rome!

The past few days has been great! We started off the morning of two days ago by going to The Colosseum! It is quite a massive building! Next we walked around the area which is all artifcats from ancient Rome.

Later that afternoon, we went into a church to escape the rain. The church was built in the 14th century over a 4th century church that was built over a 1st century Pagan temple. You saw different things as we went underground. Finally we went to the St. John's Basilica, which is the Catholic Church of Rome. It was amazing site, and next door were the Sacred Steps. They are the steps up to Pontius Pilate's house where Jesus would have walked several times on the day of his crucifixion. You have to go up them on your knees.

Yesterday we went to the Vatican first thing. We were going to see St. Peters Basilica, but there was a huge crowd when we got there. It was Wednesday morning around 10:00, and that is when the Pope comes out to the crowd. So we waited around, and at 10:30 (the Pope is allowed to be 30 minutes late), the Pope came out so that was cool to see! We went to the Vatican Museums after seeing him which holds the Sistine Chapel. They also had a really cool exhibit on the missionary church, which showed artifacts from other regions and religions and how the religion spread.

That afternoon, there was still a huge line to goto St. Peter's Basilica, so instead we went on ahaead to the Pantheon. It is really cool, with a very nice, large dome. (Though we'll see a bigger one in Florence). We ended the afternoon going to the Trevi Fountain, which is a very large, nice fountain. I'm sure to come back to Rome because I wished far it and threw money in :-).

This morning we got up early and went to St. Peter's Basilica. Man that place is amazing beyond words. Everything is huge and grand and very nice. Probably the nicest / most expensive place I've ever been. The Church of Rome was amazing, and this completely trumped it.

Afterwards we spent the afternoon wandering around Rome. We went by and saw the Sant' Angelo Castle, the Navona Piazza, and then ended up at an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci. They had various working models of different inventions he had designed.

It's hard to believe I've been here (in Italy) for 7 days! It's been great so far! We have another week of the trip, and then I'm off on my own. Tomorrow, we leave for Florence!