Rome, Italy

We went to Rome, Italy for 9 days from March 30th to April 8th for our Spring Break. We walked about the city, sightseeing and tourist watching. The city was full of people as it was Spring Break for a lot for people and there were a lot of Catholics that had come to see the Pope.

Senatus Populusque Romanus, the 'The Senate and The People of Rome'.

A view from atop the St. Peter's dome, the highest point in Rome.

awww, we love each other!

hanging out in front of St. Peter's basilica in Vatican City
the pantheon at dusk the pantheon at night
a halo created by the sun around an angel in front of the St. Angelou Castel
a catholic city for sure art on a door
great food, everywhere

the trevi fountain

does that hat say ' Von Dutch ', huh? well, isnt it suppose to say that?... Van Duck?!

a small car...

number one!

a view of the city from above the Spanish Steps

more roman sculptures, they are everywhere!!!

a horse and the colleseum

the roman forum by day

the roman forum by night

Below you can see a map of the Roman Empire.

Of course you cannot go to Rome and not see the Colleseum.
We went to many museums, a pic of Gordon viewing some artifacts in the Campdoglio Museum are below.
Below is one of my favorite statues.
Gordon, Jonathan, and I walking towards the Spanish Steps.
Pizza, Pizza, Pizza. We ate a lot of pizza.
Gordon buying some nice Italian silk ties.
We went to some major ruins of one of the three major port towns to Rome, Ostia Antica, which translates to ancient river mouth. We spent about 4 hours walking about, it was huge and amazing.
Gordon and I posing for a pic.

The structures and decorations of this ancient city were amazing. Today you can still see the mosaics on the floors and paintings on the walls, completed with great detail and elegance.

There were huge pilars everywhere.
We were in Rome with three other colleagues- Jonathan, and a family of three- Chad, Kelly, and Conner. It was a great time.
Overall, we went to a ton of museums and saw a lot of ancient ruins and learned a lot about historical events of the region. We went to Vatican City and went into the Cistene Chapel (after waiting in line for 2 hours!), we climbed stairs on our knees that Jesus Christ walked on after he was crowned with thorns (his blood is still on the stairs), we went inside the Colleseum where gladiators fought and died, we went to an underground system of tombs where over 300,000 people were barried- including 16 Popes- all previous to the year 410 AD. There was so much to see and I am sure we probably couldnt see it all in 10 years if we tried. The Italian people we met were really cool and the food was awesome. We stayed at Tiber Camping, about 20 minutes north of Rome, in bunkbeds for all of the 9 nights- for 11 Euro ($14.30 USD) per night. Rome had the same prices as Bulgaria- except they were in Euro instead of Bulgarian Leva, so it was like everything was twice as expensive. It was worth every penny. We are excited to tour Europe this summer, from July 1st to September 1st, we plan to see Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, and much more.