Rome

I already gave a partial update on Rome in my first post. But the pics were pretty terrible, I was trying to hurry pretty fast and they took forever to load and we were on a major time crunch. So here are some better pictures. The first one is somewhere Maurizio took us. It is hard to tell from the picture but it is looking through the keyhole of these huge wooden doors that the Roman cavalry used to pass through from their stables. There is a long shrub tunnel that perfectly frames the dome of Constantine's Basilica. Unfortunately the dome would not show up in the photo.
We stayed at the Hotel Condotti by the Spanish Steps. Our room was very tiny but good by European Standards we even had a towel warmer, which knocked out the power to our room leaving me in the shower after just barely getting wet with no lights and no water. I was pretty miffed after dropping $350 for the room. Sorry, Sorry I will stop complaining about how ridiculously expensive everything was. I am just a deal hunter by nature and it was pretty painful (but still worth it.) After finally showering for the first time in nearly 3 days we felt reborn and hit the town for dinner and to see the colosseum and and the Trevi fountain. Our cab driver recommended a great restraunt just up from the colosseum. I had some of the best gnocchi of my life, it was soo fresh and soo cheesy. Even though the waiter ripped us off, it was a great dinner (he just kept bringing out things we didn't order, including cocktails, then charged us for it, then added it wrong, and said to leave him a cash tip after gratuity was already included on the bill). Our cab driver warned us that there was a price for tourists and a price for locals, we just didn't expect it to be that bad.


This photo is our cab driver he was so hilarious. and the photo below is Dave, Jody, Chris and me on a road above the Roman forum (ancient Rome). We were trying to find our way to the restaraunt, and got a bit lost. Although you can make some awesome discoveries just getting lost. The next photo is of the colosseum at night as we were walking down the street from the restaraunt.











The next day we went to Vatican City. The first pic is Maurizio showing us the spot from where all of the coloumns were positioned(what a goof, it was like having Mr. Bean as your tour guide). If you look from that spot it looks like there is only one row of colomns but there are actually two. The second pic is when we went on our own to tour St. Peters Basilica. However the Pope was addressing the crowd on the steps so we couldn't go in. But we were pretty satisfied to see the Pope instead. You can just make out his picture on the screen to the right. While the whole world was listening to the Pope we went over the the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. No lines! It is usually a several hour wait. The Sistine Chapel was a surprise I had envisioned a beautiful church with a grand entrance but not so. It was a very simple building that you could only access through a maze of other rooms. The painting is one of three rooms prior to the chapel that had frescoes painted by Raphael, Michaelangelo's rival. Then you enter the Sistine Chapel where you cannot take any pictures. There are security guards all over inside yelling "silence, no photo!" If they see you taking a picture they take your film or make you delete it. That has the famous frescos by Michaelangelo, so sorry read a book.
We left the Vatican Museum and hit their cafeteria. We were thrilled to have a meal that we chose what we payed for and were happy to pay about $35. Much less than the night before. Leaving the museum we went down the coolest staircase. I just had to get a photo of that. I have a thing for swirly pictures, so sorry it's not exactly historical. The next photo is us inside the colosseum the second day. Hard to believe what went on there for entertainment, and harder to believe it is still standing.