Rome I: The First Afternoon

After our little adventure in Weeze, we went to Rome! I've always dreamed of going to Italy. It's been my hope for so long and it was amazing to finally get to go! We spent four days there, and I think that Rome now tops all the places we've been! We loved the food, the city, the history... it's definitely a city I could see us returning to, and now I feel the need to spend like a month in Italy. I definitely hope to see this city again and to see more Italian cities in the future!

We flew into Ciampino Airport a little before 9 in the morning and then took a shuttle bus from the airport to Termini, the main station in Rome. From there, we took the metro to San Giovanni and walked to the apartment we were going to stay in for the next four days.

We made lunch our first stop, and it was pasta. It was pretty early for lunch, and I think we were the only people eating something more substantive than a pastry or coffee.

Carson finished off with an espresso.

And we got into our apartment!

Here's the view and a little bit of the apartment.

After we'd sat around long enough to make sure our phones were charged, we decided to walk around. We walked in a big loop from the apartment to see all that we could. Our first stop was San Giovanni. This church was built in the fourth century by Constantine, and was the first church built in Rome! We didn't go inside because for a lot of the churches in Rome, you have to have your shoulders and knees covered, and we were in shorts.

The Scala Santa are these steps that were supposedly the steps that Jesus walked up to his trial by Pontius Pilate. They were transported to Rome by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine.

This is the Lateran Obelisk, an Egyptian obelisk that was shipped from Alexandria to Rome by Constantius II in 357.

The Baths of Caracalla were some public Roman baths that were built in the second century AD. You can walk in and see them with a ticket, but we knew we wouldn't have the time to see everything in Rome, and this didn't make the cut. "Next time!" we said about several things on our list. Even from the outside, it was impressive.

The Circus Maximus was a large chariot racing stadium that's located between the Aventine and Palatine hills. Julius Caesar built it in around 50 BC and very little is still left standing, but it is supposed that it used to seat around 150,000 people.

Here we are at the Tiber Island in the Tiber River

We walked past the Theatre of Marcellus which was built in around 13 BC by Julius Caesar for Marcus Marcellus.

Here we are at the Altar to the Fatherland, Vittorio Emanuele.

And these ruins are part of the Roman Forum.

You may have heard of the Colosseum?

After our walk, we went back to the apartment where Carson had a nap and then I FaceTimed with Dad and Mom before Josh and Christina arrived!