Florence and Rome, Italy

Jessica joined me to the Duomo Museum. It holds all the art that used to be in and decorating the exterior of the Duomo. We got to see Ghiberti’s Bronze Panels from the Baptistery Doors and sculptures by Michelangelo and Donatello.
I went across the river to go to the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. I got lost but found some interesting shops on the way. The chapel is filled with fresco’s by Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi that are very beautiful.
I spent my last few minutes in the markets near San Lorenzo. I picked up a few more souvenirs and then met Sam back at our hotel to pack up. We checked out and then got pizza and canollis to eat in Piazza Santa Maria Novella.
In the train station we ran into the LDS missionaries who explained to us how to validate our train ticket. We took the train to Rome passing the beautiful countryside. I have no idea how fast we were going, but I think a lot faster than cars travel.
When we got to Rom we walked to our hotel, B&B Angela. We were supposed to stay in another hotel, but we got an email the night before telling us that we were moved. When we got there and checked in the Chinese teenager receptionist walked us several blocks away to another building, giving us four keys, and leading us to the smallest hotel room I have ever seen. The king size bed barely fits in the room. We are in Rome, have our own bathroom, and it is clean, so whatever.
After we got settled we walked across town to the Pantheon, by the time we got there it we closed on the inside, but we got to see in through the door. Our plan is to go back to tour the interior. We found the gelato place that Jeremiah told us about, so we had to get some, even though we had just had gelato an hour before.
We strolled through Campo de’ Fiori and Piazza Navona, which felt a little like a carnival. There were street vendors everywhere and little shops lined the narrow streets. We ate dinner in a little restaurant near Piazza Navona. We had fried vegetables as our appetizer, tortellini in cream sauce, and I had crème caramel for desert.
The first part of the night was dry but it started raining more and more as the night when on. We pressed on because it was New Years Eve and we are in Rome. We walked past Capitol Hill and a bunch of Roman ruins. They are everywhere. You will be walking along and then next to you is a ruin surrounded by a fence in the middle of the city. They don’t seem to tear things down here, they just use the building and turn it into something they want.
We walked past Circus Maximus were they did the chariot races and then just followed the crowds to the Coliseum. The Colloseum is incredible, especially at night. For New Years Eve they had a band playing that the crowd seemed to love. The only problem was that it was pouring down rain. After an hour of that Sam and I gave up and headed for our hotel. There must not be any regulations for fireworks because people were setting them off in the streets and throwing them out their windows. We kissed to bring in the new year amidst loud booms of everyone’s fireworks. Happy New Year!