On our first day, after settling into our hotel room, we set off to find the nearby park. The girls were happy to play and run in the grass. I spent 2 hours at the Borghese Museum where I saw statues from Bernini, and paintings from Raphael and Caravaggio.  I really enjoyed the museum’s collection as well as the frescoes painted on all the ceilings!

At the park

Friday morning, we headed down to the Colosseum (the Flavian Amphitheater) to begin a 4 hour tour of Ancient Rome.  There’s the Colosseum, way down at the end of the street.

Our guide Cecilia did an excellent job explaining the architecture, history and politics of the Colosseum.

The Colosseum.  It was started in 72 AD and finished 8 years later.

Restoration scaffolding – I can’t imagine the process of restoring this!

Here we are inside the Colosseum, where the games took place. Sylvia found the description of the games to be so interesting and she could relate to the similarities between the Colosseum and a football stadium!  This is the underground tunnel system and you can see a partial floor in the lower right corner.  Animals were kept in the side caves and then brought up to the floor by elevators hoisted by 4 or more men.  Cecilia described it like a movie set: well orchestrated with the right animals at the right time, getting them from one place to another and then up the elevator, just in time for the show!

Next, we walked around the forum and learned about the buildings and the lives of the people living thousands of years ago.  We saw remains of temples, palaces and government buildings.  Some of the buildings are still standing and in good shape – these were buildings that were turned into churches at one point and were maintained.

The girls loved the tour. I asked them a few times if they wanted to stop and read for a while but they wanted to listen the whole time, just taking a sitting break now and then.

Filling up our water bottles at one of public water fountains that are found throughout Rome.

The Pantheon, right in the middle of newer buildings.  The Pantheon was built nearly 2,000 years ago as a temple to all the gods of Rome.

It’s hard to imagine how this was built 2,000 years ago – the dome is amazing.  Outside, there are 8 huge marble pillars that were brought to Rome from Egypt -up the Nile, across the Mediterranean, up the Tiber river and over land by elephants. And all the pillars are in one piece.  Wow!

My favorite traveling companions! We had lunch at a lovely little piazza and met a woman from Madison who was happy to talk with us Iowans!

The pizza was so good we went back for seconds and ate the way the locals do. The pizza is paid for by weight – it’s not that expensive and it’s really good!

This is another set of ancient ruins, Largo di Torre Argentina. It’s so interesting how it’s right in the middle of a busy part of the city. It is sunk down because actually the city was built on top of all these ruins. It makes you wonder how much more might be found under the city streets!

Also at Largo di Torre Argentina is a cat sanctuary run by volunteers.  Stray cats are spayed, neutered and vaccinated as well as fed and cared for.  They adopt dozens of cats out every year and accept unwanted cats, as well. We had fun seeing and petting all the kitties.

Trevi Fountain. A very popular fountain – there were hundreds of people here but it is pretty spectacular so I’d expect lots of people there to admire it!