Rome: Mother goose, has the mouse found the cheese? Over.

Ah Roma! Our time in Rome was split in half with the trip to Bologna/Venice sandwiched in between, so I'm gonna be writing about both parts here. In our first 4 days in Rome we got in as much sightseeing as possible, but also spent a good bit of time just wandering around the city and taking it all in.

We visited St. Peter's Basilica, the official church of the Pope

The inside is absolutely stunning and the scale is unbelievable. The entire nave is the length of 2 football fields and the gold lettering around the dome is 6 feet high

The decorations inside the dome are all done with intricate mosaics

The statue of St. Peter - we saw several identical copies in other churches around Rome. Rubbing the toe brings good fortune 

A beautiful view from the top of the dome looking out onto St. Peter's square.

We caught up with Maurizio, who we first met several weeks ago at the bus stop on our way to the farm. He gave us an awesome private tour that included the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Capetoline and Paletine Hills.

Us at the Colosseum. The area above the sloped arches is where the seating was and the upper levels were for the women

Maurizio explains how Roman coffins were converted to water basins during the Middle Ages.

Constantine's arch, which is said to be the inspiration for Paris' Arc de Triomphe

We also explored much of Rome on foot. This view is of one of the bridges that crosses the Tiber river

A tzidakah (charity) box in the old ghetto neighborhood, which is still the center of Rome's (small) Jewish community

This was all during our first visit to Rome. However, after returning to Rome from Venice we had a much more unconventional time.

We couch surfed with Michele, an awesome screenwriter in Rome. Here he is about to pick some lemons from the neighbor's tree.

And then tragedy struck. Ray caught a bad cold, which we will herein refer to as "the plague" and long story short both me and Michele got a little sick as well, and we had to cut our sightseeing short. But, while Ray was sick I did manage to do a few fun things:

The Sistine Chapel! Beautiful, but also filled with noisy tourists and guards who yell at you not to take photos. This was the only one I could sneak in

I took a cooking class! Cutting up some yummy hand made pasta!

When Ray finally started feeling better we made it over to the Pantheon. This structural masterpiece was saved from destruction during the Middle Ages because it was converted from a pagan temple into a church. Note the cross on top of the Egyptian obelisk

And then this happened....

That's right, my crazy boyfriend flew across the world to come see me for 12 hours for a post Valentine's Day surprise. We had a nice dinner and the next day he was back on a plane to return to work.

Apparently everyone (Michele, Maurizio, Ray, both our mothers, my roommates at home) was in on the surprise. I couldn't believe that nobody had spilled the beans! Shortly thereafter we said goodbye to  Rome ourselves and hopped on a plane. Next stop.... España!