Antony Inn Rome

... collection on its own.

No place knows culture like Rome. Beijing, Athens, Cairo, Istanbul have their depth, but no place commands influence in art, architecture, history, politics, military and style like Rome. The City learned to bury its treasures during times of war, having been sacked dozens of times. With lots of treasures and lots of sackings, Rome’s subsoil is still a gold mine of culture. Populations were often ...

... who had been starved for 10 days prior!) who would proceed to devour these people.

Moral of the story: Romans = ****ing crazy.

ANYway. After that, I was finally able to track down Hector (yay!) and we met up in the metro, and then went onto the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Parthenon, as well as seeing Parliament and the House of Reps in the main city.

Dinner was at this cute little restaurant (which was included! yay for ''free'' food!) with ...

... two-way and would barely count as a one-way at home. It is really funny to watch what happens when two cars are going in opposite directions on one of these streets and they meet. One has to back up until there is enough room for them to pass or until there is a place for one to pull over. Sometimes they do not find a place like this until they have driven back to the end of the road. It is so weird to see two cars driving by, one facing forward ...

... an awesome sight-seeing pub crawl through the city. We went to the Trevi Fountain, Spannish Steps, and heard a creepy ghost story about someone who was murdered near another fountain. On Friday, I heard out bright and early for the Colluseum, Roman Forum, and Palintine Hill. I had booked a fast track ticket through expedia before leaving, so I had to redeem the voucher beforehand. I toook the metro to the Colluseum ...

... actually it's easier than that because crossing the street in Italy can be quite traumatic) and went past Castel Sant'Angelo and into the streets of Rome. I was starving, having only eaten a granola bar and a cup of coffee while standing in line for the Vatican Museum, and so we stopped at the first little shop we could find. Who knew that the little Italian pizza/sandwich shop would be my greatest triumph in Italy. I managed to order a sandwich! In Italian nonetheless, albeit ...

... from Barcelona. We wish never to go to Barcelona again!!! ROME - we could live here and enjoy every minute of it. BUT, we would miss the ones we love the most, so we will return. Tomorrow we are heading to Florence! Stay tuned and pray we have our bags returned to us.

... the river as the sun is starting to set, and look at the grand Castilla that sits high above it. It's just a short walk from here to the smallest country in the world, and we walk across our third border for this trip when we cross into Vatican City. Everything about the Vatican just takes your breath away. That's what it's supposed to do... it's the Vatican. When it comes to Catholicism, or even Christianity, it doesn't get any bigger, prettier, or ...

... for the BOSS. Having abandoned the idea of the Sistine chapel and having accomplished the basilica in two hours,we still had the better part of the day to further explore Rome. We walked some kilometres across the river and through the bohemian section of Rome to Piazza Navrona and the Pantheon, both of which we found so incredibly overrun with tourists that we didn't linger long. The BOSS had a blister on her toe that was threatening to engulf her entire foot, so we ended our five ...

... his camera to a sign that said "No Cameras." The guard caught him. The paintings have been cleaned and are very bright. Unfortunately the room is not well lit, so you can't see as well as you might hope. It is awe-inspiring nevertheless and we spent a neck-craning thirty minutes trying to take it all in. In his bit about the ruins, FM forgot to mention the columns on the outside of the Coliseum. As they go up, they get progressively more decorative. At the ground level the columns are ...

... appeared several people dressed in traditional medievil outfits waving flags. We had never heard of Il Palio before, but it's a bi-annual competition between the 14 neighborhoods of Siena. It's highlight is twice a year when 10 of the neighborhoods are chosen to have a horse race in the Il Campo. The whole time we were there there was drumming as the neighborhoods (each with a different color and flag) would parade around town getting people riled up. We enjoyed just ...