As you can see, the real Colosseum is very different from what you may have seen in the movie "Gladiator". The floor was actually built like a maze and there were trapdoors in the floor that would raise the wild beasts. Lalaine and I tried to think of routes we would have taken if we were in a fight. We thought we had it figured out but Kurt just laughed at us.
We had taken a tour at the Colosseum and luckily bypassed a very long line. However, our tour guide had a very thick accent and we hardly understood a word he said, except when he was ready to move on, he would say "Follow me my peoples". 
Part of the Palentines
To be honest, I have no idea where we were when we took this photo, but it was a very nice fountain ;) We also have a very nice looking lady beside us who really wanted to be in our photo?
Laine and I taking a break on the Spanish Steps. Kurt and I had been looking all day, for a local artist. After sitting on the steps, we asked a vendor where we could find a painting in Rome. He pointed to the top of the steps and sure enough, there was our artist! We ended up purchasing a beautiful oil painting of Ponte Sant 'Angelo.
Tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain. Myth has it that if you toss one coin, you will ensure your return to Rome. If you toss a second coin, you will fall in love with an Italian. If you toss a third coin, you will marry an Italian (of course Kurt and I just tossed one coin!) 
Laine at Trevi Fountain. The man beside her had a magnet on the end of a wire and was picking up the coins that people threw in! Something else I just noticed... see the man in the red shirt and the woman beside him? They are also in our photo from the Spanish Steps!! I think that not only were the Italians scamming our money at the fountain but we were also being followed!!!
Piazza del Pappolo. There was a man here insisting on giving us roses. We kept turning him away but he just kept following us and pretended he didn't want paid for them... as if he just wanted to give us free roses. I paid him a couple Euro, out of guilty conscience and then he told me I didn't give him enough money!
Kurt with the notorious roses. He wasn't impressed...
St. Peter's Basillica at the Vatican.
We went inside the Vatican museums. There were so many rooms!! We took a lot of pictures in the beginning but as we neared the end of it, we had seen so many paintings that our cameras were put away. I took a lot of pictures in this room because I thought it was the Sistine Chapel. After we left, my comrades gently informed me of my error. Oh well, the ceiling was still very interesting!
When we did finally arrive in the Sistine Chapel, we weren't allowed to take photos but it really was amazing! You could have looked at the paintings on the ceiling and walls for hours. The most fascinating was Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" on the alter wall, which he painted some 20 years after he did the ceiling. Here is a photo I took of a poster they were selling in the gift shop (it really doesn't do it justice though):
Kurt and his tiny espresso cup!
Dinner with Laine and her friend, Mericar. We had some good old fashioned pizza and Italian wine and said good bye to Rome! We flew out the next morning to return home.
Financial lessons from Rome:
1.) The myth of Trevi Fountain was made up by a man with a magnet who needed to pay his rent.
2.) If a man selling roses, insists on giving you "free" roses and won't leave you alone until you accept them, either run away from him... or take the "free" roses and then run away from him.
3.) Always find out how much gelato costs before buying it.
4.) Don't take your picture with a man in a Roman costume or else he'll charge you 5 Euro for each picture taken.
5.) If you ask the waiter if you can keep the cork from a bottle of wine you purchased for dinner, he will charge you a tip on top of the included "servizio" charge.
Greg and I went to Mainz (pronounced "mines"). Greg wanted to get a hat but we never found one. This cathedral held many ancient relics.
Greg showered us with gifts and insisted they were also belated wedding gifts. I know Doug will be envious to hear we got huckleberry jam! Greg also brought wine and chocolates from Oregon and a book of the Wind River Mountain Ranges! It was awesome!
This was the church at Idar-Oberstein. It was built into the rock and the only way to enter is to go in from a tunnel. Legend has it that it was built by a knight in atonement for killing his brother.
Here we are at the "Schnitzel Haus". It is the best place around for this dish so we HAD to take Greg there before we left :)
The De Lorean 
A car that being designed now to be built in 2015. 
Kurt informed me he'd like to have this as our car for going camping with. It is the Lamborghini LM-002 that was built for Arabian Sheiks and there is only 200 of them in the world! I suggested he set his sights on a Ford or Chevy :)
