Rome

Colosseum 

I went to Rome this Friday and Saturday with my Archaeology class and it was wonderful.

They have built this city up around the old ruins and it's just so incredible how old Italy is an that they can do this. To get to see these buildings and aqueducts spread about also steps you back in time because it's just integrated into the new city. Maybe in 1,000 years or so America will be like this and then people will come to see our old ruins of major cities.

The class itself visited Villa Guilla and the Vatican (so I country hopped as well) focusing on looking at Etruscan artifacts from all over Italy and not just Perugia.

Statue from the Altar to the Fatherland Monument building/
Probably the best photo I'll ever take 

We were allowed some free time so a few classmates and I Friday night scouted out the Colosseum, which we could only see from the outside but was just amazing to behold. We walked all around it and I got a little geeky point out small indents in the old stone saying that "It might have been a road look at these wheel tracks maybe!" We also walked along the Roman Forum and went to the Pantheon.

Saturday after we finished touring two of the Vatican Museums we had some free time again, so we walked around a few more museums and elbowed our way over to the Sistine Chapel. I'll talk more on the Vatican in a later post because it's looking like I'll go again with the family when they come over for Christmas.