Okay. Let’s see if I can try to be a bit more choosy (remember, I took over 1700 photos while in Rome. Choosing my favorites is very difficult.)

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View from the top of Castel Sant’Angelo

And Castel Sant’Angelo itself. Apparently parts of Angels and Demons was filmed here. (And apparently Angels and Demons is a sequel to the Da Vinci Code? I was unaware. I should read-up. Although, I have read nearly four books in the last ten days! Travel will do that to ya!)

This is gnocchi. It is a weird, potato-infused, chewy, squishy, cube-ishly-shaped pasta. And it is so. good. I didn’t like it at first. I just ordered it because a lot of other people did, and the restaurant made it by hand, and it sounded Italian. But it was just such a pasta-textural-experience as I had never before experienced, and now I MISS IT SO BADLY.

Behold, THE COLOSSEUM. (dun. Dun. DUUUUUNNN!)

An inside view! (You don’t see much of those.) The maze on the bottom floor is where they kept supplies, lions, tigers, bears, etc, and it was originally covered with what would have been the actual stadium floor.

It rained that morning. A lot. A lot a lot. It was pouring at times. Before we had left from breakfast, I warned the boys that they should grab a jacket (they were both sporting very nice cotton t-shirts), to which they replied that their weather apps predicted no rain. *cue my blank stare and pause. “It’s raining right now,” I said quizzically. They were doubtful of my rain-sensing abilities, and they apparently lacked the ability to open their own curtains. Luckily, they went back for their jackets anyway, because that rain was a mess!

The Colosseum, like much of the ruins, was under construction. *sigh.

Inside the Forum Romanum!

Inside other parts of the Forum Romanum!

Inside yet other corners and places inside the Forum Romanum! (Did I mention I took over 1700 photos during my four-day stay in Rome?)

Inside the Temple of Vesta inside the Forum Romanum! This place was crazy. You should do some personal research on the Vestal Virgins. They were dedicated ladies, and they were buried alive if they broke their oath of chastity.

A Roman stadium

A view of Rome from the Palatine Hill

A view of the Forum Romanum up above

My favorite pasta dish. My favorite dish. My favorite food. The pasta with seven sins. Golly…. Believe me when I say I would sin a few times to have some more of that pasta………….. gaaaahhhhh….. I miss the cheeeeese!!!!

We went to a modern fashion exhibit in the old market streets of ancient Rome, where they were holding an exhibition on food and fashion. This is the result. (:

Thorvaldsen! It was nice to see a little piece of Home all the way in Rome. (And by Home, I mean my current home in Denmark, haha.)

The ceilings. I cannot get over the ceilings. Have I mentioned how much I love ceilings?

A little backyard alcove behind Michelangelo’s Santa Maria degli Angeli

The fountain in the center of Piazza de la Republica

Another rendition of Medusa’s beheading

So many mosaics inside the Vatican!!! They put my little 8.5″ x 11″ from sixth grade to shame…

Mom. I saw the actual School of Athens by the actual Raphael. The Actual One!!!!!!!!! I almost died. (Also, it is huge! An entire wall! It’s so hard to picture buildings and paintings in real life while studying them in class, because they are all the same size on the power point slides, you know?)

Ceilingssssss

MORE CEILINGS

Okay. Embarrassing moment. I thought this was The Actual Last Supper. And I was over on this side of the room, taking bunches of pictures, wondering what the heck everybody else was doing on the other side of the room taking pictures of the Resurrection. Did they not realize how much more famous this painting was?! Idiots. And then I realized that The Actual Last Supper is, in fact, a painting. Not a tapestry. Which was what I was looking at. And then I shuffled quietly into the next room and hoped that no one paid me any attention.

There was an Egyptian exhibit inside of the Vatican because of all the Egyptian influences in Ancient Rome. And parts of this exhibit included actual real coffins from thousands of years ago, and inside one of these was an actual real mummy. But I will not post a picture here because it made me sad that he/she (it was unclear) had been dug-up, un-wrapped, and put on display in a glass case miles and miles from its resting place so that millions of strangers could gawk on the sidelines.

Writing from nearly three thousand years ago. (Do you even realize how long ago that is?!?!?!)

More posing!

And yet more posing, this time right outside the Medici Villa!

Drinking from the water fountains, because When in Rome….

Enjoying the sun outside the Medici Villa. Not sure what Abbi is doing…

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And then we trudged back to the hotel, took a cab to the airport, and landed in Copenhagen just after midnight. What an exhausting and exhilarating and overly-picturesque trip! Iceland will come later. I’m tired.

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Venlig hilsen/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa