Rome

We arrived in Rome late and were very happy to get settled into our hotel. Here is what we have done so far:

Day One: We did an tour of ancient Rome - Colloseum, Roman Forum, Palatine and Capitol Hill, Pantheon. These were all very cool sites to see (very different from the other sites we have seen so far). The colloseum was so big and it was so interesting to be inside of it. It was so hot today that we needed a siesta (break in the room) for a few hours. We then headed back out to the Spanish Steps (SOO overrated) and the Trevi Fountain.

Day Two: We went to Vatican City, the world smallest country (it is actually its own country!). We went to St Peters Square and Basilica. This place is huge and very well decorated. We saw this famous sculpture by Michaelangelo (Pieta) and we saw the balcony where the Pope comes out to greet the crowd. We then went to the Vatican Museum where the highlight was the Sistine Chapel. It was so busy in this museum and it seemed to go on forever (supposedly it is 4 miles long of exhibits!) but we made it out and had the best gelato of our entire trip at this place nearby called gelato millenium. We took another siesta at the hotel and then headed back out to the Roman Synagogue. This was cool because it was the synagogue the Pope visited in the 80s. It also used to be 5 synagogues in 1 building (during the time of the ghetto).  This is because jews were only allowed to have one building for a syngagogue and they had so many different types of Jews living in Rome that did not want to mix their traditions so they opened up 5 different synagogues under one roof.

By the way, it was 43 degrees today in Rome!!! It cooled down in the evening to a cool 34 degrees by 7pm.

Day Three: Today we went to an ancient city called Ostia Antica. It is about 50 minutes outside of central Rome. Once a city of 60,000, it is now just ruins and is a complete ghost town. We were both really tired today so probably did not enjoy it as much as we should have but it kind of cool to see the ancient buildings. Later, we returned to the train station and walked around a bit because there is a mall underneath the station. We found out that there was a book store that was selling Harry Potter starting at midnight that night and so after dinner, we headed back to the bookstore around 11:30 to line up (like losers) to buy the book. When we got there, there was no line at all. And they sold us the book before 12am thereby technically letting us buy the book a day earlier than everyone else! It was actually quite funny because everyone else in the store doing what we were doing were either american or canadian.

Overall, we had a great time in Rome despite the extreme heat. Looking forward to Sorrento!