Soggiorno Emanuela Rome

... continues as to who won.

Rome is an amusing background for pop culture, a role it has played for 25 centuries. Spectacles in the Colloseum included wild animals and exotic, though unwilling, people from all parts of Europe and Africa. Mussolini made culture a key part of his political agenda, striking deals to save treasures even as he fled for his life at the end of the war. Berlusconi has managed to balance the most stable ...

... us on the tour new everything. The one thing that I retained from the tour was that they would make women and midgets fight each other for comic relief. It was old and looked like it was about to fall down right on top of me. The only thing that I didn’t like was the fact that it was raining on the day we went to the colosseum so instead of the large black men ...

... were Mint Chocolate, White Chocolate, Meringue, Vanilla, and Fior du latte. We got to climb 551 steps to the top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. The view was amazing! We went to the Colosseum which could hold 70,000 roaring fans. Overall all I really enjoyed my in Rome, it was really cool (but the weather wasn't at times). I'd really like to go back. - Rigel          

... of their vinegar and very happy to have us there. Upstairs on the 3rd floor was where the magic happened. Rows of wooden barrels of many types of wood and of many sizes lined all the walls of each room. A row might have 7 barrels of descending size and the vinegar would mature and then graduate to a smaller barrel until, after 12 or 25 years, getting to the smallest barrel (2 liters) where it would be ready for consumption. There is a lot more to balsamic vinegar ...

... it is in celcius), but we are getting used to it and have even done some cooking - Italian food of course. The food is great. My favorite snack is tomatos and fresh mozzerella with bread. That kind of stuff is everywhere around here. Our living room area is pretty nice. Instead of a couch we have a bed. Watching TV isn't very enjoyable since I do not understand anything, but there isn't ...

... that!! I wasn't expecting the Basilica to be so amazing, as the queue was small to get in, and it was free..... but it really left me speechless and in awe; it was absolutely huge and filled with paintings and statues of religious icons and other artefacts. I was stunned into silence for at least a few minutes, a rare occurence. After a good look around, we headed back out and into some nearby souvenir shops on the lookout for a Virgin Mary ...

Where do l begin!! I finally have made it to the one place l have always wanted to travel- Italy! I visited beautiful and romantic Venexia- Venice! Me and Maria took an overnight train from Lausanne, Switzerland and woke up with the rain pouring down as our train pulled up into Venice, Italy! We stepped out and caught our water bus No. 1 up to our Rialto stop. We were too excited to sit down in the bus, so we stood with our umbrellas out in the pouring rain watching ...

... on the way to the Pantheon, we saw these two little old ladies, who also looked quite lost. I pointed them out to Wende and said, "Look, that'll be us in 40 years." She agreed. We headed toward the Pantheon (which has been conv**ted to a church from a pagan temple) and took pictures of the front. We couldn't go inside because Mass was in progress. So, we got a pic in front of a column and made for McDonald's. Not to eat, mind you, but we KNEW they had ...

... all were not in kilts. Next to the Coliseum is the Forum of ancient Rome, again on a lower level than the busy streets nearby, because the ground level tends to rise as the centuries pass, and most of these ruins had to be dug out of the sediment on top of them. The Forum was the public area of Rome with temples for important gods, buildings that held court proceedings, and places for merchants. It is very spectacular with huge columns still standing where the buildings they were ...

... or features when they were made. There is a small Egyptian section that has some pretty impressive coffins and mummies. When you leave there you come to another section of sculptures and an oudoor area with more sculptures then to the "Hall of Maps". The Hall of Maps has painted maps on both walls for a few hundred feet. They are very good paintings, although not the most accurate maps. I don't know who painted them or when but they aren't new. The ceilings in this hall are covered in ...