Rome, Italy

The beautiful Trevi Fountain.

Inside St. Peter's in Vatican City.













Inside the Pantheon.












The Colosseum.

Karen at the Colosseum!

This is a HUGE building that is just a facade. It is empty behind all of these walls! It is a monument to the wars and you can barely see the men guarding the tomb on an Unknown Soldier.

















Patrick on the train to Rome!

We got up early (again) and had a quick bite from room service before meeting for our excursion to Rome. We boarded a bus (again!), but this time the ride was only about 5 minutes to the train – The Roma Express. It was gorgeous. It had beautiful leather seats, AIR CONDITIONED, large windows and wood accents. We had a comfortable 20 minute ride on the train through Civitavechia (pronounced Chee-vee-ta-vek-kia). There were huge fields of blooming sunflowers everywhere. It was beautiful!

Once we arrived in Rome, we headed to our bus (yes, another bus). It was a quick ride to the Colosseum. It was awesome. You just could not even imagine how old it was with the ancient Romans watching Gladiator fights. The center of the arena used to be empty and filled with water and the gladiators (mostly slaves) would fight in the middle on boats. An Emperor then came up with the idea of building the ‘lifts’ and covering the floor with sand in order to have the animals appear at once from the floor. There were as many as 30 lions and/or tigers appearing to attack the Gladiators at one time! Some of the Emperors considered it prestigious to have many animals/gladiators killed and one Emperor even killed over 5,000 animals and 2,000 slaves in just one year! There was an Emperor named Comidus (depicted in the movie Gladiator) who wanted to become a Gladiator, but had little courage. He used to fight lions and tigers in the arena that had all of their teeth and claws removed!

After the Colosseum, we headed to the Trevi fountain. It was the most beautiful fountain I have ever seen. It was built in 1762 and looks sparkling new. The water is said to have been flowing underground for 2,000 years and it was ‘virgin water’. There was a spigot on the side of the fountain where people could drink the fresh cold water. Patrick and I gave it a try and it was delicious! There were Disney people taking pictures of everyone at the fountain and even a person from Disney passing out pennies!

We each tossed a coin in the fountain and then the tour took us to the Piazza Navona. Apparently, many films with Sophia Lauren were filmed there and it was a popular spot for Italians to have dinner in the square. There was an incredible toy store there that would make any child go nuts. One of the window displays had about 20 dolls dressed as fairies and the costumes were SO detailed and beautiful. Patrick said he saw one of the price tags at 600 Euros!

We strolled over to the Pantheon. The funny thing was that directly across from this marvelous ancient structure, was a McDonalds. It was ironic to see ‘the old and the new’ staring at each other from the square!

The Pantheon was nice. There is a huge opening in the top and when it rains, there are drains in the floor that take the water to the Tiber River. The sun shining through the ceiling’s opening would even tell them what time of day it was.

After the Pantheon, we stopped for lunch and dined on delicious bruchetta, cheese and olives, rustic bread and a cheese lasagna. For dessert, they brought out the MOST delicious Tiramisu I have ever had in my life!

Lunch took a little longer than everyone would have liked (about 2 hours), but afterwards, we boarded the bus to take us to St. Peter’s Square. We got to see Michelangelo’s Pieta all made in a beautiful white marble. We got to see three mummified Popes – kind of creepy. I touched the foot of the Apostle – which is not only for good luck, but so many have touched his foot that the toes have worn away on the statue! Down the center of St. Peters, you can see where the length of the other churches end. Maybe half way down the center aisle, there is a mark showing the length of Notre Dame in Paris. St. Peter’s is huge!

On the way out of the Vatican, we were heading through the crowd to get to our bus and a little old lady and her friend walked right in front of us to cross the street. She had her purse tightly under her arm, but the end of the purse was sticking out behind her. A gypsy boy (maybe 11 or 12 years old), walked right in front of me and unzipped her purse and was stealing her wallet. I was SO shocked, I grabbed his arm and pulled it out of the woman’s purse and yelled at him not to steal! I don’t know what I was thinking, but I thought it was terrible that someone would brazenly steal from another within eyesight of the Pope! I pushed the boy out of the crowd and by this time my husband who heard me yelling was running through the crowd like a bull in a China shop to find out why I was in distress. The Americans surrounding us from the tours were congratulating me on my ‘sharp eye’ and told me I did my good deed for the day. I figured it was just good Karma!

Tomorrow is a sea day and I am REALLY looking forward to not getting on a bus!