Trip to Rome

Obviously another update is long overdue... And no. This isn't a video update. Although there might be one in the near future. These are some photos from our trip to rome. We had a great time as I hope the pictures should show!
The Spanish Steps

The obelisk at Piazza de Popolo, there are obelisks all over rome, this one is great condition.

Lila in front of the Pantheon. The Pantheon is over 2000 years old and pretty much the best preserved structure from "the ancient world."

Lila in front of the Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Navona, a large piazza built on the site of ancient stadium. We stayed like 2 minutes from here.

Looking at across the Tiber River towards Hadrian's Tomb.

The view over the Vatican Museum from the top of St. Peter's Basilica.

The altar inside St. Peter's.

The Pantheon at night. We were staying about 5 minutes from here, so if we had a little time to kill we'd just wander over. It is a giant building right in the thick of the city.

The Trevi Fountain by night. Apparently the Trevi fountain was commissioned to commerate the completion of an aqueduct, which terminates at the fountain.

This is the inside of this italian bakery/pizzeria that we went to a lot of times. The pizza was amazing. It was easily the best pizza I've ever had, well maybe the best besides scarlet begonias. The baked goods were also great. They cut the pizzas with these 14-16" long knives with one big chop!

Lila standing in front of the Colosseum. The Colosseum is pretty impressive but there isn't actually much to see on the side. You wander around and imagine thousands of animals and people being slaughtered inside. I've read that the ancient Romans used to flood the inside of the Colosseum and stage mock sea battles!

This is the view from the Palantine hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, looking down over the Forum. The Forum is right by the Colosseum and walking around you can really get a feel for what ancient Roman life.

This is the Temple of Saturn, inside the Forum.

This is an evening shot of one of the 4 Santa Maria churches in Rome. Technically, when you enter this church you leave Italy and enter into the Vatican Sea, even though this church isn't really near St. Peters and the rest of the Vatican.

Lila is walking up the inside of the Dome inside St. Peter's Basilica. She is actually standing perpendicular to the floor and it is the dome that is curving.

This is a view taken from one of the many bridges in Rome looking out across the Tiber River towards the Vatican.

When we visited the Vatican we arrived really really early and so we were rewarded with about 20 minutes of crowd free viewing. Later in the day, it was literally shoulder to shoulder through much of the space.

This is Piazza Navona, looking towards the Four Rivers Fountain, sculpted by Bernini. When I was a child we visited Rome as a family and stayed nearby Piazza Navona, that's how I picked it as the location for our hotel for this visit.

This is a statue of a guy who's name I forget. He was a contemporary of Copernicus and was burned at the stake for challenging the Church's sun centered solar system model. The statue stands in Campo di Fiori, a great square that 6 days a week is covered with stands selling foods and vegetables and chickens and pork and all sorts of other stuff. During ancient times the city wasn't really built up much out here, mostly fields. Pompey, a roman general and later consul, built a theater right near here which is were Julius Caesar was stabbed. None of those original buildings still stand.

All in all we had a great trip - Rome is really fun city to visit and well worth a weeks visit. We were able to see the sights, eat enormous amounts of really good food, and have a relaxing time.