Rome, Italy
February 24, 2003 - February 28, 2003

DAY 1

We arrived in Rome on a Monday and headed out to the city to see Circo Massimo (an old chariot race track) and wonder around that area. Every street we went down, every corner we turned, and every direction we looked there was either a really old building,a church, a huge monument or a beautiful fountain was staring us in the eyes. It was simply amazing. We finally wondered our way to the Coliseum and found a cute little restaurant nearby that we sat outside at and ate with a great view of the Coliseum.

Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus)

Day 2

The second day we did some more wondering. We found the Villa Borghesse Park, then made our way to the Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain. I had read that it is very crowded during the summer and sometimes difficult to get near the fountain but there weren't many people around and we were able to sit right in front of the fountain and eat some lunch. After that we continued just walking around and we ended up at a billion different Piazzas (squares) and the Pantheon. The Pantheon is the best preserved building in Ancient Rome and also known as a temple to the gods. Inside is where the famous painter, Raphael is buried. Something really neat about this building is that the big dome at the top actually has a huge hole in it. (it was built this way) When it rains, it actually rains inside the Pantheon as well. 

The Villa Borgesse Park

The Spanish Steps and The Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon and Piazza Navona

Ginicolo (Janiculum)  Hill 

Day 3

 Day three we went inside the Coliseum. It was amazing to stand inside this place we have heard so much about and where so many gladiators fought! The floor was gone and we were able to see all the passage ways that existed beneath the arena floor. There was a wooden walkway that had been put in so we could walk across the floor and look down at all the passage ways which once housed many exotic animals and gladiators. Then we headed over to the Roman Forum which was the political and religious center of Rome and the Palatine Hill.I  don't even know how to explain the Forum besides intriguing! There were parts of so many buildings just laying around and/or still standing. There were temples to different gods that were still standing in parts. If you notice on the last picture of the Roman Forum you will see a little name plate that translated says, Temple to Saturn.


The Coliseum

The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill 

Day 4

Our Final Day we made it over to the Vatican City. We got a free tour of the Basilica from a group that was doing an advertisement for their bigger tour in the afternoon, it was very informative. St. Peters Basilica is the largest Catholic Church. It was magnificent! No words could begin to describe the beauty and amazement of this place! We got to travel up a ton of stairs in narrow slanted stairways up to the top of the dome for an outstanding view of the city. Michelangelo's Pieta is here. Neither of us had ever heard of it before, but it was simply, breathtaking. It is a sculpture of the Madonna holding her crucified son, Jesus. In the third picture you will see someone sitting on the steps in a maroon sweater and khaki pants, that is Nichole. 

Vatican City

This is us on our hotel balcony

Getting home was well.... less than fun!! Our plane left Rome at 10:00AM. We left our hotel to take the hour trip to the airport at 7:30AM. Everything was going smoothly and then all of a sudden the trains weren't really running. They would go to a station and sit for about 30 minutes. Then they kicked us all off and we had to get on a different train...which had the same problem... it would go for a stop or two, change tracks sit for another 30 minutes...SO.. of course 10:00AM came and went and we were STILL sitting on a train somewhere between Rome and the airport. SOOOO.... we get to the airport about 50 minutes AFTER our plane took off!! A lot of people were in our situation as well. We found out there was some kind of accident with one of the trains. I don't know with what or how or anything else, but that's why the trains were so wacky. Thankfully they were able to put us on the next flight to Brussels and a flight from Brussels to Copenhagen at 7:00PM. So we think all is going well. When we got to Brussels we learned that, we were actually on standby in Brussels!! So after 3 hours of waiting, they actually stuck us on another plane with another airline (SAS- Its a Scandinavian Airline that we love, so we felt we were actually bumped up) that left 5 minutes after the other one was suppose to... We made it home at 10:30 and passed out! Oddly enough neither of us was too stressed out about missing the plane. We figured, if so much was going wrong we just weren't meant to be on that plane for one reason or another

And that is our trip in a nutshell
~THE END~