Roma

Well, we knew it would happen: we got to Rome, the third city on our Rick Steves' tour. 

I had visited in 1975 and wasn't thrilled with it then: too big, too old and the Romans were mean to Jesus!  (Well, not IN Rome, but you know what I mean..)

 If you click on this yellow flower picture, you'll see all the pollen on the strands in the middle. Quite amazing, really.

Every darn thing in Rome had steps! This is part of the stairway up to St. Peter in Chains Church. Well worth a visit. More on that later.

 Cobblestone walkway for Lisa.

Domo shared Alex's pork dish.

 Jesus is no longer on the cross.  I kept thinking that when visiting all the churches. I know why they depict Him this way, but there should also be ones where He isn't on the cross!

The Rick Steves tour people are so great, we rarely had to stand even in a short line...and certainly not one like this one to the left!

 We had special permission that day to actually stand on the stage in the Coliseum. 

This statue of Moses is in the St. Peter in Chains church.

 My dish was cream cheese, prosciutto and nuts. It was actually an appetizer, but was enough for me that day. We kinda overate in Italy. Needless to say, that didn't change in Paris, either.

The ceiling in St. Peter in Chains.

The relic of St Peter's chains, purportedly. We heard about many relics, and it was apparently a very important thing for a church to have some part of Christ in their churches. I heard that if all the pieces of the Cross that were supposedly found and put together, the Cross would be much larger than it actually was.

 This was quite an awesome visit. We learned a lot about those days of "entertainment". Most notably that often there was no one killed on a particular day, as they would have run out of enough people before long...

So, Rome not my fave and by this Roma visit, we had walked and walked and walked in Venice and Florence, so my knee was pooped! But our very kind guide helped me find the elevator up and stayed with me until we could re-join the group. He was great. Thanks to him and Rick Steves for a great tour of Italy.