A Scrap of Life

Our last day in Rome started with crossing off another item from Brian’s bucket list - visiting the Colosseum. We had early tickets, just after opening time, and were so thankful we did. We got in while it was fairly quiet and had a chance to really look around. It’s a lot smaller than we imagined it would be (the floor is smaller than a football field) but we loved seeing where the elevators would have been and learning more from our Rick Steves audio tour. We spent a good hour or more here and Brian was wowed the whole time.  Next up was the nearby Roman forum had some great ruins and neat columns. You can really imagine what it looked like as a bustling part of early Rome.  One of Brian’s favorite parts was seeing the place where Caesar was burned. We walked up to Palatine Hill next and got some great views of the forum.  Then we walked the long way around to get out. We sauntered back towards our hotel and, as usual, had to stop at some churches on the way back. O...

Today started with a long walk from our hotel to Vatican City. We left really early so we had time to stop by a few churches we found on the way. We also passed by some beautiful buildings. When we arrived at the Vatican, we split off and headed first to the museum. We listened to a Rick Steves audio tour for most of it and saw some cool things.  The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool, but it was packed with people! My favorite part actually ended up being the spiral staircase when leaving the museum, so I think that explains how impressed I was  with the museum. Lol Here's the spiral staircase from the top... ... and looking up from the bottom. Up next was St Peters Basilica. It took us a bit to get in but we spent quite a lot of time looking around. Between the two spots, we spent about 3 hours in Vatican City. Before heading back, Brian stopped and chatted with three police officers. He gave them each a patch or a coin and they were so impressed, one of them took the patc...