Every century has kept it's place in Rome. Everywhere I walked (and I walked to every part of Rome, within the walls that is) there are buildings from before Christ, the times of Caesar, Medieval buildings, Renaissance buildings, and modern ones. The edifices are constructed on top of and around existing buildings. So sometimes the front of a building is from the 2 Century AD, yet the back is from the last 20years.

My favorite thing in Rome, without a doubt, was the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. It was breathtaking. I sat for a good hour just looking at the ceiling! (The most famous part of the ceiling is the "Creation of Man," where God is at the right side of the painting reaching towards Adam and their fingers touch. Raphael's "School of Athens" was also quite wonderful. I love how you can see how Raphael painted himself into the work and is looking out at the audience, in typical Renaissance fashion.

While in Rome, I saw:

-St. Peter's Basilica (with the Pieta inside); the church also houses monuments from each pope. Keep in mind each pope tried to outdo his predecessor and build a larger, more memorable monument to himself, so the inside of St. Peter's is almost comical in that there are more monuments to pope's than there are alters to Christ and God. But the church also has the Pieta, so I enjoyed it all the same.

-Vatican Museums: Sistine Chapel and Raphael's "School of Athens." I love Renaissance art, so this was a special treat for me as almost the entire museum is dedicated to Renaissance artwork!

-Vittorio Emanuele II Monument: has the grave of the Unknown Soldier, a view of the Coloseum, and overlooks the city. We climbed all the steps and enjoyed the view.

-Roman Forum: the birthplace of the ideas behind the American Constitution. Surreal to look at the same arches and such that great men of times past walked through, conversed in, and saw everyday.

-Colosseum: Imposing. The last thing I saw in Rome. We got to walk on the ground level where the fights occurred and could look down into the two levels below the original floor where the gladiators and animals were kept. It's a shame the Colosseum has deteriorated so much, but it is still beautiful and transports anyone who enters it 2000 years into the past. I wish the pictures did it justice.

-And of course I had gellato - world famous gellato to be exact! I had a mixed berry gellato and a nutella gellato!

When in Rome... Do as the Romans do! So I ordered spaghetti carbonara, a dish Rome is famous for. It is eggs and cheese melted over pasta with chopped up bacon on top, and it is heavenly (I know it sounds a bit funky, but it's quite delicous).

Rome has a unique mixture of things. The Pantheon (a huge church with a hole in the roof the size of a small house that lets in light and rain) sits amidst modern restaurants. Our hotel was not a block behind it! The mixture of old and new made me feel like I was both in the 1st century AD yet also in the Renaissance - almost like I was simultaneously in many time periods. It's an indescribable feeling to look at a building that someone, say Caesar, looked at and to know that it hasn't changed much (except for the usual wear and tear of 2000 years).

I loved Rome! But I am glad I live in Florence. Rome has a classical timelessness to it, but it also has a big city feel like San Francisco or New York. I love how I can walk everywhere in Florence in just minutes - I can't do that in Rome; it would take forever to walk from one end of Rome to the other, even at the speed that I walk!