Rome, (the not so) Eternal City

---

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday we did "Rome in a day"! We left at 8:30 am and made it back at 9:00 pm. Short of a coffeebreak, lunch and supper we walked all day! Yeah, those Albertans aren't afraid of walking! It's the quickest way to get around the city. We saw oodles of old (1500's) churches, the Pantheon, now a R.C. church (27 B.C.), and of course, the Colloseum. Not to mention the rest of the stuff in between, like the Palatine Hill where the Ceasars used to live, now ruins as the Renaissance robbed the beautiful palaces for building material for the St. Peter's and all the other churches they built. The Colloseum was a stone quarry for many years as it was not used anymore and people took building material from there as well. The Colloseum is very large; it used to seat up to 86,000 people! In the first three months of use 2000 gladiators and 9000 animals died in the arena. There was a lot to see, but the city is very busy. A real metropolis of sights, sounds, smells. The traffic is organized mayhem with motorbikes, cars, bikes and pedestrians intermingled. Today we leave for Austria; I don't know if we'll have internet again. We hope to be home in six days! I love it here and could stay much longer in Europe, but we miss Mark alot. The motorhome is fantastic and spacious enough for all of us; the last week we've shared the "kitchen" with Cory, Martha and their two kids, Larissa Castro and Stefan Koppert.

---

Photos

Titus' Arch
Titus Arch commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem.