Roma!

Mark and I took a long weekend trip to Rome! We left around lunch time on Thursday and took the 3 hour flight from Basel (via Lyon, France). We decided to take a shuttle directly to the hotel from the airport to "save some time." Turns out it would've been faster to just take the train, but then we would've missed out on all the excitement of Italian driving - only second, in my experience, to the craziness of bus drivers in Cancun...

Our hotel was amazing - and more importantly, in an amazing location. We were right in the heart of Rome. We walked everywhere - starting with dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. While the dinner was a bit of a surprise, everything was great.

Just so you know, neither of us is overly fond of heads and tails being attached to our food:

(Mine was better than his)

We hit the streets for a preliminary tour and found ruins around every corner.

The next morning we headed to St. Peter's - specifically around the backside to get into the Sistine Chapel. I was even able to take a few photos inside the chapel before they announced the fact that photos are prohibited. OK, and maybe a few after they announced it, too...

We managed to eat gelato an average of 3 times per day, and I think I had pizza every day as well. The food was great. But nothing was as impressive as the never-ending history.

Literally, every where you look in Rome is another famous work of art. And we were able to see just about everything you can think of. We took over 500 photos, but I'll try to narrow them down to a few dozen shots...

We spent Saturday roaming around with our tourist map, checking sights off as we found them. Most of the time was spent at the Colloseum - it was incredible! But we also had plenty of time to run all over and try to find random things we wanted to see. All of the giant heads made me laugh, especially the ones with silly expressions:

Just so happens the final leg of the Giro d'Italia was on Sunday.
Looks like Mark may've been having a little trouble finding it:

You'd think all the big pink banners would've given it away...

While I hope you enjoy the photos, I've got to say that nothing can compare to seeing this place in person. Even if you don't care about the art, the city itself is worth the trip.

We spent the first half of Sunday searching for and exploring some of the catacombs. Then we spent the afternoon watching what we could see of the final time trial of the race, then headed to the airport (via train this time!) Our flight was about 45 minutes late taking off, so making our connecting flight did not come close to happening. Fortunately, AirFrance took care of everything, as the next flight was not until Monday morning. AirFrance arranged a room, dinner and breakfast for us and made sure we were on the next flight. It was so much more pleasant than missed flight experiences we've had in the States. (take note, AA!)

Next up - Art 40 Basel!