A Roam in Rome right before Home--or Rome where you want to...

Or as Margaret would say, "the stinky, smoke-filled, hot, crowded place that we visited with some nice sites that's not enough to make me ever want to go back." And eventhough she didn't like it, the rest of us did. In fact the boys really wished we could have spent a little more time here.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon, and found our way over to the Pantheon. This is one of my personal favorite sites in Italy.


It was built orginally as a Roman temple, and later converted into a church. The huge dome (one of the largest in the world) is what really makes this place unique. As you can see from the picture, it has an occulus that is open to the outside which allows the sun to shine and the rain to fall inside. On the soltici (plural form or soltice) the sun shines through the opening to special places on the dome that would in turn give the locals cues to plant crops, ect.

Later that evening, we found our way to the Trevi Fountain and enjoyed the wonderful sculpture with about 300 of closest friends (they must have been friends since they pressed themselves against us).

The next day we braved the heat (it was about 32 C or about 98 F) to visit the Coloseo. The closer you get the more it seems to grow. It could hold about 73,000 people. Not bad considering that the modern Olympic Stadium holds about 80,000. The boys were amazed at the pully system they designed to raise and lower animals, scenery, gladiators, and taxes.







We spent the rest of our time sampling gelato (our favorite place was Giolitti's), and enjoying street performers (we saw an amazing spray paint artist) and walking through the Piazza Novona where the artists and fountains blend together.