London, Baby

The reason Ryanair flights are so cheap is not only because they nickel-and-dime you ($15 mandatory online check-in, plus they charge you for any extras), but also because they fly at off-peak hours to smaller airports away from the big cities. This actually worked out perfectly for us. Not only did we love our afternoon in Bologna, which we only did because we had an evening flight out of this lesser-used airport, but we fly into London-Stansted airport, which is about an hour outside London. We arrived late at night, so it gave us a perfect excuse to stay in our first real hotel room of our journey! Steph was pumped. The Hilton Stansted Airport cost us about $90, but we milked it for all it was worth. Took nice, long hot showers, watched some TV (in English!), went to the on-site gym in the morning, and raided the maid's cart for as much shower gel as we could get our hands on. Check-out was at noon and we weren't about to walk out that door until 11:55. Then, it was back to reality... Not surprisingly, London is expensive. We thought we were going to have to pay $30 for a dorm bed - each! That's no good, so we tried to Priceline a cheap hotel room. No dice. It would've been at least $75 each night for one way outside the city. Finally we found a hostel that had just opened for $20 each. It just opened. How bad could it be? Ha. Kinda bad, actually, since they weren't nearly finished. They were painting the bathroom doors when we showed up. Truthfully it wasn't so bad. The dorm rooms were all finished and new and it was a good location right near all the main sites. Plus, there was hardly anyone there so we had a whole room to ourselves the first night and just one other couple the second. We hardly spent any time there either, as we were out and about exploring all that London has to offer, which is a LOT.

Despite the enormous network that is the London Underground (the "Tube"), we never used it, or the red double-decker buses for that matter, as we walked all over the city. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. Pretty cool, but nothing to write home about (wait a second...). We went back the next morning to see the famous changing of the guard, and it seemed like everyone in London was there. Just an incredible amount of people. We watched a couple groups come down the street and into the gates and just gave up and got out of there. I'll never understand what the big fuss is with some of these tourist attractions.

Buckingham Palace

Flowers outside Buckingham Palace

All the tourists watching the British in their silly hats

Actually the parks around the palace were better than the palace itself. The flowers outside were nice, then we made our way into St. James Park to see all the ducks and geese in the lake and the tourists gawking and frantically photographing the squirrels. I couldn't help but laugh and think how stupid the British are when I saw the sign saying "Don't feed the pelicans" thinking that they were mistaking a bunch of geese and waterfowl for pelicans. They live on an island for goodness sake. Then I saw some huge white pelicans sitting on a rock. Oops.

St. James Park

Not a pelican

I must say that I did really enjoy seeing Big Ben. We discovered that Rick Steeves has free audio walking tours you can download to your iPod, so we listened along as we toured around the Westminster area of London. Did you know Big Ben isn't the clock or the tower, but actually the giant bell inside? We heard it chime the famous dong-dong-ding-dong tune at the hour, which was pretty cool but surprisingly short. Thought maybe there'd be a second verse. I couldn't help but think of Peter Pan when I saw Big Ben, especially when we passed it at night, but Steph didn't get the reference.

We walked by Westminster Abbey, but only saw the outside since it was closed. We saw the Parliament building and made a note to come back the next day to see the British government in action (never did). We were glad we had the audio guide because we would've walked right by Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister, if we hadn't. It's not much to see, actually. Just a square brick building painted black. It was originally yellow but slowly became black because it was, basically, just that dirty (it was neglected for a while). Once they realized that the residence of the Prime Minister was covered in a thick layer of soot, they cleaned it and painted it black because that was it's well-known appearance. There is a lot of cool history in London with their kings and queens and struggle for power, and much of it took place in the relatively small area between Parliament and Trafalgar Square.

Parliament building

Westminster Abbey

These poor guys take a lot of abuse

Trafalgar Square was definitely my favorite spot in London. Just a whole lot going on and a cool mix of old and new. Nelson's Column is in the center, surrounded by four huge bronze lions, which is a very popular photo spot. There are numerous fountains and statues all around the square, even one of George Washington which I found rather ironic. According to Wikipedia, it is erected on soil brought over from the U.S., to honor Washington's declaration that he would never again set foot on British soil. In the center of the square there were about 15 big robots, similar to the one's you'd see on automotive factory lines. They had a strip of light on the end of each "arm", which they would wave around and flash seemingly randomly. Turns out it is some sort of modern art display, and there were cameras all around that would photograph the robots lights in such a way that they would spell out messages that anyone can go and submit online. Pretty cool. You'd never be able to tell what it's spelling while there, though, so I guess they send you a movie clip afterwards. We've submitted one but so far no luck.

Trafalgar Square, don't expect a postcard

Sitting above Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery, probably Britain's best art museum. Here we go again... Actually this one is free, so we had no problem giving it a shot. If we don't like it, we just leave. Well lo and behold we actually liked it. There was a broad range of paintings from the mid-13th century to early-20th century. We breezed through the Renaissance-period rooms that were similar to what we'd seen in Florence, but gradually slowed as the time period progressed. I particularly liked the landscape paintings, especially some from Dutch painters in the 17th century. Steph really liked some of the impressionist works, though thought Van Gogh's Sunflowers was very overrated. Here are a few of our favorites:

Akseli Gallen-Kallela's Lake Keitele - my favorite

Théo van Rysselberghe's A Coastal Scene - Steph's favorite

Quinten Massys' An Old Woman - what is this?!?!

We also made a brief stop at the British Museum, which houses all sorts of old-world antiquities, mainly from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Since we were just about to leave for Egypt, we felt like we should see what they have, but also wanted to save some of it for the real place. So, we basically just saw the Rosetta Stone and then strolled through some of the other rooms. We were tired. It was right after the National Gallery and museums have a way of taking it out of me. Kinda like shopping does. From there we stumbled on a bit of luck, though we weren't so sure at first. We'd heard that London was different from most of Europe in that "the museums are free, but you pay to enter the churches." It's true. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral thinking we'd just admire it from the outside. The time was about 4:45 in the afternoon and we surprised that we were able to just walk right in without anyone asking for a ticket. Turns out they were about to hold a 5 o'clock service, which we happily joined. Sure, we were under-dressed and the lady gave us a double-glance when we asked for a program, but they were inviting anybody and when else do you get to sit in on a service in a 17th-century church? We know nothing about the Anglican denomination, and Steph was a little weirded out by the formality of it, but it was primarily a worship service and the program told you exactly when to stand up and sit down and what to say. It didn't, however, explain that the little pads hanging from each seat are for kneeling in prayer and not, as I had assumed, for back support. Don't you love how I started the trip thinking how dumb the British are and am then continuously reminded that I am just a dumb American. Anyways, the sounds of the choir echoing off the beautifully painted and gold-trimmed walls and ceilings of the huge cathedral was truly a memorable moment. 

The Rosetta Stone - seen it.

St. Paul's Cathedral - sorry, no pics inside

On our last night we made sure to trek all the way across town to Tower Bridge and Tower of London. Okay, so this is a little confusing. Tower of London isn't really a tower at all, but an old fortress on the bank of the Thames River. Not terribly interesting, but it used to be surrounded by a moat and there was a special entrance straight from the river into the fortress which I found pretty cool. Tower Bridge is the famous suspension bridge over the Thames that you've seen in pictures and movies. It's awesome, but I was disspointed that it wasn't the "London Bridge" that I sang songs about as a kid. The London Bridge is actually one bridge upriver from the Tower Bridge and is notably not interesting. I'm not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but there have been many London Bridge's over the years, including one that fell down in such a way that apparently inspired a nursery rhyme, but one from the 1960's was sold and is now in Arizona. Weird. Either way, the London Bridge as it stands is boring. Tower Bridge is not.

Tower Bridge and reflection on River Thames

Tower of London and the old moat entrance

Our last day the famous London weather finally showed up and it turned cold and rainy. So, we missed out on a few things we wanted to see such as Picadilly Circus (not a circus like the Ringling Brothers), Abbey Road, Sherlock Holmes museum, and some of the more famous neighborhoods of London such as Notting Hill. It's turning into a tradition to leave some things left to see, to keep us wanting more and give us a reason to come back. We will come back to London at some point, as we really enjoyed it much more than expected. I'm sure the fantastic weather we had for most of our visit played a big part in that, but there is just so many facets of history to explore in London there's always something to do. We'll have to save up more money for the next trip though, since it is bloody expensive. We actually managed to spend relatively little since we stayed in a dorm, didn't pay for any attractions or transportation, and ate mostly prepackaged food from the grocery store. Now we are in Egypt and are loving the hot, chaotic, (inexpensive) mess that is Cairo. We're going to have to post a blog about our stay here soon, since tomorrow we are leaving for a two-day tour to an oasis and the surrounding desert. Sweet!

Does anyone else not think of Peter Pan and all the little kids in pajamas when they see this?

Tuscany

Tuscany

I can now say for certain that a person can live on only pizza and gelato, with a few McDonald's happy meals thrown in there. That was pretty much Steph and mine's diet for our last 5 days in Italy, though Steph went with the pasta whenever she could. Our first stop was Florence, a city we hadn't really ever desired to visit, but everyone we've talked to had raved about it. We stayed at another campground, this one situated in an old olive tree orchard on a hill overlooking the city. The view was superb, and we were happy to be within walking distance of all the sights. So far on this trip, we haven't had much time to plan ahead. We figure out where we want to go, then end up deciding what to do once we get there. It seems the two main draws of Florence are it's art and it's shopping. Two goose-eggs for me, and the shopping was mostly expensive jewelry and leather goods, so Steph wasn't all that into it either (what she's looking for is some cheap clothes!). The thing not to miss, or so we read, was the Uffizi museum, one of the top art museums in the world. Okay, so I'm not into art by any means, but I can appreciate it at certain times. I'm sorry, but I didn't get this place. It was exclusively renaissance art - mostly paintings with a few statues. It all just started to blur together after a while. There's only so many paintings of "Madonna with child" (Mary with baby Jesus) that you can see before your eyes glaze over. Click here to see what I mean. And it's not just me. Even Steph couldn't help to admit that it just wasn't her thing. We did, however, see a few we liked, namely the famous Birth of Venus by Botticelli.

I'm not trying to say that Florence is no good. It's great, actually. Beautiful river, rich history, gorgeous architecture. It's had an amazing influence on the world for any city, especially one so small (didn't reach 300,000 until about 1930 and even still is under 400,000). In fact, the compact city center makes it very walkable without the crazy traffic that often puts people off Rome. Unfortunately, though, we didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Rome, and didn't find it as pretty as the last Italian city we visited, Bologna (more on that later). Plus, the gelato just wasn't excellent. We even visited Vivoli's, a gelateria my mom visited 30 years ago when she toured Italy (she keeps amazing records) that was also recommended by a friend that had visited just recently. Maybe we picked the wrong flavors, but it just wasn't the best. The other big thing to do in Florence is to see the David sculpture by Michaelangelo, but that would have been another 20 euros and 2 hours wait to get into a museum to really just see one sculpture. We decided we'd spend the money elsewhere (like on gelato) and just enjoy the free David replicas dotting the city.

would you have known this wasn't the real thing if I didn't tell you?

Of course we hit all the other main sites (the free ones at least), and were especially perplexed by the ornate but somewhat ugly exterior of Santa Maria del Fiore, a cathedral otherwise known as the Duomo due to it's huge dome. The interior, especially the dome, is spectacular.

interior of the Duomo

this is the only bridge that survived bombing in WWII

From Florence, the plan was to spend two nights exploring the coastal region of Italy known as Cinque Terre, made up of 5 small fishing villages hugging the coast of the Mediterranean. I had seen it in a travel magazine years ago and have always wanted to go there, and we've had at least 5 people highly recommend it, but apparently the word has got out and we could not find accommodation on such short notice, especially in our price range (sorry, no campgrounds worked out). We eventually worked out a plan B where we could stay in a (surprise!) campground just outside Florence and could make a day trip out to Cinque Terre from there. So we packed it up and took a short train ride to the small town of Figline in the Tuscany countryside. Believe it or not, but Tuscany is a pretty cool place. Maybe you've heard of it. Our campground was actually pretty amazing - it's hard to say this but it was more like a resort. Sure, we stayed in something similar to half a double-wide (an upgrade of the tents we'd previously been staying in), but there were three restaurants, something like four pools, a couple waterslides, gym, spa, two wine cellars, market, souvenir shop...all kinds of stuff. Our first afternoon was spent at the waterslide and pool and exploring the massive campground. We stumbled upon a nearby vineyard and olive grove. Anywhere else it might not have seemed so great, but under the "Tuscan sun" it just seemed amazing.

The next day the weather wasn't forecasted to be good, so we cancelled our Cinque Terre day trip. Disappointing, but it was hard to be down as we enjoyed the countryside. After an quick workout at the gym and nice steam at the sauna, we set off on a hike through the hills and vineyards around our campground. It's pretty much everything you'd expect of Tuscany. The vineyards, olive trees, wildflowers, cute yellow stucco or stone villas with red tiled roofs. I have to say, it was lovely. We couldn't help but sample the soon-to-be-harvested grapes and they were fantastic. I didn't think they'd mind if we just snagged a few, but a few quickly turned into a lot. Oops. Steph, of course, was in heaven. She was forever trying to get a good shot of the beautiful wildflowers, but couldn't quite get it. The picture at the top of the blog was taken almost as an afterthought as she held the camera down by her knees as she walked. My favorite shot from the whole day. There was also a frantic episode where we got attacked and chased by a bunch of swarming bugs (we thought they were bees at the time, but turns out they weren't), and I did lead us on a "shortcut" that added about 2 miles to our walk, but other than that it was a great day. The bad weather that had prevented our Cinque Terre trip turned to glorious sunshine later in the day. I think it was a blessing in disguise - it ended up being one of our favorite days.

Our last morning in Tuscany we planned to pack a picnic lunch and rent a little moped to further explore the countryside. It would've been spectacular. The campground, however, wanted 15 euros each (over $20) to rent helmets for the 3 hours we'd use them. Scratch those plans. We packed up and headed to Bologna. Yet another blessing in disguise. I didn't really expect much from Bologna, as it's not a big tourist destination, but I can't figure out why. It was by far the prettiest and most well-preserved city that we visited in Italy. It is incredible. We had a few hours before our flight back to London, so just walked and marveled the city. Of course we sought out the best gelato in the city and found some of our favorite stuff so far. It was amazing. Plus, no crowds! Highly recommended. Only wish we could've stayed longer.

Most of the sidewalks are covered by these walkways

From Bolgona we flew Ryanair up to London. You've probably heard of Ryanair - it's the low cost Irish airline that made news recently for charging customers to use the toilet on board. Well, we went in the airport so had a good flight overall, and for only 50 bucks each. Score! Hopefully tomorrow I will type up a post about London and try to get all caught up (you may have noticed we're in Cairo now). Be back soon. In the meantime, you can check out all of our 400+ pictures from Italy HERE.

Bar, Montenegro

After just under two months on the road, you have no idea how good it is to see a familiar face. We just got back to Italy after about 4 short days in Montenegro visiting Steph's parents. In case you didn't know (or we haven't mentioned it yet), Steph's parents have made the amazing commitment of two years with Operation Mobilization, a Christian mission organization that spans the entire globe. They decided to go to Montenegro (part of the former Yugoslovia), just arrived a little over a week ago, and are getting settled in to their new lifestyle - with some interesting cultural adjustments and a huge language adjustment. They have to learn Montenegran! It's basically the same as Serbian, but sounds completely different than English or any of the "Romance" languages. Anyways, they are currently in the town of Bar, which is on the coast of the Adriatic Sea directly west of Italy. Upon arriving, we were impressed at how clean and nice the town was. Sure, a lot of the buildings are ugly concrete blocks, but the surrounding mountains and sea and abundance of olive trees made it a really cool place. They even have a nice (but basic) one-bedroom apartment for the time being. They'll stay in Bar for at least three months as they get adjusted and take language lessons.  As they are just getting settled in (and unpacking all of their SEVEN suitcases), it was a good time to go visit them and see what they're in store for for the next couple years. Like I said, the area is beautiful so when we weren't playing a heated game of cards we were usually walking around exploring. We got to see the side of Bar that the average tourist wouldn't see when they took us to the "washing machine bridge", which is just like you'd expect it to be - a bunch of old washing machines and refrigerators and other junk lined up to form a bridge over a small stream.

Most of the areas of Bar were really clean and pretty, especially the "beach" area and harbor, and we made it a point to visit at sunset.

Our last day one of the team members, Daniel, who is from Serbia but has lived in Bar for 10 years, took us to the old part of town called Stari Bar for a little tour. There is a cool castle from around 1000 AD, which somehow he knew everything about so gave us a great personal tour. He also took us to Bar's premiere tourist attraction - the oldest olive tree in the world. Upon arriving, we found out it was "believed to be one of the oldest olive trees in the world", but they figured it to be over 2,000 years old so I doubt there's many trees older. Once olive trees get to a certain age (around 200 years), their trunks split open lengthwise and "new" trees grow out of the old stumps. So there were relatively new trunks growing out of a stump that is over 2,000 years old. Still cool though.

Old castle in Stari Bar

Old Olive Tree

We also got to meet most of the other team members - all of them are really great and diverse. Besides Steph's parents and Daniel, there was a couple from Germany with their two young kids, a girl from Germany, a girl from Canada, a guy from South Korea, and a couple from Oregon. It's amazing the difference in culture in Montenegro and how long it takes to build relationships with people there before they open up to you.  It's going to be a really interesting experience for them but if there is anybody that can get through to kids it's Steph's parents. It was sad to leave them again, especially since we're not sure if we will get to see them for almost two years, but the ferry only leaves every couple days and we have a lot more of Italy to see. Right now we're on a train heading up the east coast (almost to the town of Ancona) and will cut over to Bologna then change trains to Florence. Everyone has raved about Florence (and it's gelato) so we are pumped.

When in Roma

As I type this we are on a train heading to the town of Bari, which is on the East coast of Italy and major port for cruise ships and ferries on the Mediterranean. If all goes to plan, we will spend tonight on a ferry heading to Bar, Montenegro where Steph's parents are just getting settled down for a two year mission trip. All going to plan, however, would be a minor miracle in the debacle that has been today. It all started when our alarm didn't go off and we woke up late. We figured that we still had plenty of time to catch our train at 8:20 (we thought), so we packed up and left with about an hour to get to the train station. The line to check out took about 10 minutes, then we waited for a bus for about 10 more. The bus we took was not the most direct, so that was about 15 more minutes to get to the metro station. From there, we hopped on a train for about 20 minutes to arrive at Termini, the main train station in Rome. If you've done the math, we had about 5 minutes to catch our train. We fought through the masses of people, ran around following the signs for the trains, ended up running down this really long corridor then having to run all the way back, found the right platform and it was...empty. Eight minutes late. You might be thinking "hey, at least Italy's trains are timely and efficient" but we later found out otherwise. So we went to a self service machine to try to change our ticket and somehow booked ourselves on the train for the next day. Next, we stood in line for 20 minutes to be told by the customer service guy that we are only allowed one change, and thus he cannot help us. Plead as we might that we only rebooked by accident, he was unwilling to help. He did give us a call center number that we can call (for a fee), and maybe get half our money back, but for now we'd have to buy another ticket. After much scrambling, panicing, and frustration, we booked a very indirect (and thus cheaper) ticket to get to Bari. I must mention that the ferry we are on our way to catch only goes once every couple days, so if we don't catch this one we are screwed. Anyways, for our next ticket we have to take 2 trains, a bus (ugh, no more buses..), and another train. The first train was late (why couldn't our first train have been late?), so we arrive at our first transfer point with 0 minutes before the next train is supposed to leave. But there is no train on the platform - is it late or did it leave early? Turns out neither. The workers apparently wanted a Friday off or something so they are on strike for the day. Just like that. The guy at the ticket booth just kept waving his hands saying "Strike! Strike! No trains!" By the grace of God we happened to have been sitting next to an American couple who are stationed in Naples with the Navy and have both compassion and a car - two things we were in desperate need of. We found out that there was a train leaving to Bari from Caserta, about 30 minutes away from where we were. But is this train on strike too? We had no idea, but anyways they insited on helping us and drove us over there. After a lot more confusion (the pinnacle of which was when I stood at the customer service line only to get the front and have the lady say no, lower the curtain, and apparently go on break), we were finally able to buy a ticket to Bari! What a relief. We've had to sit on the floor of the train most of the time, and I'm not sure we're going to get reimbursed for the ticket we missed out on due to the strike, but we don't care at all. Thanks again so much to the Francos! Our trip to Montenegro would have been ruined without them.

All of that isn't going to dampen our spirits after two wonderful days in Rome. Actually that didn't get off to a good start either. When we arrived in London, we had the snarkiest border control agent ever. She grilled us for 15 minutes, accusing us of trying to migrate illegally to the UK since we didn't have anything printed out for our departing flight. She certainly didn't like that we are currently unemployed either. Literally the most hostile human I have ever encountered. Ridiculous. Anyways, Rome. The eternal city. When visiting you only want the best in accomodation and location, so we stayed in a lovely little...tent. That's right, a massive campground just west of the city center. This place was a KOA on steroids. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if there were a thousand people staying there. It was crazy. The tent was nice and cheap though, and the campground had washing machines and dryers, so we did a load of laundry and were happy as clams. Our first day there we went to the Vatican City area, which includes St. Peter's Basilica and some other Catholic landmarks. The first thing that stuck me was the sheer number of tourists. I was thinking that coming in September the crowds would have died down a bit, and maybe they have, but wow! Just an insane number of tourists. We thought Machhu Picchu was crowded. Anyways, St. Peter's was amazingly ornate and BIG! She won't admit it, but Steph's favorite part was that all the Pope's are buried there. You can go down in the basement and see the shrines and tombs of Pope's dating back to 590 AD. It started to rain as we came out, so we sat and just enjoyed the view of the Basilica and Piazza San Pietro. One of the things we wish we had done before Rome was buy a guidebook. We could not figure out where the Sistine Chapel was but knew it was nearby. Evidentely you have to go inside the Vatican Museum to see it, which we didn't do (we didn't know what was in there). That's the one thing in Rome, that we know of, that we didn't get to see this time...

Steph in Piazza San Pietro with St. Peter's Basilica in the background

ceiling of St. Peter's

After the rain cleared we explored Old Rome a bit. I had read that Piazza Navona was the prettiest in Rome, and it didn't disappoint. There are no streets surrounding the plaza so it was just a peaceful area with a big Egyptian statue, fountains, sidewalk restaurants and nice old buildings with attractive little balconies. We especially liked the area around there - narrow cobblestone streets, boutique shops, tons of restaurants and cool old stuff. It was probably our favorite area of Rome. We had dinner of pizza and pasta in one of the sidewalk restaurants and then wandered around to some of the sites at night. A good friend of mine once recommended seeing the monuments of Washington DC at night, and now I make it a point to see all the good stuff at night. We saw the Pantheon (my favorite), the Trevi Fountain (Steph's favorite), and the Spanish Stairs (nobody's favorite - what's the big fuss about here?). And of course in between these stops we made the time to eat lots of getlato. I think we found the time to make three gelato stops that first day...

Our second day was reserved for Ancient Rome. How cool is it to walk out of the metro station and be face to face with the Colosseum, built starting in 7 AD? That famous landmark (although incredible) wasn't our favorite stop that day though. That was probably the Roman Forum, a large area of churches, temples, monuments, arches, gardens, and other relics from the heart of Ancient Rome, in various levels of conservation - from rubble to beautifully restored. Many of the structures were destroyed or damaged during the fall of Rome and the Renaissance period, and the ones that still stand only do so because they were turned into a church or something similar that was used by the people who later ruled Rome. When we first went in we kept saying to ourselves how in the future we'd like to learn more Roman history, but afterwards we're not sure. It is a LOT of history. Maybe we'll just watch Gladiator instead...

the remains of old columns in the Roman Forum with the Temple of Saturn in the background

the Arch of Septimus Severus

the Basilica of Maxentius - or what's left of it

View of the Arch of Titus and Colloseum from Palatino hill

We both thought that the Colosseum was cool from the outside, but the inside wasn't THAT interesting. Maybe we should have gotten a guide, but we were too cheap. I found it interesting that the only way they know what the appearance of the Colosseum was like under different rulers is by what was printed on coins from that time. Also, before the network of hallways and rooms were added underneath the arena (for storage, staging, machinery for trap doors, etc.), the whole thing was filled with water to simulate naval battles. That wasn't in the movie. They also brought all kinds of exotic animals in like lions, leapords, giraffes, and elephants for the gladiators to fight and sometimes would throw an unarmed criminal in to get torn to shreds. How strange life must have been back then.

inside of the Colloseum - there would have been a wooden platform with sand over the middle area

Our camera battery had died the night before when we went to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, so we went back to see them in the daylight...

just some cool government building

Pantheon - they were doing renovations to the exterior but still looked awesome

the roof of the Pantheon has a big hole in it. Supposedly it would collapse without it.

the Trevi Fountain - throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain means you'll return to Rome one day

Overall we were really happy with Rome. We ate loads of pizza, and of course tried lots of gelato. All the sights, though crowded, pretty much lived up to the hype. Makes us excited to see the rest of Italy, which people rave about even more than Rome. After Montenegro, we have 5 days to see Florence and some of the coast - we're thinking Cinque Terre and maybe Pisa. We'd love any tips about where to go, what to see, especially what to eat!