Rome

Hi Everyone,

After a long (long) day of traveling, we've made it to our hotel and are all settled in. Today we saw the Colosseum, and it was spectacular. Everything here is so much larger than life, and really is quite a walk back in time. We then walked through the Forum and up Palatine Hill. Its such an interesting experience to imagine life within these ruins thousands of years ago.








We finished off the day visiting the Pantheon. We were surprised at how much we enjoyed it. What's crazy is that it's still a practicing church, with a service later in the week. What was once "Pantheon" meaning many gods, is now "Pantheon" meaning many martyrs. The artist Rafael is buried there. While we were there a choir group began singing a Christmas song in Italian which filled the hall... very moving. Later that night we spent some time in a local laundromat watching the Italian version of "Deal or No Deal" -- very funny. This was just our first real day of the vacation, and has been worth the trip. More to come! Love, Dylan and Melody