We flew into Rome on Saturday and immediately set out exploring. After a fantastic dinner we walked to the Trevi Fountain, got some gelato, and found a place to sit and people-watch for a while. Then we walked to the Spanish Steps and got accosted by several guys selling roses..."ciao bella, do you want a rose...no?...it is my gift to you, bella..." Oh geez they were annoying! We walked up and down all 130-something steps, caught our breath, turned down a few more rose pushers, and headed back to our hotel.
The next morning we caught a ride on a double decker bus for some sightseeing. We circled the whole city, snapping tons of pictures of everything along the way. We hopped off near the Pantheon and toured that before walking through the Forum's ancient ruins. 
Somewhere along the way we came across a prison from the 7th century B.C. believed to have once held Peter. We walked further down the street to explore the Colosseum. We were pretty wiped out from all of that touring, so we treated ourselves to a nap at the hotel. We did some shopping and then relaxed at the Piazza del Popolo and had another delicious Italian dinner.
Monday was almost entirely devoted to touring various parts of Vatican City, including the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. We are not exactly art lovers, but even we were impressed by the intricacy of the murals and sculptures amassed in the collection. Wiped out once again, we rested up before enjoying a quiet dinner on the patio of at a little restaurant near the Colosseum. Afterwards it was more gelato and a stroll through the park (ah, the joys of travelling without the little man for once!).
On Tuesday we took an early train to Sorrento, passing through Naples along the way. We had splurged on a 5-star hotel perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean and its own private beach, and we couldn't get into our swimsuits fast enough! 
After a well-earned day at the beach doing nothing at all, we cleaned up and went into the little town for a nice dinner and a pretty hilarious tour.
Wednesday was nearly just as relaxing. We took a ferry over to the nearby tiny island of Capri and spent the day hiking around to enjoy the amazing views. In Anacapri, we rode this very precarious-looking chair lift up to the tallest peak. There was nothing between us and the ground except a little metal bar, and each chair was only built for one so there wasn't even another person there with you to hold on to! 
A little frightening, but nothing compared to the bus ride back down to the marina---two buses passing full speed on a one lane road winding down the edges of the very steep cliffs! It was a gorgeous day in a very gorgeous place and we lived, so it was well worth it! We topped off the evening with another dip in the ocean and a yet another delicious Italian meal.
On Thursday we took a train about 30 minutes north of Sorrento to Pompeii. I had seen a travelling exhibit of some of the artifacts from this ancient city destroyed by Vesuvius at a Houston museum some time in elementary school, so it was pretty cool to be able to visit the real thing. Kind of a strange culture though---they cleaned their clothes in urine, had some really weird coming-of-age rituals, and were a little obsessed with combatting the "evil eye" with phallic symbols. 
We were anxious to wash off all of our ancient dirt with another swim at the beach, where Kelly got overly ambitious skipping stones (more like huge rocks) and nearly hit a lady with a small boulder.The next morning we set out early for our train back to Rome and then our flight back to Oslo. We had a fantastic time in Italy seeing the sights, relaxing, and eating our weight in pizza, pasta, and gelato, but were anxious to get back to our little guy. He sent us videos every day while we were gone and we knew he was in good hands with his Grammy, but we had missed him so much!
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