Rome

The Collesseum

Arch of Constantine

 Although Rome rained on us a few times, we had pretty good weather. When the sun came out it was quite warm. On our first day in Rome we went to The Colosseum. This was my favorite part of Rome. I loved the feeling of being in the arena. I could picture the gladiators fighting and the crowds chanting their favorite Gladiator's name. The floor where the gladiators fought was gone but you could see passage ways that were under the main floor. It was hard to think I was standing in place where so many people had been, all the people that watched the fights, the emperors and senators that watched as well, and then all the people that had visited the museum over the years.  I also couldn't believe the place was still standing after so many years. For the next two days we trekked all over the city. We would just walk around and every few blocks we would run into some famous monument. We got to see the Trevi Fountain, the Arch of Constantine, the Roman Forum, The Pantheon, the Castel of Sant' Angelo and on and on.

Trevi Fountain

View from Sant' Angelo. St. Peter's Basilica in background

 On our second day we went to the Vatican. We had to take a taxi there because all public transportation was shut down for the day due to a strike. At the Vatican, we toured all the museums. This took several hours. The Vatican has so much to see it would take days to see it all. In the middle of the museums was the Sistine Chapel. It was odd that we could take pictures of absolutely everything except the Sistine Chapel. It wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a couple big paintings on the wall, but the walls and ceiling were covered in paintings. Some by Michelangelo but many other artists contributed as well. We saw St. Peter's Basilica, but we didn't go inside.

Sistine Chapel at Vatican City

Collosseum at night

  I enjoyed Rome, although I wish I would have done more research on the sites to see. There was just so much to see we couldn't possibly go inside all the sites. Also, I was not a fan of the food in Rome. It was okay,  but nothing really wowed me. The pizza in Italy is also very salty. I couldn't eat the stuff because it was so incredibly salty!