From Florence it was off to Rome, where we would spend a whole week. What an incredible city, full of so much history! From our apartment, we could actually lean out the window and see the Coloseum! Amazing.

The Coloseum never fails to impress!

We spent our time in Rome visiting ancient ruins, admiring incredible art, and randomly popping in churches… which always turned out to be spectacular. There are churches on almost every corner in this city. On any given day, as we were walking from point A to point B, we would pause just to “pop in”… and seriously, every single one was amazing! But of course, the most well-known, and I daresay most impressive of all was St. Peter’s Basilica. We were ever so fortunate as to plan our visit on a Tuesday–one of the days that a volunteer from the church gives a free guided tour in English. Our guide, Penny, is English, but has lived in Rome for forty years. She sings in the choir at St. Peter’s, and at the end of the two+ hour tour, we concluded that there was no better way to have seen this church. We could do a whole blog post JUST on our morning visit to St. Peter’s, but we won’t. Let’s just say, we loved it!

The bronze canopy over the high altar at St. Peter’s. If we recall correctly, this thing is about nine stories tall! Everything inside this church was HUGE.

We spent one entire day (Dave’s birthday!) working our way around the Coloseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The richness of Rome’s history is so evident as you walk around these once grand sites and structures.

Inside the Coloseum!

This thing was truly an engineering marvel considering the time period in which it was built!

Remains of the city that was once home of the greatest empire in the world… the Roman Forum was so interesting!

We also thought ourselves quite clever as a series of cheesy puns developed over the course of our week in Rome. For example, we would walk a “Colossal” loop. We spent time just “roamin’ around.” And of course, we did all we could to make sure we were up on “pope” culture.

One of our favorite things about our visit with Dave’s parents was that we stayed in “Vacation Rental by Owner” apartments. This allowed us to enjoy time hanging out in a living room area (not just a hotel room), and it gave us our own kitchen!

While in our rental apartments, we were also able to cook in, trying our own Italian cuisine! What a great time!

We were sad to see Dave’s parents go… we had an awesome 11 days together touring Venice, Florence and Rome. But they got on a plane and headed home to the States… and we got back on our bikes and headed to the Balkans. But once again, it was such a blessing and joy for us to have family visit!

Dave and his parents making their way up the famous “Spanish Steps.”