"The eternal city" of Rome is immense. They say you need at least 4 days in Rome but I think the day and a half we spent here was just fine for us. For one, it was the last leg of our 3 week trip and I think we both have had our fill of art, museums and especially walking.

Day 1: We arrived to Rome in the afternoon and after a hot 15 minute walk to our apartment, we dropped our bags and headed out. After discovering the value of hiring a tour guide in Florence, we quickly agreed that doing the same in Rome was in order. For one, it gets you to the front of the 2 hour line and you get a little history lesson to go along with your experience. We laced up our sneakers once again and headed straight to the Pantheon, listened to an audio tour we had previously downloaded on our iPhones and then headed over the the Coliseum to find a tour guide. We ended up in a small family group of Americans with children. The kids were interested in the sights so it made it enjoyable for it all. The family cut out after the Coliseum so we had the tour guide to ourselves for the second half. Our guide was full of facts, much more than we could absorb but it was nice to have someone show us around so we didn't waste time wandering aimlessly. We had enough miles under our belts at this point and we still had another full day ahead of us.

Day 2: The second day we headed to Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica. Both were amazing. The place was crowded but we had hired a tour guide again so we got in quickly and again, had someone to give us a little lesson on what we were seeing. The Sistine Chapel was smaller than I imagined but it made for a more intimate viewing of Michelangelo's work. Impressive! Even more impressive was St. Peter's Basilica. It is enormous, standing tall as the world's largest church and well worth the visit.

Day 3: We woke up early to catch our morning flight only to discover that the flight had been delayed 10 hours. We called the airline and there was nothing much that could be done so we hopped on a train and headed 40 minutes away to Castle G, a small vacation town up in the hills. It was an overcast day and the town was very small so we found a place for lunch, ate our last gelato and headed for the airport.

We've had a great trip, learned a lot, got a good workout in most everyday and enjoyed a lot of good food and wine. We are headed home to get back to our normal life, diet and routine. 3 weeks was a long time to be away but thanks to Tyler for taking care of the house and our dog, Bailey and trustworthy employees to keep the wheels turning back at the office, we were able to experience a trip of a lifetime. Gratzi!