Rome (finally!). Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures up. I've just moved to my new home in Germany- Mannheim. That was an adventure in itself!

I went to Rome the weekend of July 15th with the same people that I went to Venice with. It was by far the most amazing trip of the summer. (Totally worth the 15 hour train ride!) We tried to see as much as we could, and actually fit in a lot of the major sights.

This is the Trevi Fountain. It was (of course) crowded with tourists, but I managed to get a couple good shots. We did this on our last day- it was about 900 degrees out, and I actually contemplated jumping in. It's probably good that I didn't...

The pictures don't do it justice- it's really beautiful.

We went to Vatican City on our second day there (Saturday). We were warned by everyone about the horrible lines, but had no trouble at all getting in. Well, that is, after we bought tee-shirts to cover our tank tops. Oops, should have known better.

This is St. Peter's Basilica

And the Vatican, of course. We were really hoping to meet the pope- I guess he must have been busy that day. Maybe next time...

After this we went to the Sistine Chapel, which was incredible. I couldn't take any pictures inside, and the ones I took of the museum, etc. leading in aren't terribly exciting.

These next three pictures are from the Roman Forum. Again, the pictures can't do it justice. It's a huge area of ruins that was once at the center of Roman life.

The Pantheon! This was one of the first big sights we visited. We had just arrived in the city- we dropped our stuff off at the hostel and started walking. We were really lucky, our hostel was in a excellent location- nothing we wanted to see was more than a 20-25 minute walk away. I tried to take pictures inside the Pantheon, but they're a little dark.

This is Constantine's Arch, which I took from inside the Colosseum. The Arch symbolized the end of the Colosseum because it was Constantine who christianized Rome, thus making the gore-filled games unacceptable. Bummer, huh? Yep, still a history dweeb!

And finally, the Colosseum. I saved this for last because it was absolutely my favorite part of the trip. I still can't believe that's me standing in front of it. I think I had a grin from ear to ear that whole day. This was one piece of history that I have always dreamed of seeing, and to actually be there and touch it can't be described. Simply unbelievable!

This is a view of the "back" of the Colosseum. This is where the gladiators would enter, and it therefore symbolized life.

This is a shot of the front. This side sybolized death, as this was where most of the gladiators exited-for good. This was also the side where the tour exited, which was interesting. Seriously, though- walking through here was such a powerful experience. I'll never forget it.

Well, that does it for Rome. I have about 100 pictures, but they're probably only interesting to me! If anyone wants to see them, I guess they'll just have to wait till December...

Thanks for taking a look!