Rome 2018 (Second Visit): Walking Around Rome at Night

From the piazza at the bottom of the Spanish Steps we started down Via dei Condotti, which now featured some overhanging lights that hadn’t been there two weeks earlier when we first arrived in Rome. The street was pedestrianized that night and we mingled with the crowds as we steadily walked along and window-shopped the various stores on the street. We continued along until we got to Via del Corso, where we turned south. In the distance we could see the massive white Altar of the Fatherland monument at the far end of the street. Around the area with the Marcus Aurelius Column the pedestrian part of Via del Corso ended and we turned left and cut through a shopping mall to get to Trevi Fountain, where we’d do our last bit of sightseeing that night.

By day or by night Trevi Fountain is always worth a visit, even with the crowds. After taking some photos my mom and I managed to snag seats at the edge of the fountain and we partook of the old tradition of throwing a coin over our shoulders into the fountain. Doing so is supposed to bring you luck and ensure that you’ll one day return to the Eternal City. Interestingly, all the coins that people throw into Trevi Fountain are collected each night and are used to fund a local charity that helps feed the city’s poor population.

We then made our way back towards the hotel. Before getting there we stopped for dinner at a pizza place on Piazza Barberini. I remember that we ordered our meal on the ground level and then got window seats on the upper level where we could watch the traffic circling the piazza below. Afterwards we crossed the street to the center of the piazza and got a closer look at the Fontana del Tritone that’s in the middle of it. This fountain is yet another masterpiece of famed sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini and was finished in 1643. Because of its location the Fontana del Tritone doesn’t get as much attention as other fountains in Rome but on the plus side this means you can usually get a mostly clean photo of it with hardly any other people in the shot. Once we were done checking out the fountain we returned to the hotel for the night.