The next three days were spent in Rome! We loved Rome, there was so much to see and do, and easy to get around. We took the train from Naples to Rome, hailed a taxi, and soon found ourselves checked in a very lovely hotel. We hit the ground running with a visit to the Spanish Steps and a walk through their high end shopping district. In the evening we met up with our tour group for the first time. Delicious dinner! After, we took to the streets again and found St. Angelo's Castle just a few blocks away!
A huge Piazza right near our hotel, these are everywhere
Spanish Steps! the fountain at the bottom is famous but was closed for repair, like just about every other fountain in the city! Ratz.
St Angelo's in the evening. The guy in the photo was absolutely out of his gourd with all the historic sites :)
The next morning we were up and out to see the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill!
Corinthian Arch
The Colosseum! This place held about 70,000 people, a mere shadow of the 250,000 the Circus Maximus could hold. Now imagine this place plastered and painted bright colors - wow!
Walking through 'downtown'. Everything there is like a lasagna, just layer after layer. It wasnt until the 20's under Mussolini that any of it began to be excavated. There's so much still to find!
The place Julius Ceasar was cremated
After the forum we parted ways with our guide and group, and continued our walk down ancient lane.
Trajan's Column
Their Military Building - we saw their changing of the guard...it's no wonder why they arent exactly a military force! A lot of sauntering and only about 30 seconds long. :)
The Pantheon! All together now, engineers go: ooooo! It really was amazing though, and I had to keep reminding myself that it's not new, it's 2000 years old!
St. Angelo's in the daylight. This was originally constructed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. Since then it's been used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum, which we toured later at night! We even got to walk through a secret passageway that connects to the current papal apartments. Only got to go part way though! ;)
The next morning it was rise and shine and off to the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica! The lines were unreal, I think I heard something like 30,000 people go through daily! That's a serious fish fry!
Most of you know I've always kinda had one foot in the Catholic church, now it's for real! :)
This was in the Vatican museum that we walked through to get into the Sistine Chapel. I photoed the ceiling because it looks like plaster, but it's actually painted! Just beautiful. Then there was a gallery of maps that 2 brothers did centuries ago, they're absolutely perfect and to scale. Incredible.
No photos allowed in the Sistine, but it was both underwhelming and overwhelming. The size was surprising to us, really not so huge, but the paintings by Michaelangelo! wow! We're not even 'art people' and the difference between his work and other very gifted artists was remarkable!
St Peter's Basilica! I dont know why I even tried photographing, it's too huge to capture. The whole thing is an optical illusion because it's all on a huge scale, so it doesnt look so big. The length is more than 2 football fields, the height is taller than the tower of Pisa, and the cherubs on the columns are 6 feet tall!
Gorgeous! We got to see Michelangelo's Madonna too.
All of the artwork is actually mosaic, although we couldnt tell until our guide told us. The Vatican is also home to world's most exclusive school of mosaic. Astounding.
While we were there a foreign diplomat came in, so the Swiss Guards escorted her and there was a little ceremony. I asked Peter if the Swiss Guards know they're wearing crazy outfits, he said yes.
Three cherubs!
The Papal apartments - he comes to the second window on the left.
After leaving Vatican square we were on our own again. Peter We decided to death march walk out to the Catacombs. Actually we took the subway partway, but since they're outside of the city, the subway didnt go all the way there. We made it though! and it was very cool, literally, as we went underground. There are more than 12 miles of tunnels! We didnt walk all of those though :)
Outside the ancient walls of Rome
Lovely day for a walk!
Getting to the Catacombs took a bit longer than we thought, so we hailed a taxi to bring us back so we could get ready for our group dinner theater! Italian Opera!
They came to us especially and sang in honor of our honeymoon
Following dinner we drove through town on an illuminated tour, oo lala! Viva Roma!
Off to Assisi and Florence in the morning!
