La Dolce Vita.................The Sweet Life- Day 1&2, Roma. That's Rome, for all you Mongie-Cakes.

The First Plate of Spaghetti I've Had in Nearly 3 Years.

Portage said she wouldn't go with me to Italy unless I ate some pasta. So I did. Lotsa pasta, as it turns out. A lot of the meals were prearranged for us by the tour company, and they all included many courses of pasta. I finally stepped on the scales yesterday, and was surprised to find I haven't gained any weight.It must be the 10 miles or so of walking we did every day. Come to think of it, we didn't see many obese people in Rome. As a matter of fact, the women are very good looking, most of them tall and slim. It wasn't unusual to see two 10's and a 9 walking together. Portage said the men were not too hard to look at either, and she's pretty spoiled.

Portage in our hotel room window in Rome

  My first impression of Rome was that the drivers are insane.They have very small cars and scooters by the thousands, yet they try to squeeze through holes in traffic that a normal person wouldn't. We heard ambulances constantly. A local told us there are no minor accidents, they either miss, or they are fatalities.We saw a guy on a scooter with his kid, no helmets, weaving through traffic like an idiot.

This was our first meal in Rome.8 slices of pizza and a beer (or two).

An ancient  bridge over the Tiber River in Rome.The water is very low due to a long drought.

Love padlocks on the bridges were common, it's a Romeo and Juliet thing.

Cruising down the Tiber

The Coliseum

These are the passageways that the Gladiators,Christians and Lions actually walked down on their way to do battle. There was a floor covering them, but it's gone.

The view from the inside. They had pits to protect the emperor from lions jumping into his balcony. Some years they would have 300 days of contests.The stadium was covered in the winter.

We also did the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. Portage got some great shots, she will be posting them on the interweb soon. The Pope was in Germany, but we got a big surprise 10 day days later when we returned to St. Peter's Square.