Europe, Eurdown, Eurall Over the Place!: When in Rome...

Traveling to Rome didn't go exactly as planned. Unfortunately, Abby left her passport at the restaurant from the night before when we used their printer to print off boarding passes. Soo, we didn't get that figured out until we were at the airport. Sadly, Evan and I were forced to take the flight and Abby had to take a later flight. When Evan and I got into Venice, we took a 4 hour train to Rome. Abby was able to get a direct flight for 2 pm to Rome. We met at the hostel, and our little Abby made it safe and sound!! Evan and I were so worried and felt terrible for splitting up! We celebrated our reunion with beer, flowers, and Ritz crackers...

The next morning, we toured the colosseum. The colosseum was definitely one of the highlights for me. I was in awe with the history. The fights and shows that were held here would have been incredible. The structure itself is amazing, too.

A couple of gladiators left outside the Colosseum.

Inside the Colosseum. The floor was reconstructed to give an idea of how it was used.

Roma

That pigeon photo-bombed my picture of Trevi Fountain!

In front of Trevi Fountain.

In front of the Pantheon.

On top of Castel St. Angelo. The Vatican is behind me.

In Rome, we walked a lot. We walked miles across Rome and back, from the colosseum to the Pantheon, to Trevi Fountain, to Castel St. Angelo, and then back to our hostel near the colosseum. We were exhausted every night from our tours. On Friday, we had tickets for the Vatican museum, so we walked to the metro to take the subway there. Unfortunately, when we got there, we found out there was a Public Transit Strike! So we ended up having to take a taxi. We were really worried it would cost a fortune, but it only cost 19 Euros, which for people to split was amazing, considering the distance. We spent hours in the museum. We saw thousands of sculptures and paintings, tombs and artifacts. We were able to go into the Sistine Chapel, and it was beautiful. It was very crowded though.After the museum, we wondered through the city and worked our way back towards the hostel. It had poured rain earlier in the day, but by afternoon, the sky was a beautiful bright blue. The colosseum looked even better the next day in the great weather.