We’re currently hanging out in the Beijing airport*, and seeing as we have a 6+ hour layover, it’s about time we caught up on blogging! We were in Rome from Christmas Day through December 31st. Too long, but we’ll get to that. We got in on Christmas day in the afternoon. After quickly checking in to our hotel, we headed out to hit up a few of the nearby sites. Right away, Matt was loving all the tiny cars.
Our hotel was right down the road from Trevi Fountain – very gorgeous, but packed. I’d hate to see this place during tourist season.
Then we walked to the Spanish Steps – these are just stairs. Not sure why people freak out about them.
We also went to some park – we both forget the name. It was getting dark, so we went looking for a place for dinner and then called it a night.
Sunset at the unknown park
The next day, we met up with some friends – Teri & Claudio. Teri is our friend Jake’s sister – total sweetheart. It was nice to finally speak some English! We went to the town of Bracciano and took a tour of the castle where Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes were married - Odescalchi Castle. The tour was in Italian, but Claudio and Teri narrated the gist of it.
Bracciano is right on a really nice lake. After the castle, we all grabbed a late lunch in town. Teri & Claudio were great company and tour guides! Claudio drove us to a great lookout over Rome on the drive home. A lot of people add locks along the fence. It sure beats the graffiti that is all over the place!
On Tuesday, we headed to the Pantheon. The outside wasn’t that spectacular compared to other buildings around the city, but the inside was impressive. And those columns are huge!
Next stop was the Colosseum. The lines were insane, we we just signed up for a tour. It was very informative and worth the extra cost to not have to wait in line for well over an hour.
Matt really excited about photos.
Inside the Colosseum
After the Colosseum, we headed to the Roman Forum – a bunch of ancient ruins. Our tour guide for this part was great.
By the end of that, we were pretty beat, so we headed back near the hotel area to find some more delicious pasta for dinner. We called it an early night because we had to wake up early the next day to attend an audience with the Pope. THE POPE!!!
*Apparently blogging is blocked in China or at least the airport….we couldn’t post this until we arrived in Thailand.
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