Ben and I definitely saved the best for last on this Europe trip. We’ve fallen in love with both Italy and Greece, where we’ve spent our entire last month. And our very last stop, Rome, is a culmination of everything we’ve seen up to this point. With ancient ruins everywhere, impressive churches on every corner, museums with great Renaissance art, and a slightly chaotic modern city, Rome really packs a lot into one place. Although we’re a little tired of sightseeing, Rome has made it pretty easy to continue to be amazed.

We’ve seen Roman ruins throughout our trip, but nothing compares to what is here in Rome. There’s a Roman amphitheater in Nimes, France? It’s tiny compared to the Colosseum. You’ve seen Roman statues in a museum in Vienna? The Vatican museum and Borghese Gallery will blow you away. Frescoes and mosaics buried by a volcano at Pompeii and preserved for 2000 years? We were surprised to find that the National Museum of Rome had an almost more impressive collection. I’m not trying to degrade these or any other places, but Rome is really “it”.

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Our first stop was the Colosseum – the symbol of ancient Rome.  The sheer size of this amphitheater, and the design and construction that went into it is breathtaking, especially considering two-thirds of it was carted away during the middle ages.
 

Our second day, we tackled the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica.  We saw some of the very best Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures that exist, and the epitome of the Italian Renaissance painting in the Sistine Chapel and Raphael rooms.   And there’s no way to describe St. Peter’s except HUGE – larger by far than any cathedral we’ve seen on this trip.
 

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One more full day left in Europe before heading home… we can hardly believe it!  What will we do our final day?  I’m dedicated to spending the entire day shopping for gifts – something I have put off this entire trip.  While I shop, Ben is planning to visit one last site; the Catacombs.  And then we’ll have dinner at a great Italian restaurant (we know it’s great because we already went there once, with a friend earlier in the week), and try to get a few hours sleep before heading to the airport at 4:00 am.