ROME!!

Warning! Many photos coming your way!

We boarded the Trenitalia train at 1pm on Friday and reached Rome 4 hours later. The train stopped briefly in Bologna and Florence before the final stop in Rome. The Italian Countryside was beautiful! The train was definitely a great way to travel! We got to the hotel around 7:30 pm and walked over to the grocery store next door. This store was the equivalent of a Super Wal-Mart here in the States, and we were able to get some food for dinner. We took the night easy and waited to go into the city until Saturday.

Boarding the train in Venice

Our hotel/Wal-Mart dinner! Cheese, crackers, salami, and cold lasagna.

The hotel we stayed at was about 10 miles east of Rome, so we took the Subway into town each day. The weather was pretty crummy on Saturday, but that didn’t stop us! We got into the city around noon and started wandering. Rome is the best place to wander because everything you see is historical! All of the buildings are so architecturally different from anything else I have ever seen, and it’s all beautiful! We saw the Baths of Caracalla, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, Piazza Venezia, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, and the Pantheon! We sure put in some miles! We had a delicious lunch by the Trevi fountain and pooped out around 6pm. It was a great day!

The Baths of Caracalla

The Roman Forum

Coliseum

Piazza Venezia

Trevi Fountain

I got pooped on at the fountain!

Spanish Steps. There were so many people out all weekend!

On Sunday, the plan was to go to the Vatican and see the Pope! We reached Saint Peter’s Square around 11:45am and Pope Benedict XVI made his appearance at noon! There were so many people in the Square – I would estimate 20,000! It was a pretty cool experience! Here is a link for the video we took. I uploaded it to youtube!

There were so many people waiting to see the Pope!

Pope Benedict XVI in the Papal Office

Just the two of us - plus thousands more!

Kevin takes some awesome photos!

After the Pope’s quick blessing we went over to Castle Saint Angelo. All of the past week Rome was promoting Culture Week, and many of the museums and monuments had FREE entrance fees! Castle Saint Angelo was one of them, so we went in (even thought it was something we had done in the past).

Castle Saint Angelo

The angel on the top of the castle pointing to the "Illuminati Lair" from Angels and Demons

Overlooking St. Peter's from the Castle

Then we decided to go back to St. Peter’s and actually go into the Basilica. We decided to go up to the top of the cupola – again something we have done in the past – so we hiked the 550 steps to the top and certainly enjoyed the view.

Kevin stopped for a beer on the way back

The Swiss Guard

On the way up to the top of the cupola

The ceiling of the basilica

Finally at the top...a ladybug decided to land on the frame of my glasses. Look above the left lens.

What a beautiful view!

This is the very top! You can see the heads of all the people.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

Here is a better view of the size of the basilica. They can fit up to 60,000 people at once!

In the Confessional - maybe not the most appropriate photo, but I thought it was fun.

We had a late lunch and then went to the Capitolini Museum. This museum housed a lot of sculptures and paintings that were a part of the Vatican collection for a while, until a past pope donated some artwork to the museum. We started getting pretty tired after walking and climbing so many steps, so we walked back to the Coliseum to get on the subway back to the hotel. It was another great day!

One of many huge statues at the museum. Of course this was one of Kevin's favorites.

This is one of the most famous statues at the museum. It is a statue of a She-Wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus - and the newly added, JPC!

I think this is one of my favorites from the whole trip!

I am so glad we had the opportunity to go to Rome for the weekend! Venice was great as well, but Rome is so much better! We had an unplanned, extended stay in Europe and I think we made the best out of the situation!

We are home now and are so happy to be back! Fortunately there were no delays or problems getting back to the States yesterday! There seemed to be many extra travelers in the airports due to the travel issues from the week before, but we made it home without any additional problems, so I am certainly not complaining! It was a great trip and I am so glad Kevin and I were able to enjoy the experience together!