Friday, August 31, 2012

Trip of A Lifetime Part 4

Day 5: Rome Baby!!

So I don't even know how to begin to describe our day in Rome.  I could go on and on about how amazing the sites were and how cool it was to be driving in the city and all the sudden see ruins pop up in the middle of the hustle and bustle.  Words like incredible, beautiful, and spectacular don't even begin to touch this city.

Some friends of ours had gone on this cruise last year and they recommended doing a private tour of Rome.  We took there recommendation and booked our tour with the same people.  It's called Driver Guide Service and it was AMAZING!  We invited another couple to join us so there were 4 of us.  Our guide/drivers name was Pietro and he was there to make our experience perfect for us.  We could take our time at one location and be quicker at another, stop for lunch, coffee, bathroom..  he was so accommodating and because he was from Rome he was extremely knowledgeable of all the facts and history of the ancient city.  With this tour we were able to see way more than we would have been able to with one of the excursions the cruise ship did.  We were also able to avoid all lines and had our own guide for the Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel.

What we saw in Rome:

Coliseum
the Roman Forum of Caesar
Circus Maximu & Imperial Palace
Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps
Pantheon 
Vatican Museum
Sistine Chapel
St. Peters Square


Coliseum

The middle area that is "cells" where the eild beasts, slaves and prisoners were held before they were killed

the "stage" looking floor is an example of what was laid over the top of the cells where the battles were fought




Forum

The field is the Circus Maximus where the chariot races were

The Palace behind it is the Imperial Palace

Amazing sculptures 

 Trevi Fountain

Statues on the fountain

 The size of these sculptures were incredible 


The amount of people at the Trevi Fountain

 Spanish Steps


There was a Mc Donalds in Rome... weird with the Pantheon to the side of it.  That is what was so crazy about Rome, the city is just built around all of these antient building.

Pantheon 


 Navona Square where we stopped for lunch

La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi; one of the 4 fountaing in the square


close up of part of the fountain

Vatican Museum (in most of the Museum photos are restricted so there aren't many pictures)

Real mummies in the Museum... I found these SO cool

 Amazing painting on the ceiling.  It looks 3d w/ crown molding but it's all in the painting


Forbiden hallway to the Vatican City

Sistine Chapel


Guards guarding the Vatican city

    St. Peters Square.  The large buidling in the center is where the Pope lives

This square is where people gather each week to watch the Pope give his  speech   The white screen there in the center is used to project him on for a better view. 

   Well I hope you enjoyed your tour of Rome.  If you ever have a chance to go I highly  recommend  the service we use.  I usually don't write reviews on the websites for things but this one was so good I wanted others to know how much we liked it!

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