It was a whirlwind trip filled with history and some sort of Dan Brown'ish quest for family heritage information.
We took the train in from the airport and this was the start of our feel for the massive crowds swarming Rome. The train was packed like we were headed for Mumbai (don't really know what that means but I pictured people sitting on top of the train).
We stayed at the exclusive, 11-room Residenza Cellini which we paid $150 euros a night (if you pay cash). It sounds expensive, especially if you wanna really take the fun out of it and convert it to dollars but Rome is like London or Paris...tres cher. As it turns out though, we were really happy with the place/deal. It was in a good location and was very clean and very comfortable...we would recommend it highly to anyone going there. It was quiet there, with air conditioning and a comfortable bed. After full days of walking, it was très bon.
We arrived at 2pm that first day and couldn't wait to get out there. We were immediately amazed by the size and beauty of Trevi Fountain. It took 30 years to complete (built between 1732 and 1762) and you've never seen on a fountain on that scale before...it takes up a whole side of a building. It looked so clean and inviting but it's good they don't allow you to get in it or it would be full with people. 
Then as you continue down the road from the Trevi you eventually come out of a small alley way and then you just stand still...almost in shock. You are totally unprepared for the sight of the imposing figure of the Pantheon..it's magnificent.
From the time we came around the corner until the time we walk in and out of the 20 ton bronze doors we were just in awe of the place. 
We both think it may have been our favorite site to see there...if we were forced to make such a crazy decision.The following day we saw the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We were very happy to
have bought our Colosseum tickets online before we arrived because it was the difference of walking up to a ticket window, with no one in front of us, to standing in a line that looked like it would take at least 30 minutes to get through. We were also glad we didn't pay for any type of tour there, as they have an extensive storybook layout display of the history there...and it's in Italian and English!
They raved about the emperor Vespasian throughout the displays. He dedicated himself to the construction of the largest known amphitheater. He encouraged artists and was the first emperor to establish and annual salary for teachers of rhetoric. They really seemed to go on and on about him. Afterward I felt like he was probably one of the greatest emperors of the Roman Empire, if not the greatest..and I don't remember ever hearing of him?? We walked from there to the Roman Forum. We saw an Italian couple 
who were getting married and taking pictures outside the Arch of Constantine, just near the Colosseum...it was nice to see the young Italians in love :) We wish we would have had a tour for the Roman Forum, as it mostly appeared to be an ancient Roman junkyard. Throughout the area there were places to sit down that were actually ancient building blocks of stone...seemed crazy.
On Sunday we wanted to travel to Bassiano, to see the town my grandfather, Urbano Coluzzi, grew up in. We hoped to rent a car but on Saturday we had the hotel check and they were told there were no cars to rent from any of the major car rental places in the heart of Rome. Apparently Obama rented all the cars, as he was in town for the G8 Summit conference and I wasn't sure I wanted to train to Bassiano, after not even getting a seat on our last time on there. And I didn't know if we would want to stay in Bassiano more than 5 minutes. But Sunday morning Obama released one car and we got it for the day. We drove about 90 minutes south into the mountains there. The Latina region was beautiful country. 
We were really pleasantly surprised by how clean, well-preserved and beautiful the town of Bassiano was too. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I thought it would have been more run-down and forgotten...kind of a dump. One of Randi's first comments to me was..."they left this for Chicago" :)We walked through most of the old town, feeling lost at times with all the small, stepped passageways going in every direction.
We both thought that the look and feel of the old town area, along with it being only navigable really just by foot, was unique when compared to all the small villages we've seen in France so far.We stopped for a coffee and gelato just outside the old city wall entrance and saw some old pictures inside the ristorante. I stared at every face in every picture looking for one to wink back at me I guess ...but no luck. The language barrier proved to be a big one, especially out in the country.
After that we got back in the car and drove around the area outside of the walled city and happened upon a cemetery there. We both realized at the same time that this was a place we probably should have thought of going to before arriving, as it might be only place we'll be able to find some reference of the past...and besides, we can talk to the dead as good as we could talk to the alive there...sorry, sick joke.
After entering it didn't take long to find many references to Coluzzi. I was hoping to find my grandfather Urbano's father, Candido, buried there but most of the graves were of a newer generation. We were chased out of there by rain but I have a email address to the cemetery and maybe I can check further on that.
I really didn't get any further with discovering my heritage but I feel like accomplished something I always told my Mom I wanted to do someday...in going to see where her father was from.On Monday we capped off the trip by taking a tour of the Vatican Museums, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican was so crowded it was incredible. But again we avoided incredibly long lines by going with a tour/guide there and getting our tickets online. The Vatican Museum is so crowded that the tours smartly have the guides with a microphone and all the people in his tour wearing a receiver and earphones...this way he didn't have to find a corner to gather around and talk to us...because there wasn't anywhere to go like that. He could just walk at a slow pace and talk to us through his microphone. It worked well. We breezed by most of the Vatican's 9000 pieces of artwork but that was ok.
My favorite work of art is definitely the beautiful masterpiece in the picture on the left :) But I think my favorite piece of Vatican artwork was the Laocoon sculpture because of it's influence on artwork for hundreds of years but mostly for it's story of discovery. In 1506, a farmer was digging in his vineyard in Rome when he began to uncover pieces of marble statuary that included a life-size figure.
The Pope heard of this and dispatched the artist, Michelangelo, to go check it out. Almost immediately Michelangelo identified it as belonging to the Laocoon, a sculpture that had stood in the palace of the ancient Emperor Titus. Finding the Laocoon was a dream come true for Renaissance artists and patrons who were intent on restoring Rome to its ancient glory. Around that time the idea of returning Rome to it's ancient glory was gaining popularity with citywide art and architecture projects. When the Laocoon emerged from the earth, it further fueled that Renaissance dream. The Laocoon became a standard against which Renaissance art was judged. One of the artists most influenced by the sculpture was Michelangelo, whose representation of the human figure in motion was fundamentally changed by his study of the Laocoon. 
The muscular definition in the twisting motion of the central figure can be seen in numerous figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They said "no cameras allowed and please be quiet" in the Sistine Chapel but when we got in there the chapel is completely full with people talking and taking pictures. Here a shot I took there...forgive me. Finally we walked through St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world, which holds up to 60,000 people...incredible.
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