An arch standing since Roman times.

The "mouth of truth", the most popular thing to see in Rome for Asian tourists, according to our guide. According to him, it is not actually that important historically, but because it was used in the Christian persecutions the church preserved it. During the persecutions, the mouth was filled with all sorts of nasty creepy crawlies: spiders, scorpions, poisonous snakes. The accused would have to put their hand in the mouth, and if they were bitten they were guilty. And of course, they were bitten. These pieces of history were originally sewer caps in ancient Rome.

The only remaining original buildings from the Jewish ghetto in Rome.

One of the many fora.

The dome of the Pantheon. This is my (Daniel speaking) favorite thing in Rome. It's absolutely huge. It just boggles my mind that this thing has been standing for that long. St. Peter's is bigger, but it only one third as old.

Built by Musolini, Romans refer to this building as "the wedding cake", because the imported white marble doesn't fit in with all the other tan Roman marble.

The Colosseum at night.

More fake bags for sale.

One of the two large fountains in St. Peter's square at the Vatican.

The red cobblestone marks where the pope was shot in the early 80s.

St. Peter's in the Vatican. Immense. Wow.

A Michaelangelo.

Our tour guide pointed out these two sculptures as the difference between the typical Roman style (top), and the typical Greek style (bottom). I think they may be comparing a really bad Roman sculptor with a really good Greek sculptor, but I'm no expert. Speaking of sculpture, Michaelangelo's "Pieta" is now behind glass in an alcove of St. Peter's because some crazy guy with a hammer hacked the nose off a few years ago. That was a big disappointment for me (Daniel). It's really kind of hard to appreciate from 20 feet away.

You got me, I have no idea what this sign is trying to communicate. Perhaps: "Don't go down the stairs like a crazed monkey, walk down calmly like this gentleman here". It ranks right up there with Boulder's famous "In case of flood climb to higher ground" signs in Boulder canyon. Frankly, if you couldn't figure that out without a sign, you need to be removed from the gene pool.

The house behind the Trevi Fountain. Notice the upper right window. It is actually a solid wall painted to look like a window. Supposedly in the 16th century, a young man who lived there was found dead in the fountain below the window. Despite the fact that his fingers showed that he was clawing for dear life, his death was ruled a suicide. Since suicides aren't buried in the normal cemetary and remain in purgatory, his ghost haunts the house. So many people were reporting seeing someone jump out the window that the window was bricked in to try to quiet the stories. That's the story our guide told us, anyhow.

I could have sworn I've heard that same story somewhere else, though. Sounds like a stock ghost story to me.