First Stop: Rome

You might not be able to see it, because Mark's biceps are in the way, but this is a photo of the Coliseum in Rome.  We arrived in the city early on Sunday morning and made the 20 minute walk from our hotel to the first of our many "can't miss" sights in the ancient city.

The Coliseum is very accessible for visitors (assuming you don't mind plopping down a few Euros).  They have restored parts of it very well and excavated others, leaving the effect that you are viewing a "cross section" of the entire facility.  You can look down into the underground chambers where the gladiators, wild animals, criminals and Christians waited for their time in the arena (that list arranged by odds of survival from best to worst).   The "stage" at the far end of the photo below was the level that the games took place - unless the game was the staging of a naval battle, in which case they flooded the whole thing.  Very impressive.

Later we went to the ruins of the Forum and Palatine Hill, all of which have been restored to various degrees.  We saw the place where Mark Antony gave the eulogy for Caesar ("Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears...") and the place where they burned ole Julius' body.  Believe it or not, people still bring flowers and what not to Caesar's crematorium.

That evening we did a walk across the city center, as shown in the guidebook given to us by two friendly guys from Kansas we ran into in a restaurant in Rome.  They were on their last day in Italy and gave us their gently used travel bible.  Here's a big shout out to two guys from Hiawatha, Kansas.

One of the first places we stopped was the Piazza Navona.  (This is a big square with huge fountains and cafes; we think this was used as a setting in one of those Dan Brown books.)  In the evenings, local artists set up stands to show and sell their work.  In the photo below, Anne inspects paintings from a local artist (while Dom from "Entourage" executes the photobomb).

We continued along to the Trevi Fountain.  The local custom is that visitors to Rome throw a coin into the fountain to ensure that they eventually get a return trip to the city.  While there, a guy with a camera ran a mini-scam on us (offered to take a Poloroid, we accepted, he overcharged - and you can't even see the fountain in the picture - blerg!).  You can tell how happy Mark was when he learned this other local custom (ripping off tourists) associated with the Trevi Fountain.

But all in all, it was a fun couple of days in Roma.  We came, we saw, we conquered.  More or less.

Next... The Amalfi Coast