Rome, Italy Part 1

Mr. H and I were able to go on a trip of a lifetime to Europe this month.  

It was AMAZING.

We left C with his grandparents, and as far as we know it went pretty well.  We are so lucky to have great parents who were willing to watch him.

We flew into Rome.  (P.S. we were so pleasantly surprised at the overnight flight.  They fed us tons of food, and we loved all the free movies!)

We arrived at 9 a.m. and jumped off the plane and got started.  Jet lag was not going to get us down! :)

Something I totally recommend in Rome was buying the Roma Pass.  It gave us free access to all public transportation and two free sights.  It was well worth the money.  

We had a lot of fun trying to speak and pick up Italian phrases.  My favorite happened to be 'per favore' and 'gratzia'.  However, people always said 'hola' to me.  Ha---I got so used to it I started responding back. :)

After we checked into our surprisingly nice hotel, buying a camera battery, we made it to our first stop:

STOP #1 the Colosseum

We got off the metro, and the first thing we saw was...scaffolding!  Quite the bummer, but oh well.  We were able to skip the long lines thanks to our Roma Pass and entered.  We used Rick Steve's audio tours on our ipods.  They were awesome!!! I loved knowing what I was looking at, but when I got bored could turn him off.  :)  

 Anyway, we loved the Colosseum.  It was such an amazing building.  

Stop #2: the Roman Forum

This was ruins heaven.  I'm not the biggest 'ruin' fan, but it was really neat to see all of the old temples and structures.  They still are quite magnificent.  

Notice the menora?  This arch commoreates the children of Israel being taken from Israel, and shows the ark of the covenant.  I loved seeing what I had studied in Art history! 

Stop #3: Palatine Hill

This overlooks the forum, and was gorgeous!  I loved all the gardens, fountains and fun little niches.  We also find Circus Maximus, one of the ancient fields where they did chariot racing. 

Check out the awesome bird in flight!

My family loves taking pictures with fountains, and I couldn't resist here!

Stop #4: Capitoline Hill

This was AWESOME.  I could not get over how huge and gorgeous this place was.  It was structures like this one that made me realize how amazing the Roman Empire must have been.  There are a lot of churches surrounding this area, and they all were filled with gorgeous art.

Stop #5: Capitoline Museum

This was a huge museum, filled to the brim with statues and ancient art.  It was okay---some rooms were awesome, and others so-so.  We did get to see a chariot, which made Mr. H happy.

We ended the night with dinner at a cute local restaurant.  It was great, and we got back to our hotel and crashed.  A great first day in Rome!