This is the last day I will
bore regale you with tales of my trip! I hope you've enjoyed it :)
Today I actually am heading out for my cousin's wedding, but I'll be back on Saturday night and I'll announce the winner of the Italy prize pack on Monday! So you have the weekend to peruse any posts you missed and to leave your comments. Remember, you get one entry for each post you comment on and then random.org will pick the winner!
Now ROME.
I loved Rome and you could probably spend weeks there and still not see everything. I love visiting big cities like this. I don't think I'd ever want to live in one, but I get such a charge out of being in one that has a lot to see and a lot going on. I've loved visiting Rome, London, Paris, even New York City.
Since the course was focused on Tuscany, we really just hit Rome for the highlights. We were there for two and a half days, which isn't nearly enough time to really see much, but we packed it in!
Get ready for some serious picture overload. *looks around guiltily* I had such a hard time picking favorites!
This was the view from the bridge right outside our hotel that led into the main city of Rome.
This is a ruin that has been turned into a CAT sanctuary. It was so funny to see all these cats just wandering around. The ruins were so cool too!
The craziest thing about walking around some place like Rome, is the way there are the ancient and the modern just wedged right in next to each other. I love it!
There were orange trees in the courtyard of our hotel! I was so tempted to just reach up and grab one.
We went to the Vatican for the Papal Blessing on Sunday. It was packed out and a really interesting experience.
Then we went into St. Peter's, which was huge and gorgeous!
I have this thing for ornate ceilings. I love taking pictures of them.
This is one of Michaelangelo's famous Pieta. When we were in Florence there was an unfinished one in the museum where the David is. Our guide told us that they are pretty sure that someone else worked on that one, because Mary is actually looking at Jesus, but all of Michaelangelo's other works with the mother and son she isn't - like this one.
The Spanish steps! When we arrived, there was a huge soccer game that night so the lower levels were swarming with loud, drunk people in pink t-shirts. It kind of took some of the charm out of the place. We went back at night and it was much nicer.
The Trevy Fountain. Packed. Seriously packed with tourists. We went back here as well, but it was just as packed late at night.
I love the carvings on this column! And I knew Naomi would find them fascinating.
Spanish steps at night.
And now to the colosseum!
This was one of those places where I just kept staring and marveling over the fact that I was actually THERE.
The only marble seats still surviving.
And then Palatine Hill and the Forum! Woot!
I saw this and had to laugh because it was just a foot and I'm a huge Lost nerd.
After that most people wanted to go back to the hotel and take a nap. ON OUR LAST DAY IN ROME. My friend and I were like, we can sleep on the plane. Let's go to the other side of the city and see the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel! So we did!
I love the tile work. Amazing.
More gorgeous ceilings.
That is a mosaic made out of tiny little tiles. Gorgeous!
And that, my dear friends, is that. Whew. It was a whirl-wind tour, and even faster for all of you ;) Have you ever been to Italy? What was your favorite thing there? If you haven't been to Italy, what's your favorite place that you have traveled to? I love travel so much! Anyone want me to come visit? I'll pack my bags!
Thanks for playing along and I hope you've enjoyed the pics and the random commentary! See you on Monday with the announcement of the winner!
4 comments:
aww, Rome looks awesome! We had a choice of ROme or Venice and we chose Venice (which was AWESOME)
I have to say, i LOVE these pics because i play a LOT of Assassin's Creed on xbox and it takes place in different italian cities and those picture you have of rome are IDENTICAL to the landscape in the game when you're in Rome
I really dig ornate ceilings and inlaid floors, too. That last picture of the tile mosaic is pretty amazing to me. The same principle as counted-cross-stitch embroidery, except with little, hard pieces of tile. I’m impressed!
Having traveled extensively all over America, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to pick one favorite place. I sort of file the memories this way: The people, were we visiting friends? The place, how beautiful was it? The experience, did something delightful and/or memorable happen? My favorites usually seem to involve wonders of nature, and I’ll just pick one to share.
When my husband and I lived on Long Island, New York, we explored the heck out of it, visiting nearly all of the beautiful State Parks. And we especially liked the drive east, either along the North Shore to Orient Point, or through the Hamptons out to Montauk. The beach at Montauk Point is extremely diverse. Some of it is covered with pretty big boulders, some of it is sandy, and a large portion of it is solidly covered with heaps of glacier rocks, all rounded from eons of tumbling around, perfectly smooth, the kind that fit very nicely in your hand. It was like a perfect storm of exactly right conditions – the angle of the beach, the strength of the waves, how close we were to high tide (I have no idea), and the size of the glacier rocks. Every time a wave came in, it lifted the rocks, suspending them for a moment. And every time a wave went out, we got to hear the clattering noise of all those (millions?) of rocks settling back down again. It was quietly thrilling! I had never imagined such a thing.
OK, one more! On our first visit to the California Redwoods, we were just passing through, pulling a trailer on our move from Washington back to Kansas. We arrived at night and camped in our van, just pulled over to sleep for a few hours among the giant trees. When we woke up at dawn, we were in thick fog, it was our first really good look at the redwoods, and here came a herd of elk, materializing out of the fog and coming right towards us. They surrounded our van and curiously peeked in, not alarmed by our presence at all. I particularly noticed how perfect their coats were, thick and even, and not a blemish or scar on them. It was like something out of a dream, what the Native Americans would call “good medicine”.
We have to go baaack!!
@Marebaba: that thing with the rocks sounds amazing! So cool! and the elk. That must have just been breathtaking!
Post a Comment