A wonderful first day in Rome!  Although Ellis missed the first hour of it….. after not sleeping AT ALL on the flight over, he suddenly CRASHED as soon as we landed.  Ooh, bad choice of words.  Here’s a glimpse of his first 60 minutes in Italy…….

The transfer into town was easy enough, via a train to the Rome Termini station, then about a 10 minute walk to our hotel.  PERFECT weather – sunny and 72 degrees.  So far the kids are holding to the edict – YOU PULL AND CARRY YOUR OWN BAGS!

The beds were inviting, the rooms were dark and cool, so we all collapsed to sleep off the jet lag.  After naps, we walked through our neighborhood and settled on a place for a late lunch.  Most of the restaurants close between 3 and 7 so it was actually a challenge to find a place that was open.  But it was an idyllic sidewalk setting, the food was good, and the drinks were cold.  I tried to get the kids engaged in a discussion of the Roman Empire, but it proved a bit much for the first day; our sleep-deprived minds were suspended in a happy fog.

After our lazy lunch, we rode the subway down to the Colosseum.  Stepping out of the station into the imposing presence of the Colosseum was impressive.  We were all struck, though in different ways.  LouAnn and I were continually amazed at the sheer AGE of everything around us, that you could actually walk up and touch something that was built at the time of Christ.  The kids, no less profoundly, were struck with the head-shaking reality that they were walking around ROME, ITALY.  We walked past the Forum, up the hill to Trajan’s Column, where we rested for a while.  The evening sun made for some great photos.