The Spanish Steps in Rome

Wandering around Rome last year, we happened upon the Spanish steps—the widest staircase in Europe, built in the 1700’s. We walked all the way to top to go into the church at the top of the 135 steps (one thing you do in Rome is go into churches and look around), but unfortunately, the church is not really a church anymore. It’s a school. We couldn’t even get in the front door. My mom, who flew thousands of miles to Rome specifically to look at churches, was silently shocked, then in denial for several minutes. “But it looks like a church!” Yes, it does:

When we got back to the bottom of the 135 steps, it started to rain, and tourists were sitting all over on the fountain at the bottom of the steps, so I barely even stopped to look at what I learned (that night in the hotel, reading the damn guidebook) is a famous, world-renowed fountain, the fontana della baraccia, which was designed by the great Bernini and which was there long before the Spanish Steps were built! I don’t remember doing it, but I snapped a photo of part of the fountain, which you’ll see below, and then some shots I found online of the entire fountain. Something to look at closely when I go back to Rome someday:

One more comment. As you can see from the photo below (not taken by me), the best time to take photos at tourist traps is early, early in the morning when the tourists are still asleep: