Tour of Ancient Rome

Today begins our time exploring Rome, and where esle do we start but the Colosseo!

At the Coloseo!

From the outside in.

What a beautiful ruin!

Marissa and I enjoying the Ancient Ruins of Rome!

We explored around the Colosseo and the Roman Forum which has the ancient ruins of Rome. It was really surreal visiting this place and thinking about how many early Chirstians were martyred here... and now we can visit as tourists. There were even crosses on the Colosseo!

Cross on the outside of the Colosseo.

Me and the Ruins.

Seeing this city was amazing!

After the Ruins, we walked to the center of town and found this huge Monumento Vittori Emanuel II. Really pretty statues and a great view of the city. Then we headed over to find the Trevi Fountain which we overshot by a bit, but found our first of 14 obelisks in Rome!

 

 Once we found Trevi Fountain, though, it was by far my favorite sight today. The artwork around it was beautiful and the atmosphere around it was just so happy. We had a nice older Italian couple take a picture of us tossing coins into the fountain, and the woman just loved the idea! She was so giggly when she asked us to take one for her and her husband. "It was just such a great idea!" she said.

Then smitten by the fountain, Marissa and I sat around a bit. As we were sitting, this Indian photographer starts talking to me saying "Bella!" and "Number one!" and after I told him I was from Dallas, Texas, "Best Country!" Marissa and I then realized that he was just translating for these two Italian men who didn't speak English. We figured this out as he was whispering to them and they exclaimed, "oh! America!" The Indian photographer then asked us to take a picture with them. We obliged.... it was just a funny, passive aggresive situation.

 

At the Momument Vittioro Emanuel II (which is at one end of Via del Corso, the main street)

At the first obelisk we found... which is not pictured.

Statue at the Monument

Looking down Via del Corso from the Momument gates.

Fontana di Trevi... SO pretty!!

Making a wish on a coin toss!

After that, we headed over to the Pantheon which is actually a Church! It took a while and we had to check and make sure the Blessed Sacrament wasn't present. By this time, we are really feeling some gelato, so we walked over to the Piazza Navona which has a lot of artesans and food. I had peach flavored which was excellent!

At the Pantheon

Before getting gelato in Piazza Navona.

Finally, we ended the day with prayer and a rosary in Santa Maria sopra Minerva where St. Catherine of Siena is buried. That was an awesome experience to see the tomb of a saint.... and such a smart woman! Another thing, Rome has SO many Catholic Churches it is hard to pick which one to visit, but the good thing is, Jesus is the same in all of them... but stil! Anywho, after spending time there, we realized it started raining! So we went to an Internet cafe for a while to wait out the rain. Then we found a supermarket for our week's groceries (including Italian grapes!) and headed back to Anna's place!

 

Tomb of St. Catherine of Siena.

Don't these Italian grapes look wayyyy better than ones in the States? No offense California.

Tonight was so fun just hanging out with her and her flatmates! They come from all over: Poland, Franch, Italy, Florida.... all students so it is a great atmosphere and they are super friendly and helpful!