Roma!

Our flight to Rome was very smooth and we were very thankful to step off the plane into sunny, warm weather. We knew it was going to be a long trek to our accommodations for the week so we got started right away. A bus to the metro then switch metro lines then another very crowded bus and we finally arrived at our campsite. The place is called "Fabulous" and we didn't have the highest expectations based on the price ($40 per night), but it was actually pretty nice. They gave us a free upgrade from "bungalow" to "caravan" which doesn't sound like much of an upgrade to me, but it meant that we had our own full kitchen to use which saved us a lot of money on meals. It took about a half hour to get downtown from the campsite and it was pretty simple once we figured it out.


Really nice tree canopy at our campsite.

Our very own caravan!

The rest of the first day we just relaxed and unpacked to get rested for the days ahead. The next day we headed down to the colosseum area and walked around the roman forum. When we finally reached the colosseum we found out that it was closed due to bad flooding. So we pulled together a new plan for the rest of the day and headed off towards Rome's best gelato shop and Trevi fountain. The gelato shop called San Crispino was good, but probably a little overrated, the fountain was amazing and completely underrated.


This guy may be joking around with the sword, but he was seriously pissed when we wouldn't give him any money. I had to yell at him to let go of my arm.

View of the Roman Forum from above.

Horses on the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II

Me and the arco di constantino

Kurtis, the arch di constantino and the colosseum.

More of the roman forum

Outside the colosseum, not sure at this point if we would get to go in at all.





The Trevi fountain, by far my favorite thing we saw in Rome.

Throwing in our coins to guarantee a return to Rome one day.



Our next stop of the day was the pantheon and the piazza Navona



That hole is just open, no glass and there are drains on the floor... It must have also seen some flooding with the rain earlier in the week.

Kurtis and berini's fountain.

When our feet were tired from walking we headed back to our cozy caravan. The next day (Sunday) we headed to the Vatican city where they were holding services, so we got to see the pope (and a massive crowd)!





Unfortunately this is as close as we ever got to St. Peters, the lines to get in the next day were too outrageous.

After our morning at the vatican we found out from the tourist information that the colosseum had re-opened so we headed there where we were met with another huge line. We happily waited in the sunshine and ate our lunch for about an hour at which point we finally got inside.


We couldn't tour the underground due to flooding, bit you could still get a good look at it.



View down from the colosseum





The best picture. Kurtis as gladiator.

 After our tour of the colosseum we headed into the palatine hill area.  I would not want to be in Rome on the high season!!! It was so crowded and there were lines for everything, especially the toilets.


After our long day, we headed back and made another great dinner in our caravan before calling it a night. On Monday, our last full day in Rome, we headed to the Vatican Museums. We waited in line about an hour before getting in and then another 20 minutes to use the toilets once inside. The art in the museums is awesome, the way you are corralled through every room, not so much. There were so many people, we were moo-ing our whole way through. We spent several hours inside and finally ended up at the Sistine Chapel, which was completely packed full of people.


Yeah we did.

And one more



The best part may have been the ceilings. This is in the galleria delle carte Geografiche.

More looking up.

And the grand finale, illegal picture taking.


After our final busy day in Rome we we ready to head into the Italian countryside for our next workaway!