A Roman Holiday

So once again, we were on our own when we arrived in the beautiful, but dodgy city of Roma.
The hotel we stayed in was gorgeous, located right near the train station and, oh yeah, Lonely Planet mentioned the area as one of the most dangerous areas you could hang around at night! Lucky us.

Our first day we decided to hit up ancient Rome, you know, the Collosseum and the like. We were bothered by people the whole time, asking us to take tours with them to skip the line on the entire trip. In front of the Collosseum, we finally said yes, and for anyone that goes there, you should too. For an extra €8, you get to skip the line and you get a guided tour of not only the Collosseum but also of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, and it lasts for about 3 hours. We had the most entertaining guide, a jovial soft-spoken little man from Scotland named Richard. (we kept his number and contact info if anyone wants a guide anywhere around Rome)

We then of course visited famous sights like the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, which were lovely, despite John almost falling into the Trevi Fountain while throwing his coin in!

The following day we spent at the Vatican. Unfortunately the museums are closed on Sundays, but on some Sundays, if the Pope is in town, he'll come out and bless the people in the square. And it just so happened that he was! We were able to see the Pope himself, even if we didn't see the Sistine Chapel! Afterwords, we stood towards the front of a very long line for Saint Peter's Basilica, and as John said, "Pope went a little overboard on the holy water." What he meant by this was that as we were waiting in line, there was a downpour on all of us. And no, I don't mean a few drops, or even a heavy rain. I mean it was like being at a water park and standing under that giant bucket of water. And we forgot the umbrella. Other than that, it was another good day and our electronics survived the drenching!