Hi All!

So we're back home after a long day of flying yesterday. Our flights were uneventful and we arrived home safely.

Our last couple of days on the trip were in Rome. We were unable to get photos uploaded where we were staying, so I decided to upload a handful of them now so you could get an idea of what we did. We really needed more time in Rome, as it is so spread out and we were unable to see all that we wanted to. However, we had a great time. We took a tour of the Coliseum the first day, followed by a tour of Palatine Hill, where we were able to see the remains of the emperor's palace, the Roman forum, and Circus Maximus. It was amazing to see some of these strurctures still standing after over 2000 years! The weather in Rome was great too, so we were able to get some beautiful pictures. After seeing the Roman ruins, we took a break for dinner and then headed over to the Trevi Fountain that night. It was a great thing to see at night time, all lit up and a very happening place for tourists at night.

The next day we met the same tour guide for a tour of the Vatican. The tour was originally planned to be a little over 3 hours, but our tour guide was generous enough to extend our tour several times, which turned it into an all day event. He took us to some of the less known art galleries in the Vatican museum and had a lot of historical facts to share with us. We then proceeded to the Sistine Chapel, which was breathtaking, and on to St. Peters Basilica, which of course was also mind blowing. The pope had blessed the chapel earlier that day and it still smelled of the incense that he used. It was a great experience to see the largest church in the world and to learn so much about the history and the artwork involved with the Vatican City. After our tour, we headed down the river to see some other sights, such as Castel Sant' Angelo and the Pantheon. As I said, it would have been nice to spend a few more days there to spend more time at some of these places, but now at least we know its a place we need to revisit. And we still had the great privilege of seeing some of these things.

We have many more pictures to share other than what is on this site, and we hope to share them with anyone who is interested! Thanks everyone for following us around and I hope you enjoyed it, we sure did!

Love,

Kristen and Chris