We go to Rome

We got into Rome in the late afternoon, figured out the MetRo and took off for our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. We got to the bus stop where we thought the shuttle would pick us up. Much to our dismay, it was not running at the time we got there so we stood out in the rain for an hour, hoping we would not miss it. Live and learn. So we hopped on bus 451 and we were on our way. We had to walk a couple blocks to the hotel when we got off but at least we were there. We checked into our room, dried off a little, and headed back to the Ponte Mammolo MetRo station to go downtown Rome. Seeing the coliseum at night is great. They have it lit up and it just looks like a postcard. Everything was closed so we could not actually see any of the coliseum of the forum but it was nice walking around at night.

We had dinner at a big restaurant, we were the only ones there, then we went to a gelato shop for our fix of delicious gelato. I was not as impressed with gelato the first time I went to Rome, but we hit up the best places, most recommended by Rick Steves. He definitely knows where the good places are.
The next day we went back downtown for a very long day of sightseeing. We got to go into the Coliseum and look around. The structures they put up a couple thousand years ago are simply amazing. They had so much detail and thought put into these places, it blows my mind. I can't imagine working on them, it must have been back breaking work. If you ever get a chance to go to Rome, you definitely have to go in, it's worth the 11 or so Euros. It hailed for a few minutes while we were there so everyone was hiding. Luckily it blew over and it didn't start raining again for a few more hours.
This is one of the rock streets outside of the coliseum on your way to the forum where all the government things went on.
Check back on Monday for a few more photos of Rome before our trek to Venice.