Rome

This post is late because there is just too much to say about Rome. We spent five very busy days in Rome in the middle of February. We had an amazing time, the weather was wonderful (a little rainy but not during the times we had planned to be touring outside).

We arrived early, checked into our hotel and decided to do a Hop on/Hop off tour just to ride around the city a bit and see some sights from afar. We did a little walking around, visited the Trevi Fountain and tried to visit the Spanish steps (but they were closed!) but mostly rested and oriented ourselves. The next few days were more planned and tiring. 

We have a TON of pictures, so I'll just list the awesome things we did and saw, then show you :)

We toured the Colossuem (actually named the Flavian Amphitheater) including the underground tunnels where slaves, gladiators & animals were kept. We went up to the top level as well, which was only recently opened to visitors. Our tour guide was an art historian and so knowledgeable - we were happy we had the guide. From there we went to the Forum Ruins and toured some more. 

We also visited a pyramid and a cat cafe along the way.

 

The next day we visited the lost city of Pompei. That was amazing. It included a high speed train ride to Naples, then a local tram ride to the site and of course we ended up on the wrong train and got stuck at a very scary train station for over an hour waiting for another train to come so we could backtrack. We spent all day at Pompeii, with a break for pizza (we at so much pizza in Italy it's ridiculous), and another snack break during the day to get some more energy. The last place we saw was the brothel, glad we didn't miss that though the kids were a little grossed out by it. 

 

You can see what is left of Mt Vesuvius in the background here - though its was larger when the eruption occurred in 79 AD.

The following day we visited some gorgeous churches. One was on Rick Steve's 'do not miss' list but we happened upon it by accident - it was absolutely amazing. We visited the Pantheon and the large Vittoriano Monument where we saw a changing of the guard and only our little ones were allowed to stay up close. 

 Inside the Pantheon 

 The church next to the Vittoriano monument

 The Pantheon

The beyond beautiful Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius. I want to go to mass here every weekend.

The last day we spent walking the Vatican museums, seeing the Sistine Chapel and 

visiting St Peter's Basilica in St Peter's Square. We also visited Monte Testaccio, a mountain made entirely of neatly stacked broken pots from ancient Roman times.

 Sistine Chapel before I knew I wasn't supposed to take pictures!

 St. Peter's Basilica

 Monte Testaccio

Note: There was a very strong heavily armed military presence all throughout Rome 

(we also saw this in Paris) and in case you're wondering, if you take pictures of Italian military vehicles, the military will take your ID, scan it and make you delete the photos.