At the airport, getting ready to go to San Francisco and then on to Rome!

Our first stop, San Francisco

Our trip and fIrst dinner in Rome! \240 Near Piazza Navona. \240

Piazza Navona

Cheers!!!!

Our our hotel window

On the ponto sisti looking at the Vatican

Our first dinner in Rome after walking around for what felt like hours. \240

Our hotel location

We did about 10 miles of walking today. We did a morning tour with a guide, starting at Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Teatro Argentina, \240a walk to the Jewish ghetto, the isola in the middle of the Tiber, then on to the Capitol Square, which included the capital building and the Palazzo Venecia, then moved onto \240the Roman forum, the Colosseum. \240Then the guy left, we went back took a nap, at our hotel near the piazza Navona, and then we walked to the piazza Colonna, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, up by the Villa Borghese, around to Piazza \240Popolo, and then back to our hotel area where we had dinner and collapsed. \240

Temple in old Market

Arch of Titus

Piazza Venezia. \240Altar della Patria. \240

Piazza ColonnaS

Pantheon

Teatro Argentina

Piazza del Campidoglio. \240

Fountain of Trevi

Piazza Colonna

Flaminio Obelisk. \240

Inside the Colosseum

Piazza del Popolo

Spanish Steps

Roman Forum

Map of the Forum

Colosseum

Isola. \240Island in Tiber on Map

Where Juliet Caesar was cremated. \240

Looking at Constantine’s arch they the Colosse

Pantheon ”pan”

Roman baths back of Pantheon

Island in Tiber

Our second day we had a guided tour of Vatican.

I would have to say there’s a lot of history around why Vatican is what it is.

Christiananity, Popes and the Rise of Christianity while the Roman Kingdom collapsed.

At one point (450 AD) Rome had about 1.6 Million people. They we’re invaded and water supplied disrupted and the fell to about 50,000. That ushered in the Dark Ages.

Following the Dark Ages the Church emegeged as the Governance.

Popes we’re less Religious and more capitalist.

The ruins reflect great wealth and power.They also reflects the conciqience of over endelgence.

Today was a free day, no guides. It was also the first day we’ve had without clouds.

The last two days were guided and we kind of skipped over the Forum.

Today we spent about 4 hours revisiting it.

What we discovered was that it’s immense and overwhelming.

Italy/Rome has spent the last 100 years unlayering nearly 2500 years of Roman civilization. It rivals what Egypt has done. Maybe even grander based on the depth and scale that is available to the public.

I hope these pictures capture that.

Florence May 8-11