it's time to be a tourist in roma

, So I realized about a week ago that despite my having lived in Rome for three months now I had not done the following:

The Colosseum
Palatine Hill
St. Peter's Basilica
The Vatican (Museums, Sistine Chapel)
Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps (I've seen them, but never really taken pictures or anything)
any church at all
..and the list goes on with a bunch of smaller, random sites.

AH!

So I can cross those first three off the list tonight cause this week I got busy. On Tuesday I went to the Colosseum, Thursday afternoon to Palatine Hill (and one last walk through the forum) and today I leisurely went into St. Peter's. Here are a few pictures!

The Colosseum!





It was very neat to actually walk through these walls and arches and imagine an arena where over 40,000 Romans watched the games take place. Crazy!

Palatine Hill one of the most important hills of ancient Rome. It is where emperors lived as well as people such as Cicero and Catullus. It is also the legendary birthplace of Romulus and Remus and the first settlements of Rome have been traced back to the 8th century BC on the Palatine. Oh yeah, and it's also beautiful and the day was sunny! (Spring is finally here)





This is kind of an artsy shot. There were a bunch of places on the Palatine where they just store all of the pottery and fragments.


And one last stroll through the Forum:


View of the Colosseum from Palatine




This is where Julius Caesar's body was carried after he was killed. Romans still bring flowers to this site on the ides of March and also throughout the year on holidays.




And then today's adventure to St. Peter's Basilica!









View of St. Peter's square from the dome (you can climb all the way up!)


You can also see my neighborhood from up top. All the area below the green hill is my home turf. I live somewhere on the left edge of the photo below the hill. Sweet!


So yeah, that's pretty much been my week. It's been great, but I still have a lot of work to do (gotta get busy and savor as much Rome as I can because, well, I have less than 13 days left in the city and less than 26 in Europe. AH!

Tomorrow I leave for Sorrento, a town south of Naples that is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous!