After the last couple of weeks six thirty shouldn't seem like such an early start but somehow it really does.

We had breakfast and got on the bus. We started off with the optional trip to the Vatican. Of course Bec and I have decided to do everything we possibly can on this trip.

The Vatican was pretty impressive. I liked the museum and the statues. We went into the Sistine chapel and the Basilica. I was most impressed with the Basilica but really neither meant a whole lot to me. After we worked our way through the huge crowds at the gift shop and got to the meeting area we met up with the others who decided not to do the Vatican.

From there we went to the Colosseum. I think this might have been what I liked the most, purely for the feel of the ages that are represented there.

We walked from the Colosseum to the old Roman forum, where the senate used to be. The whole thing is about twelve feet below the rest of the city because of all the floods from the river depositing more mud and dirt over the ruins. There's not a lot still intact but you can still get a feel of how the ancient Romans would have gone about their day.
Then it was back to the hotel for a rest. Which was good because we did more walking this morning then any other day on the trip.
And we had more to do in the afternoon. Around five fifteen there was optional dinner. So we loaded onto a bus and headed out for sightseeing. We saw so many beautiful sights that I would have loved to stop and see closer but we just drove past. Dinner was a beautiful Italian restaurant. We had a five course meal over about two hours and I even ate it all. Fantastic. There was even live entertainment in the musicians that played for us.

After dinner we drove around the city some more. It took us longer than expected because there was a street race on that closed some of streets. We stopped at the Trevi Fountains and I threw a couple of coins in. I loved the fountain. It was amazing. What was also amazing was the amount of people there even at that time of night.

Then it was the walking tout if the Italian plazas at night. I loved the paintings being sold along the streets. We saw all kinds of people, tourists, Italians, living statues. There were loads of living statues actually. They seemed to delight in tricking tourists into thinking they are real statues and then moving to scare them. It was quite funny watching them jump.

It was quite late when we got back to our hotel and everyone was pretty tired. I'd love to just head to sleep but the restaurant is just outside our balcony and they have loud music playing. Good music but not when you're exhausted.