Part III: Rome

Ahh Rome. My favorite part of the trip. There was so much in Rome I wanted to see and I am happy to say I got to see it all. The first night we got there we went to sleep after another full day of travel so we'd be able to get up and go the next morning. I also finished my 3rd book of the trip. We got up and had breakfast at the hostel and then set out to find the Rome(ing) Tour that had been recommended to us. We got their early and ended up sitting at a cafe for an hour waiting, we decided it was very Italian of us. The tour was great. It was given by Tad, a friendly man from Iowa. He was incredibly knowledgeable and I asked him quite a few questions. We ended up having the tour all to ourselves as well as we were the only ones who showed up. It was a 4 hour walking tour that took us all over ancient Rome. Seeing the Colosseum, Pantheon, Jewish ghetto, Mouth of Truth, Circus Maximus, Piazza Venezia, and the Roman Forum.
It wiped us out and after trying the restaurant Tad recommended to us, and disliking it, we turned in.
The next day we packed just as much in. Starting with the Vatican. We did a little shopping on the way to St. Peter's Basilica. Once there we decided we should get inline to go in...not really realizing what we were getting ourselves into. By mistake we got into line for the capela, where a friendly Canadian told us we were going to the top of the dome. It cost 5 euros to take all 541 stairs or you could pay 7 and take the elevator half way and only walk 300.. Alyssa and I decided to save two euros and burn some extra calories. It was definitely a climb, but we made it, and it actually ended up being one of my favorite things we did. We could see all of Rome from the top and had a great deal of arms that wrap around St. Peter's.

Afterward we got galeto on our way to the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is located; something I couldn't leave Rome without seeing.
After our Vatican adventure we headed towards the Trevi fountain. It started raining... (the only bad weather we had on our whole trip) but it really didn't phase us, the fountain was spectacular.


The next morning we got up early to make our way to Piazza Navona to look for paintings. I bought two small water colors that I think will look great in Jen and I's bathroom :) We also got pizza and gatelo for the last time in Italy before we ran back to the hostel to catch our taxi to the airport.

Our trip really went without any hitches and it is truly something I will never forget.