Last Pictures of Rome

This is the last set of pictures I'm going to share of our trip to Rome. I know, I know - you want to see *ALL* 800 or so pictures *plus* the video clips we took but it would take me forever to upload all of that. So enjoy these final pics and my next post will be about something new.
Checking the map (once again) - I was continually reviewing our map and the guidebooks - always wanting to be sure we were where we thought we were and making sure we weren't missing anything along the way.

This is one of the Domes inside St. Peter's Basilica. It is in the foyer with Michaelangelo's Piety sculpture. The scale of this place is absolutely amazing and as always pictures just cannot do it justice.

Looking back on Hadrian's castle also known as Castel Sant'Angelo beyond the Tibere river.

Doug is standing just inside the entry of the Colosseum. Just enormous - How on earth did they build stuff like this way back then? I mean, now we have cranes and modern technology. Unbelievable.

Pretty good picture of us inside the Coloesseum that we took using the timer on our little camera. Not bad!

This is the Arch of Constantine which is right next to the Colosseum. Used to be that you could walk up to it and around it but now it is fenced off. Looks like it is slowly crumbling and is probably too dangerous to allow people too near it. Again - the scale is massive. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see that I am standing in front of a pillar that is in front of the arch.

The Italians are wonderful people. Everyone so friendly and gracious and helpful. The only time we had any trouble in Rome, and it wasn't trouble really, was with the foreigner's from one of the middle eastern countries. I don't mean to offend anyone - I'm just not good at pinpointing where people are from nor am I the most politically correct, so it is just my perception of who these people were. Anyway: At the Spanish Steps, every night these people were trying to unload roses on all the tourists. We eventually learned that as long as you didn't make eye contact with them and kept walking and saying "No thank you!", you could avoid them. When we were riding around town on the double decker bus at each of the stops some of these men were also trying to sell the little parasol umbrellas to shield from the heat. At one stop they were particularly aggressive so Doug took a picture of them to remember how funny it was. The more we ignored them, the louder they were yelling. I think they got angry when Doug started taking photos of them.
They were yelling: "HELLO UMBRELLA! BELLA! HELLO! HELLO UMBRELLA!" Over and over and over again each time getting louder. Annoying at the time but funny now that we are thinking back on it.

Rome was awesome and I would absolutely recommend it as a must place to see.