Rome

Rome was our last stop in Italy. While we were really excited about seeing Rome, we were also pretty weary of traveling at this point, especially in huge cities that spoke languages that we couldn't understand. By now, we had become experts at using the train and figuring out the bus and metro and we were able to find our way to our hotel with no problems (finally!). Once we got our first glimpse from the bus of all the famous Roman sights, we were once again ready to explore. Our first night in Rome, we just relaxed and had pizza (of course) for dinner. Have I mentioned how much pizza we ate in Italy? No? Well, we certainly had our fair share- we even had it 3 days in a row for lunch and dinner because it was a guaranteed cheap meal.

Rome was amazing to explore because everywhere we went we were reminded of the history that has taken place and how old the city actually is. Everywhere you look they are excavating more ancient ruins. The city has been built up in layers so that the ancient ruins are actually several feet below the present day street level. We loved seeing the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.

We also went to the Vatican City where we saw St. Peter's Basilica.

One night in Rome we took a "Night Walk Through Rome" from our Rick Steves guide book, of course. This ended up being one of our favorite nights of our whole trip. We started in one of the city squares, meandering through cobblestone streets and street performers. It is amazing what people will do for a euro. Our walk took us past the Pantheon (which we had toured earlier) and we stopped and had dinner at a little pasta place that faced the back of the Pantheon. We enjoyed some of the best pasta we have ever had- we would have licked our plates had we not been in public I think. This place was so good that we went back the very next night! After our dinner we continued our walk to the Trevi Fountain which was magical at night. We enjoyed sitting with a drink and watching the water with hundreds of other tourists and Romans. We ended our night at the famous Spanish Steps and then quickly rushed to catch the metro before it stopped running for the night.