Roasting in Rome

Man!!  It is HOT here!  I have heard that Rome is a bit warm in the summer & that is definitely NOT a lie.  Whew!  I hear it's not much better in the good 'ol state of Kansas, so I'm getting some good practice for that Kansas heat!  (Looking forward to it!!)

We've managed to sleep in every day.  I'm not complaining because our first week in Spain is going to be very sleep-deprived.  Anyway, we've done a bit of sight-seeing despite the heat.  We went to the Colosseum on our first day out.  It is massive!  Enjoy some pics...

Getting ready to walk inside... I really like this one!

This picture was taken a level above the one prior... it's hard to give you a sense of how massive this place is... pretty incredible

No one was actually allowed to go walking through this part of the Colosseum

Outside of the Colosseum

Taken as we were walking down the street

After visiting the Colosseum, we went to the Roman Forum... It is all part of Ancient Rome... Here is a couple photos of that...

The Euro Cup 2012 just ended on Sunday.  The final match was between Spain & Italy.  I was a bit torn in who to cheer for... I knew, in my heart, I wanted Spain to win.  BUT, seeing as I was in Italy, I thought it might be a really cool thing to be a part of if Italy were to win.  Rome would have been crazy!  Turns out, Italy had NOTHING to cheer for.  They didn't really even show up.  Spain dominated 4-0 and that's huge for a soccer (football) match.  I've talked to some friends in Spain and seen some photos and it sure looks like Spain would have been VERY fun to be in that night.  :)  We went to an area of the city that we were told would be buzzing with football fans.  We ate and after we found out the score was 2-0 at half, we decided that we'd rather head back to our hotel and not risk being in the middle of any riots or whatnot.  I mean, they had law enforcement out in full force in this area we were in and A LOT of them.  We just decided we'd rather not know what happened if they lost, so we made it back to the hotel to find the final score 4-0.  As far as I know, there wasn't any riots or anything.  :)

The next day, we went to the Trevi Fountain.  A replica is in Ceasar's Palace in Vegas if you are more aware of that one, haha. :)  It's a big tourist attration and there were TON of people to fight through, but we got some decent pics and threw some coins in the fountain.  It's said to bring you back to the city and bring you luck in love.  Here's hoping, right?  ;)

I'm going to close there.  We've done a few other things, but I'll do another entry later.  It's after midnight here & I am SLEEPY!  I hope that this finds you all well!  I want to wish you all a safe and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!  There's no place I'd rather be than Hardtner, but I'm gonna have to miss it this year!  I will be thinking of you all, though!!  Have a beer for me!  "Fire in the Hole!"