This was the day for moving to another larger apartment so we would have room for Inge and Robin who were scheduled to arrive Christmas Eve. Our check in was not until late afternoon so we had plenty of time to pack up and do other things.

Some of us visited a bakery.

We all went for gelato from Come Il Latte.

We had dessert, now it was time for lunch. This place was packed with Italians.

Then back to appartamento uno to move to appartamento secondo.

The second apartment isn’t too far from the first but located on the Quirinale hill which is much busier.

We were on the fourth level, European counting, so the fifth floor.

The apartment still has some original ceiling.

After briefly scoping out the place, we headed to La Rinascente, where we wanted to do some Christmas shopping and where we had a dinner reservation.

On the way, we passed the Quattro Fontane, or Four Fountains. The fountains were built during the Renaissance upon ancient aqueducts and the male figures represent the rivers Tiber and Arno while the female figures represent the ancient goddesses Juno and Diana. Next to the Tiber figure is Borromini’s church San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane or more familiarly, San Carlino, because it is so little.

Our dinner at Maio at La Rinascente was to have been on the rooftop but they were not serving food, only drinks. We ate inside.

We went up to the rooftop for a quick look as you can see the top of the bell tower designed by Borromini on the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte.

The apartment features five bedrooms and four bathrooms to house our eventual group of seven. A nice surprise at appartamento secondo was a Christmas tree.