Rome and Vatian City!

The Colosseum

Wow! The first thing that popped into my head when we got to Rome. A giant city, with layers and layers of history on above and below the surface. We did a lot - I mean a lot - in the city of Rome in the day and a half we spent touring the city. So, I will give you a brief overview of our weekend excursion to Roma - the eternal city.

Saturday Morning: Vatican City
We got up and headed out first thing in the morning on Saturday to beat the crowds, so we took a nice little walk to the Vatican from our hotel (you can see the dome of St. Peter's Basilica from our hotel roof where we ate breakfast in the morning). We got there, took lots and lots of pictures of the grounds, inside St. Peter's Basilica, the views from the top of the Dome, the Vatican Museums, and I got to see the Sistine Chapel just to name a few. We got a tour of the Vatican Museums so I learned all kinds of nifty things from our tour guide.

A picture of St. Peter's Basilica dome (I went to the top of this!)

Saturday Afternoon: Roaming in Rome
Thanks to our handy dandy tour guide (who also took us on a private tour of ancient Rome the following day), he gave us a loop to look at some of the other cool things in Rome. Soooo...we went to several little piazzas, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We also got to see some military bands playing (I heard Stars and Stripes...I am pretty sure it was this, or some other super patriotic American song...outside of the Pantheon). It was pretty awesome. After our little tour, and picture taking frenzies, we were pretty beat, and headed back to our hotel for a good nights sleep for the next day.

Handsome and I at Trevi Fountain
(Yes, we totally tossed a coin in)

Sunday Morning: Ancient Rome
So, the guide we talked with yesterday, met us near the Colosseum, (yes...I totally got to see the Colosseum!) and showed us Ancient Rome. We got to see the Colosseum (in case you did not catch that already) the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Arch of Constantine, The Arch of Titus, and some other pretty cool old things. Of course, our weekend could not be completed without some heavy down pouring rain while we were outside, so we hide underneath the steps of an old building (I do not think we were suppose to be there) and waited out the rain.

Aaron and I inside the Colosseum

Sunday Afternoon: Roaming in Rome part 2
We found a little church thing, and some other old things and looked at. We went to another piazza and went inside the little museum therem. Afterwards, we walked around the city, got some great gelato (I ate SOOO much gelato) and then headed back. All of this walking and roming was done despite the occasional down pours. In one of such down pours...we just walked down this huge set of steps, turned the corner, and then the sky dumped buckets of water onto us. We bolted towards the corner to go back up the large quantity of steps when someone stuck out an umbrella our at me and said it was for 5 Euros. I looked at him...while the rain was POURING...and yelled I would take it for 3 Euros...to make the long story short...I am apparently excellent at bartering because I talked with him for less than a minute and ended up with umbrella, in the pouring rain, for three Euros. It is cute too, rainbow colors, and has come in handy so far, because I has rained all day today also.

That is the brief overview of what we did in Rome. I had a blast there and was so happy we got to go there! I have at least 800 pictures from me alone. I have lots of other I will show you upon my return. That is about all for now...Ciao!

Aaron and I at the top of a giant structure with Ancient Rome behind us

(Colosseum in the top Right)