In part 1 of our Rome adventures, I briefly mentioned the hordes of tourists. I’ll mention them again, here. There were hordes of tourists in Rome. We did our best to avoid them, but it was time to take a deep breath and dive into the hordes. Because, when in Rome you have to…

Do the Coliseum…

And Roman Forum…

Rome, where you don’t take breaks on benches…but on toppled marble columns.

Circus Maximus

And Palatine Hill. (Only 30% of visitors to Rome visit the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill!)

The next day we really jumped into it. We went here…

We saw these guys…

And toured the Vatican Museums (including the Sistine Chapel, where we were not allowed to take photos, but…😍)

(I must have a tiny bit of a “floor fetish” because every single place we went in Italy I was obsessed with the fabulous, amazing, mosaic tile floors!)

The mosaic tile floors were incredible

Those peacocks are 1,900 years old

Flemish tapestry showing the assassination of Julius Caesar

The giant pinecone is 2000 years old!

The crowds though, y’all. While the Sistine Chapel was absolutely breathtaking and astounding, the crowds and the body odor and the pushing and….ugh. We shuffled along in the mass exodus….shuffling…shuffling…and eventually made our way to St. Peter’s.

I’d love to show photos of the Pieta. I’m sure St. Peter’s is an amazing church.

But I’m sorry to say that we shuffled along in that huge body of odiferous tourists, and walked into St Peter’s…

I quickly snapped this photo, said, “yeah, yeah another church. This is freaking insane. Let’s get out of here.”

And we left.

And just like that, I was ALL OUT OF PATIENCE and I decided I DID NOT LIKE PEOPLE and OMG I HATE TOURISTS and WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS GET ME OUT OF HERE!

Then Tim fed me “lunch” (it was 4:30) and that helped, but I still am pretty much over tourists. I mean…really, y’all DON’T NEED TO PUSH!

Typical lunch for us- insalata!

On the way home that evening, we stopped off for a hot chocolate with a view!