This feels like Seattle... except there's gelato here. :)

Me again. I love writing these notes. It helps me remember everything I've seen each day and everything I want to recall after I leave here.

Gelato is the world's best dessert. Everyone who comes to Italy tries it (usually) and most leave Italy in love with it. I'm one of those people. It's absolutely AMAZING.

We spent all day yesterday walking around the center of Rome. All the main sights are within walking distance of each other: the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, etc. My favorite of all was the Pantheon, which we saw for only about fifteen minutes before hopping on the bus to go back to Azusa's house. It just blows my mind that the interior of the Pantheon dates from A.D. 120. It's in absolutely pristine condition. The intricacy of the walls and floors and the dome above was fascinating. The artist Raphael and two Italian kings are buried inside the Pantheon.

Somehow, we got into the Colosseum and the Roman Forum for free. We're not sure exactly how that happened. They were handing out free tickets to everyone, so we took one. We saved about $16 that way, which was exciting, considering that we had spent loads of money in Venice the day before. The Roman Forum sprawls out for quite some time. All that's left of it is foundations, crumbling walls, and, occasionally, great big pillars that are miraculously still standing. It was still breathtaking, and I wanted to just sit there and pretend I was back in the 1st or 2nd century.

The Colosseum was just awesome. I've seen so many pictures of it, but to stand right in front of it and go inside it was amazing. There were signs inside explaining where the gladiators would emerge. Apparently, the gladiators never knew what animal they would be fighting or what part of the stadium it would be coming from. Goodness.

The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain weren't all that great. In fact, they weren't really worth it, but that's okay. On our way there, we walked down the strip of designer stores: Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Jimmy Choo were some of them.

By the way, Karen and I feel like we're in just another big city, in some ways. Same busy streets, same harried people, same noise. And yet, we can see the Colosseum.

Today, Azusa is taking us shopping. We're going to escape the tourism for a while and be locals. Yes!