Gelato!

On the second day in Rome, we went to all the hot spots: the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum. There are tourists everywhere in Rome (you hear English everywhere! It was kind of annoying--damn Americans! :p And I kept speaking French to everyone--whoops. But it made me feel very French).

The first stop: the Pantheon! It was under construction, so there was a lot of scaffolding that I had to cut out. We were really confused what the Pantheon was haha turns out it's a temple/church. Whoops. So ignorantkfds;fs

And then we went to the Piazza Navola, which was super mignonne with its Christmas market.

There was a giant fountain in the middle of it!

And stuff everywhere! Those donut things are really popular and delicious.

I got my first glimpse of Murano glass rings in Italy, and I love them so I bought two (and 6 more later... hahaha). I love Christmas markets! Ornaments, hot chocolate, festivities everywhere. A man cut a beautiful silhouette of me out of paper too hahaha It was on that day that I noticed how Italian men really stare at you--like they give you a full body scan and their gaze trails you as you leave. Being used to all the outrageous men in Egypt, this was nothing to me but Laura was naturally unnerved. These men are all harmless in the end.

And then we went to the Piazza Venezia and Monument of Vittorio Emmanuel II.

Way cooler than the Memorial of Queen Victoria and the Buckingham Palace!

And then the RUINS! It was amazing. It was an out of body experience, seeing where modern civilization basically started. Amazing!

COOL! CHOUETTE!

But the Colosseum topped it all. Amazing!

And we even got to see a parade in front of it!

Reminds me of the good ol' marching band days and the colorguard :p

Then we explored the area of Trastevere where there are adorable tiny streets with little shops everywhere. I love cobblestone! You just don't find streets like this in America. We got a really good coffee--I love how the coffee is much more viscous and denser in flavor, although very bitter and requires a lot of sugar to balance it haha. On one of the coffee machines I saw, the option for "American coffee" was translated into "weak coffee" haha

Then we got our first gelato (goal two--complete!). It was from Geolatti, a delicious place next to Parliamt. I got nougat, and Laura had chocolate and caramel.

Delicioso! And those water straw things are really good too.

We ended the exhausting day at the Spanish steps. We were so tired that we literally got there, took three photos, and left. :p