A Visit to Rome!

Buon Giorno!

I hope you all had a nice Father's Day weekend!

The other day I shared with you photos of the Amalfi Coast, from our trip to Italy. Well, today how about joining me for a visit to Rome?

 We were actually only in the city for one day, so we knew we just couldn't see all of the sites!

The Colosseum is amazing!  It's hard to imagine a building that is 2,000 years old is still even standing.

We had seen the inside of the Colosseum when we were in Italy 14 years ago, but I thought it would be fun to see it again. Well, when in Rome, plan to stand in lots of long lines.  Very long lines! We were standing there for awhile when we decided to leave, as I really wanted to see the inside of the Vatican and our time was limited. So that is where we headed next.

We ended up having lunch in this neighborhood, below.  I really love all of the gorgeous old plaster walls everywhere, and the pretty flower boxes, too!

Not sure what this building below was, but I thought it was so neat!

 And here we are in Vatican City!

It was such a hot day when we visited.  Notice the long line (which we stood in for a good hour or more, I think!), and all the people with their umbrellas to shade them from the hot, hot sun.

 Here we are, about to enter St. Peter's Basilica.

 I guess I must be obsessed with ceilings, as I ended up taking a tone of pictures of the intricate domes!  I just love the way the light is streaming thru this one.

 Notice how crowded it was inside?

 Yep, that's me, hot and tired, but glad to finally be inside!

 Another amazing ceiling!

 I could have stood their forever just admiring all of the gorgeous carved and painted details.

 Notice this ceiling below?  It is actually faux painted!  I was so excited to spot it!

 And this one is faux painted, too!  You really would swear that it's all intricately carved.

 I really wanted to visit the Sistine Chapel and see Michelangelo's painted ceiling , but we were running out of time.  We were told that the ticket office was about to close, darn!

So here we are, outside, and look at what we spot!

Two Swiss guards, whose duty it is to watch over Vatican City. Don't you just love those striped pants and tights??!

 So dispite the heat, lone lines and crowds, it really was worth the wait!

 Rome is a very, very busy city. And can be exhausting, to say the least.  So we were more than glad that our little hotel was on the outskirts of the city. We spent two nights here, and it was like a little sanctuary after being in hectic Rome.

 The hotel had a garden area, and we really enjoyed just sitting there with a glass of wine and vegging out!

 They had beautiful flowers, and tons of gorgeous and sweet smelling jasmine growing everywhere.

 The hotel had amazing views of the distant hills from its rooftop.

 Notice all of the jasmine?  The smell was wonderful.  This is a dorky picture of me, but I wanted you to see the pretty arches that the jasmine was climbing up.

Well that concludes our tour for today, thanks for joining me:)!

Up next I'll be taking you  back to the Amalfi Coast, and the hill towns of the Umbria region.

Have a great day!