Roma!

So I was knee-deep in work and general to-dos this afternoon when I was struck with the desire to revisit the photos from our epic Clausen family vacation of a few weeks back. Our crew of five headed to Italy, Austria and Germany for a two-week trek that was filled with fun, craziness, and more than a couple of random challenges (like having to go eight -- EIGHT -- days without our luggage!). And though I traveled for several days while missing key items that I'd packed into my luggage, I did have my camera for every day of the trip. Yay!

After a quick flash of guilt for not hitting the next to-do on the list, I took a timeout to pull some of the shots from our first day in Rome. I figured that I'd post them here, and hopefully I'll follow-up later with shots from each of the other days. My goal is to sort through the 1,000+ images for a half-hour or so each day (or most days) for the next few weeks. Eventually I'd like to have them all organized then put them into a book that we can all flip through together... My photos from our last trip are still sitting on my hard drive, though, waiting for some attention, so I'm not exactly going to hold my breath or get my hopes up too high. :{

The first day we hit the Colosseum and then the Forum. These are just shots from the Colosseum... So I guess I'm really just recapping the first half of the first day. :)

First up was a quick lunch near our hotel and then a snap of the kiddos on the nearby Spanish Steps.



Then it was off to see this beauty:





We rented one headset and Brian listened to the guided tour and then explained it all to us as we walked around.











The partially reconstructed floor shows how it actually looked back when the venue was used for gladiator versus animal fights to the death. We also learned that the Latin word arena means "sand," which is what the floor was made of. We also learned that it was littered with trap doors through which animals and people were raised from the alleyways and cages below.





The kids took a little time to chill here and there...







And pose...







A few more quick stops to rest and return the headset and then it was off for a gelato break!







We got some water (the first of many, many times we'd buy bottles of water on this trip), and then we headed across the street to the Forum. I have oodles of photos from over there, too. I am dying to dig into them as well, but the kids just wrapped up their first (half-) week of school and they're ready to go swim...