When in Rome, use Rick

        I will praise and exalt Rick Steve at any chance I get, and today was one of them. Last night we took the bus with the school to Rome. After a seemingly short 12 hour ride we arrived to our beautiful 4 star hotel, dropped our stuff, grabbed Rick and headed out the door. Rick set out a perfect day for us, a guided walking tour of the Roman Forum ending with the Colosseum.
   We wandered through the 2,000 year old ruins that were once underground and stood in amazement. We walked upon stones that Cesar and Augustus themselves walked on. We tried to imagine the square as it was in B.C., the center of all civilization. As we took many pictures of many columns, i picked up a 'roman forum rock' and stuck it in my purse... a nice free souvenir :) Anyways, Rick gave us detailed stories of all the history that stood around us. I loved being there, knowing that some of these ruins existed even before Christ.

   Next up, was the Colosseum. When we came out of the metro the first thing you saw, practically the only thing you could see, was the HUGE Colosseum. It is massive. Really really big. Like they used to fill up the stage with water and have NAVAL BATTLES in it!!!! It was hard to picture the seats full of Romans cheering over the death of so many people, yet it was so fascinating to know that this huge amphitheatre (built by enslaved Israelites) has been around for 2,000 years.

   Next on our list of things we wanted to see was the Trevi Fountain. First we come out of the metro (perhaps spoiled by our first sight of the Colosseum) and we see this fountain... we were like, "that can't be it" so we followed a crowd of tourists and could hear the rushing of water from a few blocks down. We turned the corner and there is was! It, also, is HUGE! We threw our coins in like the tourists we are and we were off.

  We had hopes of finding the Spanish Steps, but with Mass quickly approaching we decided to grab some gelato and make our way back to the Hotel. The hotel for Mass, you ask? Oh yes, there is a chapel practically attached to our hotel. It's Franciscan too!
  After a beautiful opening Mass for our pilgrimage  in Rome, we had a three course meal and now it's time to crash. Sleeping on a bus does very little, an tonight my bed will be a welcome relief and good preparation for out 6:30am morning!