Welcome to Italy! Once more the Peace Run arives in Rome, the Eternal City.
What better place to start as at the "Il Vittoriano" Monument, the shrine of the country celebrating the unification of Italy.
Our first school today: the "Don Rinaldi" primary school.
What a crowd!
This was our biggest school of the day, and the children were very sweet
Joining hands to hold the torch
The Peace Run stickers were very popular
Comparing stamps
We had a lot of fun...
Let the running begin!
Thanks for being our first Italian school visited this year....we had a great time...
....and hope you did too
Here in the centre of Rome, there is a big reserve full of historic sites. Sometimes it seems like you are in the countryside...
Running along an ancient Roman aqueduct. It transported water from nearby fountains to the city centre two thousand years ago
Next we were invited to the primary school "Caterina di Santa Rosa"
Being welcomed by the nuns in charge
Hi-fives all round
One of the teachers got caught 'cheating' during the nationality guessing game...she had to run a lap with the torch as punishment, much to the delight of the children
Everybody holds their own peace torch
Finding a quiet place inside the heart
Stamping time!
This was a really fit bunch of kids....they love to run!
The kids were trying to teach Josef how to count in Italian. He never managed to go further than 4...
Thank you so much, Santa Teresa school!
Relaxing and having lunch near the Via Appia Antica, one of the most ancient roads in Rome
These are still the original stones - 2000 years old...
Stopping to say "Hi" to some French students. It was good to have a French runner on the team. Mena did her best...
Lastly, we paid a visit to a small and very charming Montessori school: "Nerina Noè"
The parrots were watching...
...the school is located almost in the wood. No surprise that the Run around the school turned out to be almost a cross-country experience...
Thank you for the great meeting!
A trip to Italy would not be complete without "gelato"...
A shot of the city from an ancient rooftop garden
In the afternoon the team explored some more relics dating back millenia, in the city from which the Roman Empire once ruled a quarter of the known world: most of Europe and beyond....
With a bit more time to spare, we checked out the Colosseum...
Josef in gladiator mode
...and then Vatican City, which is actually a tiny sovereign country inside Rome containing the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church
Inside St. Peter's Cathedral at the Vatican
The basilica was built to impress - and it does!
Rome is truly amazing and we had a superb experience. Thanks to all the schools and everybody who helped us out!
