Rome, Italy

Rome was pretty.....Roman.  And very Renaissance.  During the Renaissance Rome was a pretty straggley falling apart city, so a Pope decided to summon the greatest painters and architects of the day to come and help beautify it.  Pretty fitting since the Renaissance was bringing back a style that was pretty popular back in the days of Rome's hay day.  

The Colosseum

That's one way to make a living

This outer wall used to go all the way around...but was destroyed in an earthquake.  Also, the entire exterior used to be covered in marble, but it was all taken away for newer projects.  

The Roman forum.  Basically the center of life for Roman's back in the day.  They even continue to put flowers on the spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned.

I thought this was cool.  The column's are from an old roman temple, and the building was a church built within the ruins during the 1500's. If you can see the green door, that was ground level before the excavated the whole thing.  

Arch of Constantine, celebrating the legalization of Christianity.  Ironically right next to the Arch of Titus, celebrating the victory over Jerusalem.  

Yo papi, wheresa my pizza pie?

That's the stuff!  Cali couldn't get enough of those cheese pizza's!

Lots of cool fountains still run by the aqua ducts. 

Sinking boat fountain right next to the...

Spanish Steps.  

 The Borghese Gallery

The mansion of a Cardinal who wasn't really that religious.  Built in the 1600's.  He loved mixing classical Roman art with "new renaissance" art.  What I loved about this place is that these rooms were designed around the great sculptures placed within them.  Each room  has 1 main sculpture.  And it used to be a private mansion, so the walls, ceilings, and eve floors were beautiful.  A lot of museums just had a bunch of art thrown together chronologically.  Most of the sculptures were done by Bernini.

Bernini's David

 Because of the ancient Roman mosaic's on the floor, our stroller wasn't allowed into the Borghese Gallery.  Which means we had to try to enjoy our time while trying to keep the girls maintained.  Needless to say we all needed some free play time.  Much to Brad's delight we rented one of these electrically assisted pedal carts and explored the huge Borghese Gardens.   

There was this random festival going on with free puppet show and cotton candy!  Girls were a huge fan of this side of Italy.

One of my favorite things about Rome is all the random Egyptian Hieroglyphic's.   13 in total were carted out of Egypt and into Rome.  Probably the closest I'll ever get to ancient Egypt. 

Vatican City.  To the right is St. Peter's Basilica. 

 Cali's favorite mode of transportation for a majority of the trip

The Lacoon, one of the most famous Roman statues that got lost for a thousand years.  It was then rediscovered in 1506 while excavating an old palace near the Colosseum.  Can you believe that in 1500, people were interested in discovering old stuff?  To me 1500 is the old stuff that we should be trying to dig up and find.  I wonder what people will think of New York City when it gets ruined, buried, and then excavated. 

Miles and Miles of beautiful ancient Roman and Greek Statues.  Up until this point the ones we had seen were usually broken.  Almost all of these were perfectly intact.  The Vatican has pretty much been hoarding all the good stuff.  Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.  

And the most famous work of art....ever!!  The Sistine Chapel!  It was gorgeous!  We had signed up for a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  It was lam-o!!  Luckily we had purchased a trusty Rick Steve's book about Rome, gave us all the info we needed.  Like the fact that when Michelangelo was asked to paint this ceiling, he ran away and hid, and had to be "summoned" by the pope (aka- practically forced).  He said he was a sculpture, not a painter, and didn't want to do anything that wouldn't turn out spectacular.  I think he did a pretty good job =)

St. Peter's Basilica

See the little column's at the bottom of the picture?  Those came from the previous older basilica built by Constantine.  That one replaced the simple church built by early Christians. 

needless to say, this place was massive.  A tiny picture just can't explain.  Brad pointed out how ironic it was that this building was built in honor of a man who lead such a simple humble life.  

This statue was another highlight.  Michelangelo's Pieta is just so emotional, moving, and you can hardly believe that it's made of marble, it's so life like. 

 

Whew, enough of stuff old buildings, let's get out and explore!

 

The Castel Sant' Angelo

A tomb built for emperor's, later turned fortress turned safe house for the pope.  Many will recognize it from the movie "Angel's & Demons"

Hmmmm, which one to choose?

The 4 rivers fountain.  4 statues celebrating major rivers of the 4 continents (at least of those known at that time)

The Pantheon.  A Roman temple built for the worship of all gods, now used to worship the ONE god.  

Yep, that's a hole in the ceiling....30 feet across!!  The floor is slanted to gather and remove rain water.  Imagine, in Florence they had to wait for someone to figure out how to build a dome, yet the Roman's already knew how in 27 b.c.!  Crazy to think that when Rome fell, it took 1000 years to get back what was lost in art and technology.  

Last but not least, we have the Trevi Fountain.  We saved this for last. Legend has it if you throw a coin in the fountain, you guarantee a return trip to Rome.