Rome!

We paid for a flight to Rome on Ryan Air. That airline is an adventure in itself. But I digress. SO, we get to Rome at about 11:30 at night after a plane, a bus, and a taxi. We ring the doorbell. Whose doorbell, you might ask? Well, Chris's college roommate, Matteo - his parents live in Rome!! They are actually also in charge of the dorm rooms for the PSU study abroad students. And since we went in between semesters, we got to stay in the rooms for free! Good timing, huh?

The location was incredible, right off of Piazza Nervona. Did I even spell that right? Anyway, on the piazza in the evenings there was singing, and one night there was an opera and a string quartet followed that! It was nice to have his mom right down the hall, too. Since we showed up with the kids late at night she already got stuff in like they were her own grandkids...milk, cereal, fruits, yogurt, pastries, juices, a bottle of wine for me and Chris...we were totally spoiled. Here we are in Rome.

This is the view from his parents terrace...

This is the view looking UP to the terrace from the piazza. Cool, huh? See that small statue in the middle of the photo?

Well, it is barely on the upper edge of this picture. Pretty cool, huh?

We went and saw the Vatican, and climbed up to the cupola. Beautiful. Impressive. Awe-inspiring.

We went to the colloseum. Is that spelled right?

Ok, I'm just noticing how incredibly bad these pictures are. I have to check the camera settings, I guess. Why can't a simple point-and-shoot be a SIMPLE point-and-shoot??

I'm on the phone to Heather while I'm trying to post this. Now, I can't remember for the life of me what it is! lol While talking to her, all I can think of is Astrodome. And I know that's not right. Let me see if I can think and talk and type at the same time. Nope, can't do it.

You know, it's where they had the early church, and it rains through the hole, and the kids loved it! Um...palodrome? No....ok, total blonde moment. Sorry.

And I know this could have been taken anywhere, but I loved it. One of my favorites. The kids sharing ice cream cones. Oops, gelato. We ate a LOTTA gelato every day. It was so hot!!

We also went to see the Spanish Steps.

Now, what's missing, you may ask? How about the Sistine Chapel??? WELL, it was CLOSED. For TWO days. And we had TWO DAYS left!! Stupid Day of Ascension....ha ha

We'll see it next time. I have about 300 more pictures from Rome, but have to go catch the kids off the bus. Last post for Europe - Germany!!