originally a temple devoted to all the gods and later converted into a Catholic church in AD608.

Just one of the details inside are these gorgeous columns and the various kinds of marble used.

Speaking of columns, I like this sculptural staircase in the Palazzo Barberini which houses the National Gallery of Antique Art.

More columns outside the Palazzo framing it's fountain.

Art can be from the over-the-top unbelievable very ornate school of art like this church ceiling (not even one of the major churches),

to the more whacky down to earth school of art, the gargoyles in hidden places all over the city. This is my favorite and I named her the grandmother gargoyle. Haven't you had days where you felt like this?

Shall we give her a name, too?