Rome was far and away our favorite city. There were so many things to do and see. In the US, and even in France, things are considered old if they're 200 years old. Here it was more like 2000 years.
The Trevi Fountain. Legend has it that if you throw one coin over your shoulder into it and you have good luck for the day. Two coins and you'll get married within a year. Three coins and you get rid of your mother-in-law. I guess in Italy MILs are not too well thought-of!( I must be really lucky because I have the greatest imaginable) Anyway, this was the incredible view from our hotel room. I think that's one of the reasons we loved Rome so much. The square was always so alive - there were tons of people there all night long. It was fun just to look out the window and people-watch (especially all the Italian men hitting on all the young American women).
Another preparing-for-the-year-2000 photo. This is St. Peter's Basilica, which is I think the largest in the world. Fortunately only the outside was being refurbished. Inside was just incredible. I didn't realize how large it was until I was looking at some statues near the top of one of the walls. They looked about 3 feet tall, but then the tour guide said they were almost 20 feet tall.
Michaelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's was one of my favorite sculptures on the trip (the other was Michaelangelo's David which is in Florence). It's hard to describe how beautiful it is in person, and he carved it when he was only 20 years old. I truly fell in love with Michaelangelo's work on this trip. I didn't realize how many things he had accomplished, one of which was designing St. Peter's. And the Sistine Chapel (which I don't have any photos of because they don't allow it) was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I could have spent hours just absorbing it all. Apparently we were really lucky because it wasn't too crowded when we were there. During the summer I've heard it's difficult to even walk around in.
These are mosaics on the walls of St. Peter's. Bob and I both thought they were paintings until our guide told us they were actually mosaics. We fell in love with them so much we bought a small mosaic at the Vatican gift shop.
When we were walking in to the Colosseum these guys came over to me and asked "Can I stab you?"
Here is the outside of the Colosseum. It's hard to believe it's 2000 years old. The sad part is it would probably be almost completely still standing if it hadn't been used as a quarry for other buildings in Rome such as St. Peter's Basilica. Only a couple hundred years ago did they stop using the stone.
The inside of the Colosseum, which I believe was told could hold 80,000 people. The arena floor was covered with a wood platform, and what you see are the pathways for the drop doors from the platform. There were areas for the dead, the injured, various animals, etc. It is now believed that Christians were not fed to the lions here, but many gruesome battles did occur. They would bring in exotic animals to fight man and each other.
OK, this is the last photo of the Colosseum. It was just one of our favorite places. The structural engineer in Bob especially loved it, and we were lucky enough to have a tour guide who enjoyed answering all his questions about how it was constructed, the brick layup (which surprisingly is better than most structures built today), etc.