And now for something a little different.

My wife and I took a little break and spent some time in Italy… and Rome was one of the cities we visited. If you have never been there, it is a feast for (all of) your senses.

There is so much to see in Rome. Our hotel was very close to Vatican City, so we started off with the Vatican Museum. As you will see in these images, the museum contains an amazing collection of art – even the walls and ceilings are adorned with mosaics.

You can see St. Peter’s Basilica from the museum… and the spiral staircase you see is actually the musem’s exit!

As we passed through St. Peter’s Square (which is actually round) Pope Benedict was conducting mass. A recent addition to the Vatican are the jumbotrons (large televisions) for the masses (pardon the pun) to view the Pope. We even got to see his Holiness in the Pope-mobile (sans glass).

Inside St. Peter’s Basilica is simply surreal. Huge doesn’t even begin to describe it. One of the most notable features is the dome – it is the largest one in the world and is covered with beautiful mosaics.

The basilica houses some major pieces of art … such as Michelangelo’s first masterpiece, the Pieta. And the architecture of the basilica and surrounding structures is simply magnificent.

Our next stop was the Pantheon – a 2,000 year old structure with a large domed roof made of concrete. For those of you who know anything about construction or structural engineering, this was an amazing feat of engineering by the Romans. Modern day engineers just figured out how to do this in the past two centuries.

The Roman skyline is just filled with interesting things to see. One of the things I love about Rome is all of the old (bordering on ancient) buildings amongst the new structures.

Our final day in Rome was spent visiting the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine and the Forum. It was (and still is) really hard to fathom all of the history contained in this part of Rome.

If you ever have the chance to visit Rome – do it. It can be a little (or a lot) chaotic at times, but for you artists and historians, it is well worth the trip.

Viva Roma!