I can’t believe that I forgot to show you my little video of the inside of the Colosseum! It starts with a sweep of the lower level (below the original floor), and then goes into a 360 degree pan. It’s just my lousy little point and shoot, so it’s nothing great, but it is kind of fun. I removed the sound, because there was an obnoxious couple talking in the background – no, not Mike and me! – and some guy blowing his nose!! Yuck.
There’s Mike and Dani at the end

As I said yesterday, we didn’t have a single bad food experience the entire time we were in Italy, but this beautiful little restaurant that we found near the Colosseum was by far the best! Found at 195 Via Cavour, L’Archetto is charming, and the food is amazing. Look for it if you’re ever in Rome…you will not be sorry!
Our server, Marco, suggested that we try the bruschetta, and we were not hard to convince. I’m so glad we did, too…it was absolutely delicious, everything that bruschetta should be, topped with fresh fresh fresh tomatoes, olive oil, …read more

I have to start by saying that we didn’t have a single bad experience with food in Rome, but several dishes stood out in my mind as exceptional!
Some of the appetizer and dessert dishes we had were so pretty:

Cheese plate

Fruit plate
Many of the main dishes were items that we’ve had at restaurants here in the States, but somehow they just seemed so much better there. Was it because of the atmosphere? The fresh handmade pasta? The fresher ingredients? The wine? Probably all of the above!

Sedanini alla Norcina

Cannelloni di Ricotta e …read more

Our guide at the Priscilla Catacombs was quick to inform us that they were a burial ground, not a place that the Christians met to avoid persecution. This was the only place that we took a guided tour (besides the glass factory on Murano), because the lighting is dim and the tunnels are twisty. Every year, more sections are opened, and more treasures are revealed.
No pictures can be taken, but they had an excellent selection of postcards and books. There were none that showed the tunnels with all the niches dug out of the rock for burial platforms, but many …read more

I’ll share with you a tourist secret that I learned from my daughter: when you want to visit the Colosseum, go and visit Palatine Hill first. The line there is shorter, and the pass you buy will get you into the whole area. When you do make your way down to the Colosseum, you’ll be able to get in the shorter line
And Palatine Hill is well-worth the visit anyway! It’s gorgeous. You can see the ruins of all the Caesar’s houses, and there are some rooms that have just opened up for public viewing recently with frescoes on …read more

One of the most moving sites we visited in Vatican City was St Peter’s Basilica. Again, as a church, picture taking is limited, although it’s allowed in most areas without flash. Being extremely phobic about heights (and averse to two-hour long lines), I declined to go up into the dome.
In the picture below, which I took from the floor, I’ve marked two little orange dots that you might be able to just barely make out. They are near the bottom of the shot, above the “O” in the lettering. Those dots are on top of the heads of two people …read more

I’m sure most people are aware that Vatican City is a little sovereign nation right in the middle of Rome! I don’t even know where to begin with telling you about our visit to the Vatican Museum…I saw pieces of art that I never in my life ever thought I’d have the chance to see in person. I was a Greek major in college, and many of the mythological heroes of antiquity are to be found in the museum, like Perseus here:

Or Laocoon and his sons after they ran afoul of Poseidon:

And this one, the god of the Nile, which …read more

We traveled by train from Venice back to Orvieto to retrieve all of Dani’s stuff from the monastery. From there we took a train into Rome’s central station (Termani). That pretty well shot the day, as you can probably imagine. Bright but not too early the next morning we began our Roman adventure!
Our first stop was the Borghese Museum. Since you have to make reservations (or take your chances, which I don’t recommend), we had a set time to show up, and only two hours to enjoy it. NO PHOTOGRAPHS, thank you very much! Suffice it to say that it …read more