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My four day trip to Rome is now at a close, tomorrow morning we will be moving on to Florence. It has been an absolutely exhausting few days, my feet are throbbing as I type this. I'm going to do my best to recall this whirlwind of events.

Saturday morning we woke up and went down to the continental breakfast at the hotel. It was actually really amazing, much better than the toast and cereal I'm used to from hostels! After I did a bit of re-organizing my suitcases because when I was leaving London I ended up just throwing things in there because I didn't want to waste any time packing. After that we had to move to the Hotel Executive because that's where our reservations were for the rest of our stay in Roma. It's also a pretty nice hotel, not as nice as the first but still very nice - and the beds are nice and big!

Then we headed off to Ancient Rome to see the sights. We figured out the Metropolina (Rome's version of the tube) and went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forms/Palatino. It was all very cool, the Colosseum especially. The architecture of it all and the sheer fact that they had the ability to build such massive structures so long ago is amazing. We took an audio guide in both, but while the one in the Colosseum was pretty good, the one at the Roman Forms was terrible and we ended up wasting a lot of time because of it, but ended up just wandering around and it was fine. We also stopped for lunch at a place recomended to us by my mom's Rick Steve's Italy book which was pretty good and tucked back away from all of the tourist trap restaurants which was really nice.

It was sweltering hot, so after spending several hours in Ancient Rome we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest some. Afterward we went on a Rick Steve's night walk of Rome which was pretty cool. We walked through several different Piazza's and to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain by which time it was getting really late and our feet were aching so we got on a bus back to the hotel. On the walk we had dinner at a restaurant by a fountain in one of the Piazza's and I got some really excellent gnocchi. We didn't get back to the hotel until around 2AM.

Sunday we slept in a bit later and got continental breakfast again, which wasn't as good as at the first hotel but still pretty good. Then we took a bus out to Porta Portese for a market and spent the greater part of the day walking around there. It was full of people selling all sorts of stuff and was fun to look at everything. With very tired feet we got back on a bus and went up to the Piazza de la Republica to see the fountain and to have lunch before going to the national museum. We ate at a snack bar that was also in the guide book, but the food was not very good - although the fresh fruit salad was amazing. It was probably just because we went at such an odd time of day for the Italians.

After lunch we explored the museum as best we could before tired feet sent us back to the hotel. We took a few hour break and then went out to finish the walk we started the night before by going to the Spanish steps. We took the metro out there and it was absolutely packed. There were people all over the stairs. We ate dinner nearby and then climbed to the top to take photos. We took the bus home and made it back around 1 AM.

This morning we went to the Vatican City. We went through the Vatican museum which is just huge. It's hard to say much about it other than that it basically just has a lot of Roman and Greek type statues and art, as well as other random art collections like the Egyptian room and the modern art rooms. Of course the crowning jewel of the museum was the Sistine Chapel. The frescos on the ceiling and everywhere are absolutly amazing. Their just so intricate and huge and beautifully, brightly painted.

From there we went to Saint Peter's Basillica, which is the biggest Catholic church. It was enormous. There were signs to show where other great churches would fit inside of it and St. Paul's in London (which is a huge Cathedral) is tiny in comparison. I really can't describe how beautiful it is because it's basically just beyond words, so I'll try to let the pictures speak for me. After walking all around the Basillica, we climbed the 320 stairs to the top of Michael Angelo's dome in the Basillica for an amazing view of Rome. It was very tiring and hot and confined but totally worth it.

After the Vatican we decided to go back to the Trevi Fountain to see it in the day light, afterwhich we wandered around trying to find someplace to eat until we finally just go on a bus that went near the hotel and ate out here. It was pretty good, but mom didn't like that it wasn't all that authentic (even though they could barely understand us for our lack of Italian speaking skills). Now it's quite late again and I'm about to go to bed.

I will add photos probably tomorrow (assuming we get wireless in our Florence hotel) I just really wanted to get this all blogged about so I wouldn't forget. Buona notte!