Europe Trip: Rome, Italy

Rome.

I was super excited for Rome.

But maybe also prepared to be a little let down?

When we went to Athens a few years ago I was expecting it to be my favorite day of the trip, but crowds and distance from place to place kind of put a damper on things for me (and that was even in November, definitely not full on tourist season).

But Rome was awesome.

I'm not sure what the difference was...as you'll see in the pictures, there were definitely crowds.

But Rome was also surprisingly walkable. I buy maps of the big places we go and mark up everything I want to see. We were able to hit everything on my list and my bum knee didn't even ache.

And the things, the things, so cool to see in person.

Our cruise excursion bus (the cruise ship port is an hour and a half away) dropped us off by the Vatican and then we hopped on the subway to start off at the Colosseum.

{we didn't have time to go in and do a tour, *next time*, but it was sure neat to see} 

We went into a church tucked in between the Colosseum and the Forum.

{that distinctive tree in the background can be found all over Rome, it's the umbrella pine and they use the pine nuts from it in their pesto and I now crave it bad...so yummy}

We didn't pay or wait in the very long line to enter the Forum proper, but I was really happy with what you can see of it from the walk past to go to the rest of the city. 

 {Altar of the Fatherland}

 {gelato of course, my customary dark chocolate and vanilla or cheesecake and Curt's lemon}

 {Trevi Fountain}

 

 {pesto pizza like a sandwich}

 {the Pantheon...this was amazing, I've wanted to see it since I was a kid}

 {one of the striking things about many of the Roman building is how they used different colored stone in the design}

 {view of St. Peter's Basilica from the Umberto bridge}

 {entering St. Peter's square}

I was bummed because I thought we wouldn't have time to go into St. Peter's Basilica when I saw what I thought was the line to get in, but it actually didn't take that long to get through security.

The thing that the pictures just cannot convey is the grand scale of these places.

They are just so. big.

 {this is the ceiling in the 'front porch' area, if I can call it that. I thought the color came from applied gold or something like that, but when I look at the detail shot below, I think it might actually be different colored stone...that level of workmanship is just awe inducing}