ROME - continued

Leaving the subway station we immediately see the Colosseum. Wow! This is THE Colosseum-- where gladiators fought..... It's hard to focus on directions to our apartment when this historic stone structure is literally across the street from us. 

This is our view from in front of our apartment.

We have the address to the apartment and according to the map it is very close by. We find the street name we're looking for but we're not sure whether to turn left or right. Left takes us up a BIG hill and we don't want to have to trek up it if we don't have to. After a few minutes we ask an older Italian lady if she speaks English and she speaks a little; enough for us to understand what she's saying. She instructs us to go right and walk along the buildings until we see our apartment number. Sounds easy enough, only every building looks similar and the numbers are difficult to see if you're not familiar with the architecture. We walk several blocks and again have to ask for directions from a young man. He tries to help us but really has no idea where it is. So we turn around and walk back in the direction we just came. We see the apartment number and realize we've walked right by it! It's a great location right by the Colosseum! Perfect!

This is our welcome gift when we get to our apartment. :)

We are arriving earlier than scheduled but the manager allows us in the apartment early which we're very thankful for. He shows us around the apartment and gives us keys and then asks us for our passports. This is the first time anyone has asked for our passports. We didn't even have to show them at the airport! The apartment manager wants to take pictures of our passports with his phone. I'm a little unsure about this so I ask why he needs a picture and he tells us the owner of the apartment needs to know who is staying there.  Hmmmmm ok I guess. So all four of us lay down our passports and he takes pictures of each one. Once he leaves Jess freaks out that I let him take a picture of our passports so now I'm freaking out too. I'm googling to see if this is 'normal' or if we've all just given this complete stranger our passport information. Of course when I look at the google remarks there are a million people that say it's normal and a million people that say it's unheard of. My mind instantly goes to the movie Taken but I don't say a thing to anyone else because everyone is freaked out enough already. I have to admit though, during our entire stay in Rome, every time I heard a siren I held my breath a little bit. I think I've watched The Bourne Identity a few too many times. (But I do stick the phone number of the American Embassy in my purse. Just in case.)

We don't let that 5 minutes of craziness detour us though! We set down our suitcases and set out to see some Roman ruins.