Whew!  What a busy day and half!

We walked around our neighborhood a little while and then headed over to the Colosseum for a tour.  It took us a while to find it and by the time we got there we were starving.  We settled for some mediocre pizza in a very touristy restaurant.  Not the best but it killed the hunger!

We started the tour at the Colosseum – it’s breathtaking!  Our guide was great and really painted a picture of the history.  It’s just concrete now ,but it used to be covered all in marble.  Our guide said the popes stole or “recycled” all the marble to build the Vatican.  After that we went to the Roman Forum, which is mostly ruins of where business was conducted and people gathered during Caesar’s day.  We then walked up Palatine Hill, on of the seven hills Rome.

We walked on to Trevi Fountain and then took a break at a little café.  A couple from Athens, GA sat next to us!  They were in town for her brother’s wedding.  We then took a cab to a restaurant mentioned in my guidebook but when we got there the next available table wasn’t until 10 pm!  They walked us to another place where it felt like mama was cooking for us.  It was super small and great food.

This morning we were supposed to meet Father Tim (a priest Aunt Cindy has a connection with from Statesboro) at St. Peter’s Basilica.   Well, that didn’t go so well.  We got there right as the pope came out and blessed the crowd – we aren’t Catholic and have no idea what he said but we were grateful for the blessing!  The crowds were CRAZY getting through security and into the church so we missed Father Tim by 5 minutes.  Oh well.  We gave ourselves a tour and then walked to a little café for lunch and then topped it off with some great gelato!

We are having a great time – we’ve walked a ton and are going to take it easy the rest of the afternoon.  I see a patio and wine in our near future!  Aunt Cindy’s spotted every pigeon in town but has done a good job keeping her cool around them!

A slideshow of some of our pictures is below.  To view on an iPad/iphone, you may have to click here.  Hope you are all doing well!