Roma, Roma, Roma

The start of the day was not great.  Specifically because my curling iron/flat iron does not work here.   The handle gets warm but not the flat iron part.  So I combed my hair and that is it!  Not great but what can you do.

Breakfast buffet was excellent and the hotel is really lovely.  First stop on the tour was the Colosseum!
Absolutely amazing when you get inside and hear all about what went on there.  What ruins are left actually survived the earthquake around 500 AD.

Joe inside the Colosseum.

Then we saw the church of St. Peters in Chains where St. Peter was put in chains before he was to be crucified and the angel came and the chains melted away.  He was still crucified, and upside down! Gross.   We saw the Magnificent 'Moses' structure by MichaelAngelo, below.

Off to the Catacombs  which were a little scary I have to tell you.  Of course they are underground.  I counted the steps down to the 2nd level -54!  OMG.  I counted them!  The walkways are very narrow and cold and dark except for the small lights they have down there.  I started to get a little claustriphobic before we finally got out and I kept thinking "I hope those lights don't go out!"  One wrong turn from your guide and you would be down there forever.  They go for 11 miles.  We were both relieved to get back up, although I had to stop a couple of times on those darn steps.  No pictures allowed at the catacombs.

Lunch was on our own.  We had panini's, wine and beer.
Back to the hotel for a short rest before the walking tour at 3pm. I slept for about and hour and felt better.
We went to see The Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.

We threw coins in the fountain and made a wish.  Then we went to The Piazza Square in downtown Rome.  What a crowd! I think everyone in Rome was at Trevi Fountain today.

We had 2 hours of free time and sat in the sun with a wine and a beer, then had pizza and salad for dinner.

Tomorrow, off to the Vatican and hopefully our audience with the Pope and then onto Assisi.