Roma

Rome, Italy was our first stop... we were there 3 nights, leaving today one year ago, and on to Florence.    In the cab our first real recognizable glimpse of Rome, and what made us say, "we can't believe we are here" was the Colosseum.  What a sight to see, it was hard to believe it is still standing.  It was simply amazing.  Just as you are in any cab, you wonder if the driver knows what they are doing... after weaving us in and out of traffic, we safely parked and arrived at our hotel.  Nothing is clearly marked, and we stayed at bed and breakfasts, so he wasn't exactly sure he dropped us off in the right place.  We found it though and so started our first trip up multiple flights of stairs.  Soon after that, we hit the ground running.

One of our favorite and most frequented sights was the Trevi Fountain.  Our B&B was pretty close and so we were there the most often to take it in.  Tossing in our coins which promises our return to Rome.

The Colosseum, again, just amazing.  In the above picture we asked a teenage American to take our picture, right before the snap, she decided to ask her dad to take the picture, since "he takes better photos."  Dad comes over looking like she just asked him to fight the live animals like the gladiators did, makes us feel like we are putting him out, but manages to take this picture... one of my favorites.  His daughter was right.  He does take good pictures.

Another fun memory was spent with Adam's friend from work Adi, and his wife Shanna who were also in Rome at the same exact time we were.  We were able to meet up with them and have dinner and gelato.  It's always nice, especially in a foreign country, to see those you know.

But perhaps, out of the 435 pictures I took in Rome this one captures Rome in my heart forever.  It was the day we were scheduled for our tour in the Vatican.  We decided to walk, we were staying on the other side of the Tiber River, so it was quite the stroll.  We woke up early, skipped breakfast to make it there on time, and were rewarded with fabulous sights, pictures, and cooler weather.  Most of our walk we followed these two Sisters.  I love the tone of this picture, with the priest walking towards us, and the lady representing modern day, on her cell phone.  Around us, people were opening their shops, sweeping store fronts and washing the windows, getting ready for the sure to be massive amount of people who would travel thru in just a couple hours and for the rest of the day.  The streets are made of cobblestone, uneven, and never ending.  They twist and turn, and sometimes get you off track.  It was the coolest walk and I am glad we didn't choose any other form of transport to get there.

Once we made it to Vatican City, we cold not be more pleased that I went ahead and purchased tickets for our private tour ahead of time.  The line wrapped around the Vatican itself was about a 4 hour wait, I would have lost my mind.  We reached our tour guide and finally got to go in.  Above all, in our 2 week stay, this was one of the most anticipated things for me, and it did not disappoint.  The picture above makes me laugh, because here we are surrounded by exquisite things... but we have found that we are just not museum people.  We want to see the highlights, and then be done.  Statues and artwork all day, every day was just too much for us.  This is why we were glad we had a tour guide.  Adam and I would have still been moseying around the Vatican trying to find our way out.  It was huge.

However, Michelangelo's Pieta, and the painted ceiling in the Sistine Chapel were both things I REALLY wanted to see, and I was able to check them off my list.  So lovely and so emotional.

St. Peter's Basilica

Our last night, we decided to walk up Gianicolo Hill.  From there you can see an almost 360 view of Rome. And it was worth every step.  One of the hardest parts about pictures and Rome, is you just can't do it justice.  Every building is just on a grander scale then anything I had ever seen.  So taking pictures from the top of this hill was hard.  It did show us how far we had walked.  We were able to recognize a lot of the structures and stood there in disbelief as to how much walking we did.  (I had the blisters to prove it.)

Rome was a must see.  I loved everything about it.  I was glad we started Italy there.