Our Trip to Rome...

We had a great time when we went to Rome this past weekend. We stayed at a Best Western Hotel that was just a 15 minute walk from the Colosseum. It was so amazing to be walking through the city, looking at the beautiful old buildings, such great architecture and then WHAM right in front of us the Colosseum. Almost 2000 years old the Colosseum was finished in 80 AD. Really was quite astouding to see such an old structure right next to buildings that were old by American standards (only a couple hundred years old). Wow!

I am putting the photos in a separate album to make it easier for viewing. You can find them here.

Trip to Rome

We didn't find great Italian food there in Rome but we found an excellent gelato place that was just a few steps from our hotel. We had ice cream there no less than 4 times in 2 days. It was so tasty. Their lemon gelato was so fresh, sweet and tart. They even made a pretty delicious cappuccino as well.

We took a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour. The bus takes you around the city showing you the sites. We were given headphones so we could listen to facts about each site in our own language. The great thing about this tour was you could hop off the bus anytime you wanted. The bus came back to each stop every half hour. So we could hop back on and go on to the next site. It was great and saved us a lot of walking. Plus we got to see some things we probably wouldn't have if we were walking everywhere. We walked a lot on Friday and were so sore that night. On Saturday we took the tour bus and really enjoyed it.

We even stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe and ate lunch on Saturday. While waiting outside we met a family that had traveled to Rome from Stuttgart, Germany. His parents had come to see them and take a trip to Rome at the same time. We had a great conversation and I know they really enjoyed chatting with Caleb. (He was just so full of interesting facts and had them laughing.) We realized after we got back onto the bus that we hadn't even stopped to find the Spanish Steps or the Trevi Fountain. So we stopped at the next bus stop and asked for directions to the Spanish Steps. We did walk down the Spanish Steps which were pretty and packed with people. There was even a bride and groom having their pictures taken at the bottom. She was absolutely beautiful. James didn't want to take a picture of them because he felt it was a violation of their privacy.

From there we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. It was amazing and so much larger than I had imagined. Not sure how it was possible but it was even more packed than the Spanish Steps. We had a difficult time getting close enough to even get a picture.

We realized on Sunday when we were getting ready to leave for the airport that we never even got to see the Pantheon. Don't know how we missed it. In between the hopping on and off the bus we just plain lost track of what we were looking at. So many amazing sites to see - The Roman Forum, Palantine Hill, the Pantheon, the Vatican, Colosseum and more. So Jared decided we need to go back to Rome. Next time we will tour the Vatican Museum and find the Pantheon.