Regina Hotel Baglioni Rome

... records of the burials lost. It was common during the centuries, as it is today, to unearth spectacular intact Greek and Roman artifacts, like the Laocoon sculpture, commissioned and transported to Rome from Rhodes in the 1st century BC, but lost for centuries under Nero’s Golden House. Its discovery in 1506 became a sensation involving Pope Julius II ("Il Papa Terrible" for his bad temperament), Michaelangelo, Raphael ...

... the window around here. with a visit to the Vatican on Friday.

Glad I don't live in a city like Rome...growing up in LA was enough...but, the hecticness and speed with which people live is fascinating. It was nice this morning to slowly wander through the park at the Borghese. But, the ability to ride a bike (especially in Florence), speak on a cell phone, eat something...and not die...was just ...

So, there really is no Thanksgiving holiday here in Rome. At school, I have used the opportunity for discussion. (Usually more about "Black Friday") Anyway, Bobby and I had made a tenative plan for Chinese food after work followed by a drag show. Also, some of the girls from TEFL class invited me to their party and I in ...

Our apartment is fabulous. The guy who met us there, don't really remember his name, was a little overly enthusiastic in pointing out places on the map he gave us. We now know where 2 wine shops, 3 grocery stores, all the churches, a pastry place, 3 restaurants, and the Colosseum are. Apparently that's all that matters. Everything else, meh, not so much. :) Anyway, our apartment has 3 bedrooms, so KK and i each get our own, which is good, but I was looking ...

... decided to make artwork of the wolf with the suckling baby twins underneath- one of the most disturbing sculptures l viewed at the Capitol hill museum later! I passed the Temple of Julius Caesar and countless other important temples and basilica's and palace ruins. The house and beautiful remaining grounds of the Vestal Virgins is what captured me the most though. The two pools and numerous beautiful sculptures that still remained of this place, where once the six vestal virgins ...

... of how old everything is. Huge half-domes of brick still remain from just a few years after the birth and death of Christ. Three isolated columns stand, lonely and almost forlorn, by themselves in the middle of the forum, hinting at the former glory of ages past. Pieces of column and frieze and roof literally litter the forum grounds. Most of what was once here has been stolen, destroyed, or just hangs out here on the ground. A massive archway still remains, but is slowly ...

Our final stop on this incredible trip was Rome. Ronin took us on a four-hour whirlwind tour of the ancient city. We saw everything from the Colleseum, to the Spanish Steps, to the statue of Moses. Our farewell dinner was amazing. We had to leave the next morning, so I vowed to return to Rome for more exploration.

Well we made it to rome! woohooo I honestly feel as if I jumped into an art history text book... Ive literally been swimming in sculptures, paintings, ruins, texts...its amazing to see all of it, but at the same time its sensory overload! And I honestly never knew that working at the olive garden would come in handy but with in the first 3 hours I was already using my skills! First knowing how to open a bottle of wine... (there are some people who dont know) by ...

... looking over the mountains from a villa in Ravello. I walked around for a couple of hours and took pictures of myself as well =) Every now and then I'd run into other tourists and offer to take my picture since they noticed I'm by myself and setting up my camera timer but I didn't want to bother them and preferred to do things on my own though. "Thanks, but that's okay. I'll take your picture instead if you want?" They did so, I took pictures of other people instead and they ...

... We went to go hail a cab. We got one where the guy spoke pretty good english. We showed him where we wanted to go but he didn't know where it was. He had to call for a bigger cab because we had five people. We told him we wanted to go to a disco. Finally the other cab pulled up and I offered the taxi guy a tip since he did stick around for a little bit, but he wouldn't accept it. Then we went to the other cab where the guy didn't ...