The first thing that caught my eye when walking to the Colesseum was that the ruins are right in the middle of the busy city, not far away in some national park. Quite different than the states!

Here is a picture from inside the Colosseum. I didn't even know you could go inside it! It's crazy how close you get to the ruins while in Rome. The structure pictured contains the original walls at their peak height: 55 meters!

After the Colosseum, literally a block away was the ruins of the Roman Forum. At first glance it didn't seem to be much more than a few columns and bricks, but Erin and I found a free promotional tour being given and learned tons about the old forum. The history there is amazing, especially when seeing the different levels of the floor and where buildings were built over the years. For example, you can see this temple (the outside structure with the columns) is at the current floor level, but the Catholic church built hundreds of years later inside of the temple is at a much higher level (see the door inside the structure).

Here is the ruins of a temple dedicated to Saturn, the god of chaos.

Here I am in front of the house of the six Vestal Virgins :)

The two mains entry points to the Roman Forums are guarded by huge arches that were used by the Roman armies to march through after defeating an enemy, with the enemy army trailing behind.

We often found ourselves at the gigantic Musseum Capitolini, designed by Michaelangelo. This piazza was definitely the center of town, or else we were just somehow drawn to walking across it 6 or 7 times a day!

I'd always heard of the Pantheon, but I never really knew what it was. Basically, it's a big church!

This is the Fountain of Trevi, a huge fountain that is tucked away in the narrow streets of downtown Rome. It's said that if you toss a coin in the fountain, you'll come back to Rome. Even though it was hotter than hell, we both threw coins in hoping to come back when it might be snowing.

No visit to Rome is complete without stopping by the Vatican. Here is Saint Peter's from far, far away. Even this far away, it is clear the building is truly gigantic. Each letter on the outside of the building is seven feet tall!

Here is Michaelango's Pieta, a statue of Mary holding a dead Jesus. The statue is behind bullet proof glass now, as I guess someone tried to shoot it? Strange...

A pope was dug up recently and put on the display inside St. Peters. Very odd to see a man dead for many many years in front of me, but I must say he was looking pretty good for all things considered!

These two shots are pretty bad, but I couldn't find any other way to try to show the sheer size of the building!

Meet Marcel, the Italian Finger Puppeteer. During our last day in Rome, Erin and I sat back and relaxed in Piazza Novona, where many performers and artists hang out all day. Here, Marcel is doing a Charlie Chaplin scene. I got a flyer and his autograph when I gave him some change for his great work.