Rome Part 2 and the Vatican

Rome was an amazing city and there was so much to see.  In my last post, I showed a few sights but I would like to share a few more. We really liked the double-decker bus tour of the city, it gave us an overview of what you can see in Rome, in only a few hours.  It was also fun to celebrate my neice's 5th birthday in a Roman restaurant. What a wonderful event to share with my extended family!

The Vatican was a beautiful place but swarming with tourists...I can only imagine how over-crowded it must be in the summer!  We had a guide and he explained a lot of things to us about the importance and history of the place. The Sistene Chapel was not as amazing as I imagined it, the paintings were great but the the room was just a large rectangle, not the interesting structure, I pictured.

We lived on lots of bread and cheese on this trip so we had packed a Swiss Army knife (a special wedding anniversary gift from my sister to her husband).  Well, it turned out that I was carrying it on the day we went to the Vatican. It was an item on their "banned" list to enter the Vatican Museum  so  I decided to just stick it under one of the wooden fences for safe keeping until we returned.  This caused quite a bit of stress to my sister, which in retrospect, was not maybe the best move.  Oh well, I picked up the Swiss Army knife after a day of touring and luckily did not get arrested by the Swiss Guard!

Our apartment building in downtown Rome

Here we are at our Roman home celebrating Kathleen's 5th birthday!



The birthday feast at a local restaurant.



Shannon and Uncle Brian- this was a Valentine's rose for Shannon since the birthday was on Valentine's day!

Mom and I at the Pantheon (formently a Pagan Temple)

The top is open in this round structure and the rain comes right in!

Shannon standing near the open hole above...the water drains out in the centre where there are openings.

Chistopher goofing around outside the Pantheon.

Walking in the rain on narrow Roaman streets.

Shannon and Ted looking cool in Rome!

The Roman Antiquities Museum

A charriot which was make of wood with metal details and stood as tall as a table.

Brian looking good with a regal statue in the background.

Romulus and Remus suckling the wolf- a famous Roman scultputre with family looking on.

Will and Kathleen and the enormous stone sculpture.

The "Dying Gaul" sculpture...very famous in art circles

Cyndy and Ted and a large warrior sculpture.

Kaye at the Vatican!

Cyndy, Christopher and Brenda enjoying the Vatican.

Grammie and her sweetie, Kathleen, in the Vatican Museum.

Ted and Shannon getting the info. from the guide just before going into the Sistene Chapel

Shannon and art.

The art admirers.

Brenda in front of St. Peter's Square.

The gang on the Rome bus tour!

Will enjoying the sights.

Shannon taking a picture of one of the many fountains in Rome. 

Roman buildings along the way are so beautiful!

Old and new mingle in Rome.

This bulding honors the dead from wars.

Brian and Cyndy at the Forum.

The "I love Roma" t-shirts were popular!  Here we are at the Forum.



Shannon in front of the Vestil Virgin's Temple in the Furum. The special Vestil Vergin's were the keepers of the Roman flame that had to stay burning all the time, as symbol of Rome's power.



The remains of the original Cesar's Palace at the Forum