Rome

Our first stop on our European trip was in Rome. After we landed on a Saturday morning and took a quick nap, we took a quick trip into the city and checked out our transportation options. That resulted in a quick stop on St. Peter's Square and the first taste of the wonderful Italian gelato. The following day, we took some time to explore the Coliseum and the Trevi Fountain with the boys. Stefan said that the Coliseum is "a round thing" and Sebastian pointed around and said "rocks" - ah, 2,000-year old historic artifacts through the eyes of a 4 and 2-year old kid.

St. Peter's Square		St. Peter's Basilica		Gelato, it's so good...
...and messy			Jetlag in action
The Coliseum
			Spanish Steps	Trevi Fountain

Marc's parents and his brother Lars arrived a couple of days later, and gave us the opportunity to sightsee Rome, while the boys enjoyed the zoo with their grandparents. Lars, Jana and Marc explored many famous attractions in the city

Zoo	Villa Borghese Gardens		Piazza del Popolo and the twin churches
			Piazza Navona and Fountain of Neptune	Moor Fountain
Fountain of the Four Rivers	Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone			Wonderful Gelato
Pantheon

On Wednesday morning, we leave our hotel to do some more sightseeing. As we arrive at St. Peter's Square, we walk right into a general audience of the Pope. As Jana pointed the Pope out to Stefan, his response was "do you mean the man in the white dress, mommy?". After a short bus tour through parts of Rome, Omi, Opi, and Lars took Stefan and Sebastian to a park while Jana and Marc explored the Forum Romanum.

View from our hotel			...include St. Peter's Dome	General audience of the Pope
Sebastian - the consummate tourist	Forum Romanum as seen from the Coliseum	Arch of Titus	Palace of Septimius Severus	Hippodrome of Domitian
	Domus Augustana	Huts of Romulus	View onto the Forum Romanum
		Temple of Antonius and Faustina	Temple of Vesta

On Thursday, we visited the Vatican City with Nicky and Nick, who had joined us by then. We toured St. Peter's Basilica and Marc made his way up to the top of the dome. It was extremely tight in between the inner and outer shell of the dome, but he was rewarded with amazing views over the entire city of Rome. Afterwards, we visited the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. There was so much artwork on display that it is entirely impossible to cover everything.

	View down the main aisle in St. Peter's Basilica	Michelangelo's Pieta	Altar at the end of the basilica	Papal altar and Baldacchino
St. Peter		Mosaic on the way up to the dome	Dome of St. Peter's as seen from the ground	View of the dome when you get half-way to the top
Squeezing in between the inner and outer shell of the dome	...it is not the picture that is crooked.	It's a little tight
				At the beginning of the Vatican museum
				Map of Italy
Map of Venice				Sistine Chapel