Weekend in Rome

One of the joys of being in Europe is how easy it is to travel here.  We took advantage of this to go and spend a weekend in Rome!

We went with one of our missionary friends Talitha.  We packed in as much as we could in three days and it was really fun!

The Colosseum is really impressive, it is so massive! 

We really enjoyed walking through the Roman Forum, a whole area full of ruins from ancient Rome.  We had beautiful weather too as you can see.

We stayed in an studio apartment right in the center of town.  It was very near to the Pantheon which is a very well preserved temple.

Even some of the newer buildings were impressive like this monument to Italy's first king.

We also paid a visit to the worlds smallest country, the Vatican.  The museum was great with the best part being the Sistine Chapel.

The chapel was much bigger than we pictured and very vibrantly painted.  In the middle you can see the iconic scene of God and Adam touching with their fingers.  It was awesome!  After the chapel we went to St Peter's Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world.  It was amazing but also the most crowded of anything we saw.

One of our favorite spots was the Trevi Fountain.

The fountain is the largest and most beautiful in Rome.

We ventured outside the city to find a gluten free bakery and visited a St Paul's Basilica.  This is the location where the apostle Paul is buried and it was so beautiful inside and out.

We walked around a lot to find as many sights as we could, this is Castel St Angelo, a former tomb and fortress of one of the Roman emperors.

We also went out in the evenings to get some night photos of some of our favorite places.

The Spanish Steps were completely deserted on our way to the airport at 5:30 in the morning, what a good time to see the sights!

We enjoyed many wonderful meals in Rome such as risotto, pasta, fish, and pizza.  The awesome part is that Italy is a very gluten free friendly place, so we could have most things on the menus made with gf ingredients.  The pizzas we had were outstanding and the gf crust was just as good as the regular.

One of my main quests in Rome was to find the best gelato.  I love ice cream so I looked up beforehand where to find the go.  Instead of eating at any old touristy place we ate only at artesian shops that make their own with all natural ingredients, and boy was it worth it.

My birthday present from Rebecca was that I could have as much gelato as I wanted, so I got it five times and tried 10 flavors.  I also got to try Rebecca's and sometimes Talitha's so I tried a total of 17 flavors!  They were all great but my favorites were Lemon Pie, Amaretto, and Pistachio.  I miss it already!

Three days doesn't seem like much but it was a perfect amount of time to hit the highlights of the city.  We really enjoyed our time in Rome and are thankful that we were able to go!