Well, we made it!  We arrived in Rome about 9 in the morning, which was 3 am Philly time or midnight, Las Vegas time.  We managed to sleep a little on the plane, so starting out wasn’t so bad.  We hopped on a tour bus to get an overview of the city and drive by all the archeological sites.  It was truly interesting, but the sway of the bus had us both struggling to stay awake.  It was criminal, really.  I admit, we took a little nap this afternoon.  It was only an hour, but we felt much better and decided to try the bus tour again (they run all day long and our ticket was good for the whole day).  We started out strong, but by the end, it nearly defeated us.  We almost slept through our stop; we are the worst tourists, ever.  We gave up.  We had dinner at the hotel and were in bed by 9.

Oh, the other adventure we had this afternoon was the hunt for a curling iron.  The concierge sent us to the Sephora down the street.  It was exactly like the ones in the US, and I fully expected to find the $120 curling irons they’re known for.  Nope, not this one.  The lady was apologetic, but they sold cosmetics only.  I asked several other women on the street about a curling iron — the language barrier made that interesting — but I generally got the idea they all thought I was nuts.  So, I’ve given up.  I apologize now for the state of my hair in any pictures of me : )

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.  It really is a beautiful city.

There are buildings like this all over.  They look like they used to be bigger buildings, but they crumbled away and the inside walls are now the outside walls.

This is the other side of the building above. Its was the strangest things, and totally unexpected.

St. Peter’s Basilica.  I always thought St. Peter’s Plaza was like a courtyard, surrounded by walls.  Not at all.  It is right in the middle of the city.  It’s hard to see, but it’s the area right in front of the church.

Here’s a panorama of St. Peter’s Plaza.

It’s hard to see because of the reflection but we thought these fur coats were outrageous.

Here’s a motorbike parking lot in the middle of an intersection.  I think they converted some of the squares into parking.  It reminded me of the stroller parking lots at Disneyland.

 

The Colosseum.  It’s under renovation now, they are actually scrubbing it clean.  This is the part that already been cleaned.

Some of the buildings of the city.  I should probably know which ones, but I was napping.  : )

I do know this was the justice building when it was originally built.  The Romans at the time hated the shape of it and called it the “ugly building.”

Okay, this is just . . . weird.  It’s jeans made out of plastic trash recovered from the ocean. Yes, you read that correctly. It could be a great idea, but there are just so many jokes to be made.  Everything from excessive crinkly and stiff pants, to . . . well, use your imagination.  We got a laugh from it, but maybe its because we were so tired.