Rome

Our final day of the trip was in Rome. After spending the morning driving we stopped at yet another nasty autogrill we made it into our first stop at the Vatican City. Since Chelsey and I had both spent time Rome and toured the Vatican City, we headed out on our own to explore the city. First up was the Pantheon and then one of my favorite places, the Trevi Fountain. Tossing some coins in to the fountain, we make a wish and are really tempted to go swimming in the sweltering heat. As we continued walking through the historic city, we ran into great buildings and monuments. From an overlook of the city, we got pictures with views of the Roman Forum and my favorite the Coliseum. The one thing I hadn’t done on the last trip to Rome was go into the Coliseum and that was my goal for this trip. It really was a quick 15 minutes and we were inside, but not after getting some pictures with the Gladiators outside. I don’t think that they are original, but their costumes look pretty good! The Coliseum is an amazing piece of architecture and it is unthinkable how they built such a structure that long ago. From the top levels you could see the mazes used for animals and how they flooded the building for boats to come in. The structure even had a cover to keep out rain and heat back in the day. With all this walking, we needed some pasta to keep up our energy. Later that afternoon we meet the group back at the hotel and got ready for our final evening together at the Roman Banquet. It was a great feast spent with some great people. Pasta, pizza and cake made it a final great evening, but Peppe and Diana had one last stop in mind. After dinner, we made a stop at the Trevi Fountain a little after midnight to see it lit up and get our last pictures with the group. The bus ride back to the hotel was fun but sad thinking that it had all come to an end.

Back to the hotel. It was the nasty place I have every stayed at in my life. Paint peeling, mold in the bathroom, random kitchen the closed behind cabinets, sleeper chairs and beds (if you can call them that) and many other undesirable features. Needless to say, none of us slept there but luckily the airport departure was early and we didn’t get back in until after 1, so it worked out okay to get out quickly.