On Friday, we arrived in Rome and took a walking tour that provided background to many of the sites. We started off at the Colosseum, and then walked through the Roman Forum, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon among other places.
On Saturday we woke up early and went to the Vatican to avoid the massive tour groups and line of people, which is hard to do on the weekend in touristy places. Once we finally got into the Museum we headed straight to the Sistine Chapel, weaving around the slow walking and herd like tour groups. Of course the room was strategically placed towards the end of the one-way path through the museum, but we made it and enjoyed the beautifully painted chapel. After staring at the ceiling for quite some time, we went back to the beginning of the museum and more slowly looked at other portions of the museum which is quite large. It is said that if you looked at everything in the museum for 60 seconds, you would spend 12 years in the museum! After that we took a much deserved lunch break before heading on to St. Peter's Square. Everything there was huge...the square, the basilica, the dome and blistering heat. It was as grand as I always imagined.
Panoramic view of the Vatican
On Sunday, we went to Colosseum and saw the inside which was very cool. I like ruins and imagining what life was like in the past. I also bought this cool book where the pages are photographs of current day Roman Ruins and then you can put a plastic overlay on top on the photograph to more clearly see what it looked like back in the day - I also found this very neat. After that we walked through Palatine Hill, which overlooks the roman forum area and has ruins of its own. After that we went to Villa Borghese which is a big park with a very nice art Museum. Finally, until our train left we walked around the city and checked out the sales in a bunch of stores (for the cheaper prices and in search of air conditioning! it was so hot on Sunday that if I ever stepped into the shade I never wanted to leave in fear of melting).
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