Rossano
Firstly, I must say that Cordie and I have been housing at different places on our trip with Air BnB and here in Rome the place we stayed at was AMAZING to say the least… not necessarily because of the view… or the location (15 min walk to the Colosseum) but because of our host. He, Rossano, was an older man-had everything ready for us… maps, umbrellas, ‘accompanied’ (his verbiage for taking us there in his car free of charge) us to the bus station when we left and was so very friendly. The place was immaculate (extremely clean and felt new) and had many types of ‘security’ locks and options even though we didn’t feel that we needed them.
Day One in Roma
One of my favorite ‘famous historical’ places in the entire world is the Colosseum-we went there on our first day… it was literally POURING and we experience some of the closest & loudest lightening of our lives together.. but trekked on in hopes that it wouldn’t be as busy inside…. we were wrong. We both paid extra for the ‘audio’ tour to enhance our knowledge of the place and were very pleased with our experience.
The great thing about a ticket into the Colosseum was it also included entrance into the Roman Forums and Palatine (lots of walking) which were both spectacular and we felt like we obtained more of the Roman history than either of us had imagined.
From there we enjoyed a lovely lunch of pasta and a calzone with eggplant in it. :) The place was good but the waiter literally dragged me to a table to ask other ‘english’ speaking people if it was good before we decided to sit down or not. 
We then headed to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona… we sat and enjoyed both places for a little bit as it was nice to just observe the people around us and reflect on the day we had, had. From there we stopped for gelato… it was fantastic…then we headed back to our place… which seemed like forever but was only 2.5 miles. 
The pictures above are from our walk to the Pantheon, some of the piazza and the Pantheon inside and out. 
The night before we had gone to a place for pizza… and as you can see below there was some confusion as to if a ‘plate’ was the same thing as a ‘slice’ of pizza which resulted in a LOT of pizza. (which was in the end great to have leftovers we could eat at home)
Day Two in Rome
We headed to the Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel and the wide variety of museums they have along with the infamous church of St. Peter. We had NO IDEA that on Wednesday mornings people would gather in front of the church to sit and listen to the POPE speak…there were sooo many people. (pictures a couple paragraphs below with St. Peter pics) Since it was raining all you could see were rows and rows of umbrellas. It was a negative in getting into the church but we changed plans and jetted to the museums which were AMAZING and there was not a long line to wait to enter. From the many panels of information and soo many different statues, tapestries, paintings, pieces of old jewelry, the gorgeous ceilings, differently painted walls and floors the museums within the Vatican were spectacular…**Pictures will be added later**
However, seeing the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s work with my own two eyes is something one cannot truly explain! Its funny because once you enter the chapel… you are immediately being ushered out by guards telling you not to speak and to not take any pictures… Thankfully for a ‘smart’ phone I snagged two un-blurry pictures not zoomed in… But they were taken by ME! We stood and observed as long as the guards would let you trying to scan the wonderful ceiling of all the details that were put into the masterpiece. I loved that there were so many men from the Bible on the ceiling and they all seemed so large, so I kept trying to imagine what it would be like trying to paint it as the ceiling is in your face and your neck and arms are extremely tired from standing in that position for so long. Remarkable.
After our lovely time in the Vatican we headed back to Saint Peter’s church and stood in line for 2 hours. It was worth the wait…I had been there once before and remember just sitting on the floor feeling God’s presence and just weeping… well entering again I felt the same thing…This time there was also a Mass going on at the time with a choir singing in Latin at different times which just made the whole experience even more remarkable and breathtaking.
We both loved our 2 full days in Rome and being so close to everything felt like it was just enough time to see what we wanted to and be enthralled with the history of a city that still has the remnants of a time long ago and show respect to those pieces. (and of course I am sure appreciating all the tourists that come and spend their money there as well)
