Rome: In which I eat. A lot.

Aaand, (finally) here are the pictures of Rome! YAY!

So these pictures are from our very fist night in Rome...but I think we went back here just about every night. And, no, it wasn't for the (admittedly awesome) Pantheon (one of Rome's oldest standing churches, pictured--badly--here).

But, rather, it was for...the gelato. Gelato is Italian ice cream. And it's amazing. So let me show you the two places in Rome I saw more than any other:

Della Palma has over a hundred flavors, and it's pretty hard to find a bad one. Yummy.

Now Giollitti's, on the other hand, only has a few flavors, but is home of the famed (at least among our group) champagne gelato. It's really good; it sort of fizzes in your mouth and (reportedly) it is possible to get drunk if you eat enough.

Moving on, this is the Four Rivers Fountain, which is absolutely gorgeous at night. They light it beautifully with spotlights that sit on the surrounding buildings.

The most surprising thing about Rome (at least for me) was the fact that you could walk anywhere you wanted. You'd be in one corner of the city and you'd look at the map and see that the place you're going was on the opposite side. So you'd start walking and before you knew it you would be there. It's really an amazing city just to walk around in.

That said, here are some pictures of...a church! And I can't actually remember which church it is, but it's very beautiful.

Now here are some pictures of the Forum of Caesar. This first one is of the arch of...Titus, I think (though it could be Septimus Severus). There are arches similar to this one all over; during the Roman Republic and Empire, when people came back victorious from war they would parade through the city triumphantly under these arches. Then they'd sacrifice a bunch of bulls and have a barbecue.

Here are some more pictures of Caesar's forum. There are really cool pillars and things.

Here's something else I'd like to point out about Italy. When you order a personal pizza at a restaurant, you get a 10". Granted, the crust is super thin, but there are always tons of toppings and stuff on it. Personally, I could never finish one, and the saddest part is that there are no take-away boxes!

Maggie learned this the hard way:

Here's another arch:

Now here are the obligatory pictures of the Colosseum. Which is definitely colossal.

Here's Maggie gearing up to go fight some wild animals:

Never mind, she's too cute.

Here's another arch! This one is the actual Arch of Titus, I believe. It has a menorah on it, which makes it cool.

This is the view from one of the famed hills of Rome. If you squint, you can just make out St. Peter's on the horizon.

On top of this hill were some nice orange trees:

And a nice view of the Forum. The thing you see here with the three arches is what is left of a HUGE basilica. It must have been MASSIVE; the part still standing is only about a third of the original building.

The round building toward the left in this picture was a temple.

A nice shot of the Arch and the Colosseum:

There are these weird trees in Rome that look as if they belong in Africa; I don't know what they are, but they are very picturesque.

 

We tried to take a group picture here, but it didn't go too well, clearly. I'm the one towards the left with the HUGE sunglasses.

This nice ruin was once part of a large fortress

Now of course you simply can't go to Rome and not feel at least a bit Catholic. So here's my OMG!Catholic moment--that tiny speck in the window is the honest-to-goodness Pope! I was blessed by the Pope. I've never felt more Catholic in my life.

He spoke about 4 languages during the blessing, it was actually pretty cool:

This is the one and only artistic photo I managed to take: very snazzy, I know.

Here's me as Gregory Peck and Maggie as Audrie Hepburn.

Don't worry, she came out whole.

One morning there was an entire large, possibly rabid flock of birds circling the Typrwriter. So if in the near future birds go crazy and attack Rome, I have some of the first documented evidence.

Some more pretty views form one of the seven hills:

Here's the really cool dome of a church.  All the geometric shapes are really fun.

This was a tiramisu before we attacked it.

Here's a shot of the ceremony that was happening in front of the typewriter one morning (we never found out what exactly all the hoopla was about):

For family reasons, I had to document the fact that there is a 3M in Rome.

I have no idea what this building is, but it sure has some cool statues!

Maggie needed some more photo ops, so we stopped on a nice bridge:

This is the most adorable car ever. Awww.

I *so* wanted to go in, but we were in a hurry.

Here are the two really cool churches which are exactly the same.  And the Statue of Liberty, apparently.