A Gondola Ride in Venice, Italy

Nothing quite like a gondola ride in Venice.

Rome at Night

So one of the coolest things we did in Rome was turn on our iPods and walk the city of Rome at night. The city is lit up at night, and it makes for an awesome walk about. Before we left I read the below article on nyt.com and downloaded the audio to our iPods, I would recommend this to anyone visiting Rome.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/travel/20rome.html

Standing on Via dei Fori Imperiali you can see the Colosseum glow at night. Next we walked to where Rome began, the Capitoline Hill, where Michelangelo designed Piazza del Campidoglio, overlooking the ruins of the Forum.

Next we walked down Michelangelo’s steps to the mini-Colosseum of the Theater of Marcellus, and the ruins of the Octavian Gate. Walking along Via del Portico d’Ottavia, we visited the Jewish Ghetto and then the tiny Piazza Mattei with a fountain in the center of 4 bronze boys playing in the Fountain of the Turtles.

We ended our walk in Largo Argentina and said hello to unwanted cats given sanctuary by the columns of the Republican Victory Temples. It is here that Julius Caesar was killed on on March 15, 44 B.C.

Rome, Italy pics are now on Flickr

Ryan & Danielle in front of the Colleseam, Rome, Italy

Click the link below to see all the pics from our visit to Rome, Italy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/sets/72157606877085313/

The Romans were top notch engineers

Here is video from our visit to the Colleseam in Rome, I was truly impressed by the scale of this structure, a design that you can still see used today in our modern stadiums:



More video:

The Vatican, Rome

So today we got our butts out of bed really early and got to the Vatican by 8am, after checking out St. Peters Basilica (truly awesome, definitely sends a message), then we walked towards the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel..., we were greeted with a 1km long line, 2 hours later and €28 poorer we were in. D and I disagree slightly on this point, but when we got to the Sistine Chapel, I was expecting to be blown away, in reality I was sadly disappointed. I found myself saying 'is that it?' So unless you are a art buff or die hard Catholic I would skip it, save the Euros and have an espresso.

Below is a 360 degree video of the Square infront of St. Peters, very cool:



Here is a video from inside St. Peters Basilica:



Time to eat some pizza!