Rome. Until you can't.

 This day started with the Vatican.  It's almost impossible to describe.  There is just so much stuff.

We saw the copy in Florence

This thing is valued at 2B euro

There is an entire hall of maps

One of many frescos

Then through the Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed!) and on to St. Peters.

Pete crucified upside down.  On one of the doors

Michelangelo's Pieta

The famous dome

..and on the way out, the Leo XIV was on his way back from seeing the Italian president.

Swiss men in crazy suits with pointy sticks

Leo XIV

Lunch, then off to see the Roman Forum area.

The Tiber outside the Vatican

The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument.  It's about the founding of the nation and the first figurehead king...and maybe WW I dead

Why does and angel need a chariot?

About as close as we got to the Coluseum

Forum ruins of all kinds.  So, what happened? Rome was nearly deserted after the "fall".  But the buildings were all still there!  Slowly, they were mostly razed and recycled into new buildings and building material.  Lots of marble became Portland cement. Flooding and silt covered over a lot more.  The buildings left intact were mostly ones converted into churches and kept in continuous use.

Vestal Virgin temple

Standard Road

Gift from Constantanople

...and then...