Vatican and Ancient Rome

   Oh my where to begin!!! Lets start with we have walked all over Rome and back :) luckily for the most part the weather has not been too bad, there has been a breeze and it feels really good when you stand or sit in the shade. The Vatican was our first tour of the trip and we did that Saturday afternoon after we arrived in Italy. It was a really interesting tour with a great tour guide. We had these little earphone in one ear and we could hear her talk which was really nice because we didn't have to crowd together to try to listen to her explain things.... The Vatican is a very beautiful building and on the inside it is breath taking to see history right before your eyes.  We saw statues, paintings, mosaics, and tapestry. (Sorry on the spelling).  It was really just a humbling experience to walk in the hallways and in the chapels. We saw the Sistine Chapel which was really awww inspiring. First they make sure that your shoulders and kness are covered as a sign of respect and they also make sure that there are no cameras or phone being used inside. You walk and your jaw just drops and hits the ground. I cannot believe that he painted this on his back for years. It was as if you just walked right into history, Dad showed me the sides that are both of Jesus and Moses.  And then from there we moved onto the other Chapel were they hold Mass and where the Pope comes out onto the Balcony, it was really awesome! Dad was describing the movie Angel and Demons or something like that and how they helicopter landed in front, he was happy to see that. It was really crowded there but it was neat to see and experience.
  
    Sunday 23 June-  Ancient Rome- I definitely should have paid attention better in both high school and college. I didn't really remember anything about it. The tour was FOREVER, okay so really it was 5 1/2 hours and covered about 7.50miles which is about 18,534 steps (thanks fit bit). The tour guide was not as good this time but she still made things interesting. I learned a lot of interesting stuff and some I cannot share on here but see where the original Christmas ball ornament came from. According to the tour guide it came from here. I think it was really neat to walk in the Colosseum or the Flavian Amphitheater, which ever you would like to call it. It was hard to picture the events that happened in there because of the stuff but it was still very interesting.
   An interesting fact about Rome is that the city is built on top of a city so it is preserved. Also they build around ruins and back then they actually would take apart ancient things to make other buildings.