Wherefore Art Thou Pantheon?!?

It turns out that not only was Brad over Rome yesterday, it turns out he is also highly allergic to it. So today we took it pretty easy during the day and we got Brad some allergy medication...


We didn't end up leaving the hotel room till about 3...


But by then Brad was feeling a lot better!

Today we decided to go to try and find the Pantheon. The Pantheon is an Ancient temple to all the gods of Rome, it's one of the older building in Rome. The interesting part is that when Christianity became the main religion of Rome, all of the Pagan statues were removed in favor of images from Christianity.

I was pretty stoked to see it, too bad it is virtually impossible to find! The thing with Rome is that even with a map you still have absolutely no idea where you are going!

We did find some super random places as we were walking like this place...


Um okay, who brings a baby to a bar? Oh and this place...


I'm not sure what this was, but I'm pretty are that we don't want to go through there. I had images of Groundhogs Day flashing through my head, like we would just be wandering the streets or Rome for eternity!

Also as we wandered aimlessly we stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain...


Just as impressive during the day as it is at night...


Yeah fountain monkey arms...


So pretty and it was still pretty hot so we just wanted to jump in the fountain...


Then we were off again still searching for the stupid Pantheon, I was beginning to lose hope! We kept seeing really big random stuff like this...


No idea what it is but it was HUGE! And this...


And this, the Church of Santa Maris Blah Blah Blah! Petty right?!? After another 40 days and 40 nights, we finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel...


HALLELUJAH!!! We made it and wow was it impressive...


It's pretty massive...


And it was super ginormous inside too, and had a hole in the center...


Not the best architectural idea, but whatever. It was pretty impressive nonetheless...


And apparently the pagans were okay with flash photography...


Thats all for now, it's about to pour so we are going to try and find a Piazza Navona before we drown, ciao!


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Location:Rome Italy

The R in Brad Does Not Stand for Rome!

Again we were a little slow moving, but this time we ended up missing the breakfast downstairs, but have no fear, we grabbed something on the way...


Prosciutto and Mozzerella, breakfast of champions! So today we are going to see something that I have been dying to see for years...



Oh yes...


The Colosseum!!! And crap is it more impressive than I thought it would be...



I mean it is absolutely massive...


It was a little on the touristy side but thankfully I had pre booked tickets so we got to skip the hour long queue to get tickets, yeah buddy!



Yay group shot...


Once inside it was just so cool to see something that old still standing...


For those of you not in the know, one of my degrees is in classics, so it was really neat (yes I just said neat) to see it in the flesh so to speak...


And this part down here is where they housed the animals and gladiators before they went to battle or their death...


Allegedly there are still blood stains in some places...


I think that guy made a wrong turn somewhere, careful, they might throw you to the lions!

After walking around the first level, we headed up to the upper level...


Great more stairs! And steep ones too, yippee! The view from up there was worth it though...



Gladiator Monkey arms...


And this is where I slowly started to lose Brad. Like I said we were pretty slow moving today and Brad is pretty much allergic to Rome, so he was kind of over the day at this point and over me taking pictures.

And so were some of the locals weirdly enough...


After the Colosseum we headed over to the Palatine and the Roman Forum, which is the heart of the ruins of Ancient Rome...


I mean look at this history, these buildings are 3000 years old give or take 500 years...


This was part of the old senators quarters...


And it had a great view of the Colosseum...


And this is the archway to the Via Sacre, this was the main road to Ancient Rome, out of nothing you saw this and the Colosseum, pretty amazing right...


More of the ruins along the Forum...


It was so cool to see...


But just like Rome crumbled, here is a visual retelling of Brad crumbling today...


That was walking into the Forum...


Brad was clearly not interested in the Ancient stadium behind us...


Brad's enthusiasm was clearly becoming contagious...


This was about as excited as he got today...


Oh wait I lied...


I tried to put him in check...


I failed because this is the moment that he fell asleep on my shoulder, REALLY?!?!

After that, luckily for him it started to rain so we went back to the hotel to relax. Off to chill for a few hours before dinner tonight, ciao!

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Location:Rome Italy

Just Rome-ing Around!

After a long day of traveling we arrived in Rome...


And though I was totally stoked to be in Rome, I was a little shell shocked coming from the tranquility of Positano to the craziness of Rome. It was super busy and kind of muggy...


We found our modern little hotel pretty easily, it was the only bright blue building around...


About 5 minutes after checking in, it began to pour, I think that was baby Jesus's way of telling us to just relax for a little while.

Our hotel was super cute and had a lot of amenities, including a seemingly non-lethal shower, still TBD though...


And a very convenient fire extinguisher...


But most importantly...


Yay a washing machine...


I never thought I would be so excited to see an iron! For those of you who have never traveled in Italy before, they do not believe that their customers are capable of doing their own laundry or ironing, so they charge you like 10 euros to press a shirt, which basically means if you use that service it's like paying for an extra night at the hotel.

Uhm ya no thanks! Well done IQ Hotel...


The only problem so far is the MINISCULE elevator, two people can barely fit in it, super annoying, but not the end of the world.

After I did some laundry, the rain stopped and we were ready to venture out for the night.

We read in the welcome brochure that there was a roof garden, we assumed there would be a bar, except all we saw was this...


Which I guess is for kids or to entertain yourself if you are really drunk. Why drunk you ask? Because this is the "vending machine" about 10 feet from the slide...


Best vending machine ever! It is full of booze! And speaking of booze, we were hungry and thirsty, so we headed out to grab some food.

Rome is a city rich in history, but also full of crazy stores, like this one...


Yeah, not the most subtle advertising! Or this place...


Which apparently sells fitted blazers and military grade weaponry, an odd combo if you ask me. And these places are right near really old stuff like this...


No clue what it is, but it is tall, old and pointy.

Eventually we found a cute place to eat...


First meal in Rome...


Brad was kind of over the pictures at this point, so he started doing bits...


To the moon Alice...


Now that's just rude! At least I had my drinking buddy to entertain me...


And the food wasn't bad either...


Homemade spaghetti with prosciutto and olives...


And enough dessert to officially make us all diabetic!

After dinner we wandered to the Trevi Fountain nearby, and wow was it huge! I didn't think it was going to be that big...






I mean wow, thats really all you can say...


Just beautiful...


The marble statues looked so real...


It's so cool to get to see these things that I have only studied in books, kind of blows your mind, like it doesn't feel real...


And then a nice lady was kind enough to take a group shot of us...


After the Fountain we figured we would hit up another site, after gelato of course...


I am officially cookoo for coconut gelato...


And as we were walking we stumbled across the Spanish Steps...



Hola...


Everything in Rome so far is huge...


A great first night in Rome...


As the night winded down, we got back to the hotel and Ray wanted a nightcap from the booze machine, and it was there that we realized why the elevator was so tiny...


Idiots! We had all been cramming into the staff elevator all day! When right across the hall from it was a very spacious and fancy elevator...


Meh, whatevs it should have been marked with a larger idiot sign! Off to Ed, going to go and try to see the Colliseum tomorrow, ciao!

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Location:Rome Italy