Day one - Rome

Well, in spite of good intentions to rise early, we woke at noon because the hotel was doing a fire alarm test. Good thing given the time change for us.  Today we took a bus tour of Rome. What is immediately apparent is that the ancient and present coexist in downtown Rome.  There are ruins and walls and pillars dating to many years before Jesus coexisting with advertisements to see the latest American movie release, in this case, pixars Monster Academy.  We spent a good amount of time touring the Collesium, which has ruins that go back to the time of Christ. This is where gladiators fought, and according to tradition, Christians were sacrificed.  It is an amazing feeling to stand in the midst of the Collesium and imagine the history of the place.  At the north end is Constantine's Gate...if you recall he was the emperor who made Christianity the religion of the empire in 300 AD.   Ruins of Nero's Palace are close by; he died about 60 AD, thirty years after Jesus, and was known for persecuting Christians. In fact, the revelation of John, last book in the NT, paints Rome and Nero as pretty bad stuff.
Other observations...lots of street cafes and everybody is selling pizza...which for us, is really flatbread with a little cheese and ham on top.
On a fun note, "prego" means "you're welcome "in Italian.  So today we are out and about, and someone serves us a drink.  Pr Marta, thinking she has it down says "you are welcome" this way: "Ragu."  Think about it for a moment, and you'll figure out why I couldn't stop laughing.