One of the more striking things about Rome was the extent of the Roman ruins. The ruins seem to start 20 feet below the modern street level and cover an entire part of the city. It is really amazing to consider that almost all of Europe was ruled from a single area; I wondered which buildings controlled different segments of the empire.
The coliseum had some very nice exhibits. This mosaic was mounted inside; the craftsmanship is amazing.
The Curia is where the Roman Senate used to meet.
This is a photo of me at Trevi fountain. The photo was taken by Meri-Jo Borzilleri of The Colorado Springs Gazette. They say that if you throw a coin over your left shoulder with your right hand into Trevi fountain, then you will return to Rome. We’ll see if it works.
These are figures from Bernini’s la Fontana dei Fiumi in Piazza Navona.
I enjoyed walking up the Spanish Steps. The shopping at the bottom of the Spanish Steps is really great. I bought a Swatch and almost bought some nice shirts.
The map room in the Vatican Museum was really cool. There were both historical and realistic maps of all parts of Italy painted on both sides of the room. The ceiling is an intricate fresco that goes the entire length of the room. As you can see, the museum was very crowded.
This is the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. Basically, it is a national monument that also contains Italy’s tomb of the unknown soldier. I thought it was a cool looking building.
This is just a portion of Cul de Sac‘s wine collection of 1400 unique bottles. I really had a great time there.