Sunday, November 13, 2011

Italia

Jeff and I got to experience the trip of a lifetime in October.  We left our precious little kids in the hands of family and friends and took off for Italy.  We left SLC at 8:30 in the morning on Friday and landed in Rome at 8:30 the next morning.  We decided to just keep going and sight see all day.  By the end of the day we were so exhausted.  We were there for 8 days and we were busy taking it all in every day.  This was definitely not a relaxing vacation.  I took over a thousand pictures for the trip and my friend Stephanie took over 600.  I will post only a sampling.  The pictures are out of order so I will post a small caption under each to explain.  We started in Rome for 3 days, Florence for 2, Pisa for a day, and Venice for 2.  
 Travestere in Rome, This area was recommended by the locals as the best place for meals.
 Church in Travestere

 Fountain in Rome, The water was cold and tasted good.  We drank the water and we were fine.
 The Roman Coloseum
 The Roman Forum area.
 Venice
 Fountain outside of the Pantheon in Rome.
 The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I was the least excited about seeing Pisa on our trip, but once I got there and saw it, it was amazing.  I had no idea how cool it would be. 
 Boat in Venice.
 Inside the Pantheon.  This is a working church where they hold services.  Also Raphael was buried here.
 Vatican Museums, In amazement at the artwork and how big it was. 
 Trevi fountain.  If you enlarge this picture you will see that Jeff is pulling away from me.  He hates PDA's
 Inside the Coloseum.
 Trevi fountain at night.
 Steph and I threw our coin into trevi fountain so that means we will return Rome someday. 
 Overlooking Pisa, from the leaning tower.
 Vatican Museums.
 Gelato, we had Gelato every day.  It was so good.  It was also good that we walked around a lot so that we burned it off.
 Outside of the Uffizi museum in Florence.
 Scooter parking.  There were crazy scooter drivers everywhere. 
 The Leather Market in Florence.  A shoppers paradise!  Too bad I didn't have much room in my luggage. 
 Vatican City.  In front of St. Peters Basilica.
 Inside the Dome of the church in Florence.  We walked up 450ish steps.  It was hot, and we smelled a lot of stinky Europeons on this walk up. 
 Our first Gelato dessert in Rome our first day.
 At the top of the Dome in Florence.  What a view.
 Venice.

 Venice.
 A Random door in Rome, All of the doors and knockers were so cool and unique. 
 Dipping my feet in the Mediteranean Sea.  The water was warm and nice.  I could have stayed there all day, but we only had 45 minutes for this cool town called Positano and the beach. 
 Our lunch in Positano, had to be my favorite meal on the trip. 
 The view out the window of the restaurant.  Amazing.
 Positano in the distance.  I was so sad to leave that place. 
 Afer Positano, we visited Pompeii.  Mt. Vesuvius is in the background.  If you don't know anything about Pompeii you should look it up.  Too amazing to even describe.
Venice.



 This may seem disturbing, but this was how they preserved some of the bodies in Pompeii.  This person was praying as he died from the ash.
MMM Cannoli's  .  We loved all of the desserts and pastries, and Italian food. 
Hope you enjoyed seeing a glimpse of our trip.  Pictures cannot even come close to describing the experience.  It was amazing, and I am so grateful!