Me encanta Roma!

So basically Rome is the coolest city ever! The history is awesome, the people are friendly and helpful, the food is great and cheep, and the wine is fantastic! I spent 4 lovely days in this city with my program and what a great trip! API(program) put us up in a 4 star hotel in a great location with an excellent breakfast included.  Our stay was comfortable and  exciting.  We even saw the pope among other things.

Gelato. Pretty much sums up my trip to Rome. Yumm!

And by saying I "saw" the pope I really mean we stood in St. Peters square with the Sunday crowd and squinted up to the popes office window to watch him give his Sunday blessing in Latin and wave to us.  Didn't understand a word, pretty cool though I suppose :)

Sunday crowd in St Peter's square

Couldn't visit Italy without eating pizza!

Gelato heaven!

We limited ourselves to Gelato 2 times a day!

Bomb.

The Spanish steps

Tomb of the unknown soldier, although when I took the picture I had no idea what this huge building with tourists taking pictures of was.   Figured I had better take a picture too! Obviously it was something important  hehe

Picture with the mystery building

Julius Caesar 

Where Julius Caesar died

Rome had fun little cars!

Trevi Fountain

Musicians with glasses of water

Are we lost?

I think not...

Rome has 400 churches of some type in the city, two of which are Lutheran!  I couldn't find either of them though, there were literally churches on every block. 

Stroll around the Roman ruins, very pretty and a great day for it!

Roman Ruins

Hunts, executions, games, gladiator battles all took place in this building.

Demonstrating what took place in the Colosseum. Gladiators fought, they won, they surrendered or died (more or less) 80% of the gladiators who made it to Rome lived.  If they won they gained their freedom.  

The colosseum had 80 entrances/exits 76 for commoners 1 for the emperor 1 for the nobility 1 for the winners of games and 1 for the losers/dead.  The colosseum could hold 80 thousand people and it was free for everyone including slaves, women and children.

Wishing into the Trevi fountain

Night

Day

Inside of St Peters Basilica

The ridiculously large altar

St Peter's square emptied

The Vatican housed a spectacular collection of maps! I am convinced this would be my brothers favorite room!

The Vatican even had cool floors

Well I was trying to sneak a picture of Michelangelo's works in the Sistine chapel and I ended up with a really great nose shot! haha! 

Turns out the guards did not enforce their "no photos" rule.  Michel Angelo painted the ceiling in his 30s. Young right?

Last Judgement, painted in his 60s

Hanging out with the security at the Pantheon, Do I look suspicious? 

No idea what this pasta was called but it was sooo great!