Christmas in Rome, Part 1

For the Christmas holidays, we traveled to Italy.  I had been to Italy twice before, but for Bob and the boys it was a completely new country.  In order to incorporate both the "must-sees" and someplace new for me, our itinerary included Rome, Bologna, and Venice.

Our first stop was Rome, where we arrived on the Sunday before Christmas. We had rented an AirBnB apartment about 15 minutes walking distance from the Colosseum.  After getting settled in, that was our first stop. It was already dark at this point, but the Colosseum is beautiful at night!

The next morning, we went back to the Colosseum for a short tour.  The guide explained features of the Colosseum and the events that used to take place there.  Colin especially wanted to get an up close view of the photos she showed us.

After the Colosseum tour, we walked through Palatine Hill, which is the most ancient part of Rome.

The weather in Rome was fantastic--high 60's and not a drop of rain (no rain, in fact, for our entire two weeks in Italy).  The mornings started out cool but by mid-afternoon we were jacket-less and soaking in the blue skies and sun.  The perfect start to our Christmas vacation!