We came, we saw, we took a picture.

This was the theme of the day that we discovered about half way through. Overall...we conquered Rome today. In true Bryce and Mandy fashion, we saw absolutely as many major roman sites as our tired feet would take us to. At the end of the day, as we drank our cans of Peroni by the Tiber River, we felt like we had really seen Rome. Now...does that mean we could tell you every place we saw or what we learned today? Of course not! Does it mean that we could show you a picture of all the sites? YES!!!! You see.....Bryce and I are very much visual people....and that means seeing things, taking them in, and taking pictures! So here it is.....

We had every intention of waking up early and being out and about by early morning. Ha! Bryce thought the front desk was lying when they called at 7:30 with out wakeup call and we ended up sleeping until 9:00. The breakfast at the hotel is fantastic with antipasto, eggs, bacon, champagne, and a wonderful assortment of breads and pastries. Our first stop was the Colosseum. After only a few short metro stops we walked out from the metro station to a full view of the colosseum! Very quickly we got to see a marching band play and a HUGE group of hundreds of tourists (the vatican is closed on Sunday's so it was extra packed). We would of had an hour wait in line if we hadn't been approached by a tour company(who I normally ignore) for a tour than cost 15 euro each. With that...we got right in and got a guided tour of the site along with Palatine hill and the Roman Forum. Best decision all day!

The Colosseum was amazing. It's truly impressive how advanced the Romans were so long ago. To see things that were built shortly after Christ died is just amazing. My favorite quote....from Bryce..as we walked in "ahhhh....just like Wrigley Field"! From there we saw the Arch of Constantine, Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, Capital Hill, and the "wedding cake" or Victor Emmanuel Monument, all before we had a late lunch at a cafe outside of the Pantheon. The tours were great and we got to see all of the ancient Roman Ruins. Some were very cool and some were .....well....ruins. :)
















From the ancient Roman Center, we moved onto to the Pantheon after lunch. This was set on a very cool square. After a large beer we went inside to get some pictures. The Pantheon is really just a big circle building...but a very cool one! With a circular window at the top it is the only light source for the whole building which serves today as a place of worship for many faiths. The highlight of the visit was seeing Raphael's tomb. As Bryce said...."he was the red turtle" . The building is one of the best preserved in all of Rome...built in 120 ad.....seriously....that's a long time ago!









From the Pantheon we walked our way through Rome up to the river to see some more sites....this is where the picture taking comes in. We saw lots of pretty buildings, columns, and squares. All are beautiful, we just don't know what they are all about! We found that it really is easy to walk through Rome....it's not that big of an area! After a short rest and drink at the bar we found our way to Piazza Navone....an absolutely beautiful square in the city. We enjoyed dinner out on the patio with street performers and merchants in view. It was such a great setting and I wish we could do it every night. After dinner we walked around the city stopping for drinks and gelato along the way. A few things we learned:

1. You can walk to most all of Rome......
2. Rome is a Very clean city and seemed very safe to us.
3. The vino is fantastic
4. utisca means exit and does not indicate the name of a metro stop :)

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Location:Rome, Italy