My mom and I went to Rome for the weekend (won't be able to do that when we are back in Texas!!). We had never been and it was spectacular! Every building in the city is ancient and has history. Definitely an experience to see everything in person! We saw everything we could in three days and there was still so much left to be seen!
Our taxi driver sang while he drove us to the apartment :)
After waiting for two hours for the girl to let us in to the apartment (slight misunderstanding which was just the beginning of our troubles with "Valentina") where were exhausted and hungry but jumped in a taxi to meet up with our tour guide of the Vatican.
The wall surrounding the Vatican city.
Michelangelo on the left (older, not attractive, bitter) and Raphael on the right (young, handsome, happy). Our guide said to understand the art you have to understand the artist...it truly helped to understand their styles! They were both extremely talented!
Inside the Vatican city
The detail is stunning. I could just use up all of my adjectives about Rome right here so...stunning! amazing! incredible! impressive! Pretty much sums it up :)
Although my heritage is mostly Swedish and Scottish, I do think I have a Roman nose ;)
Gallery of maps
The story of Christopher Columbus :)
Raphael painted this wall. After seeing the Sistine chapel, he was so impressed by Michelangelo's work that he came back and painted his face...
...on this guy!
Unfortunately, no one can take pictures in the Sistine Chapel (a Japanese firm has the exclusive rights after they cleaned it) but it was cool to see in person :)
So now we walked out of the Vatican to check out St. Peter's Basilica (the largest church in the world). It was massive!!
St. Peter's square (in front of the church)
Thank you fellow tourist for taking a blurry picture :) Oh well :)
There are 900 citizens of the Vatican - all priests and nuns.
Now on to dinner! Yummy food and wine :)
Ok, so back at our apartment we got in our jammies and I tried to log on using the password Valentina gave me for our Wifi. She kept saying "cucina" so I tried typing that as well as kitchen and all the other various spellings of the word. I finally had to track her down (she also lived in the building and we kept running in to her around the neighborhood over the weekend). She came to our apartment and showed us where the password was...in the "cucina" of course! Notice the tiny piece of tape on the left on the tile...that is it! We would never have found it - crazy? :)
The next morning I am not happy after realizing I left the credit card at the restaurant the night before...too much wine I suppose...ugh!
Happier after some coffee and hopeful about getting the card back (which we did!)
We were staying just down the street from the Colloseum!
Mom got annoyed with me because I kept taking pictures of her with food :)
The colloseum did not disappoint! We also had gorgeous weather all weekend!
There was a huge archeological site (as well as several all over the city). They are still digging and finding history layer after layer...
Roman forum and Circus Maximus
The mouth of truth! Made famous by the Audrey Hepburn movie...legend says that if you aren't telling the truth and you stick your hand in the mouth, you will lose it! The line was so long we didn't wait for the photo op, so I just took a picture through the gate :)
An old theater
Public monument
Everywhere you go, there is an ancient building or monument or fountain!
Fun doors :)
Dig in front of our neighborhood
The Spanish steps and the piazza di spagna. Mom was not impressed...her expression made me laugh! It was just so crowded! There are a lot of high end shops around this area and nice restaurants, etc.
Ok, so I have heard the Trevi fountain is overrated, but I didn't think so!
Shopping and prosecco, yay!
This picture is for Aunt Margaret!! Mom said you would appreciate the Italian leather :)
This is Mom's impression of a stereotypical Italian :) We had to amuse ourselves while we waited for our bus (our bus tour was terrible!!). They did not stay on schedule and we spent a lot of time looking for the hop on hop off spot or just waiting for the next bus!!
These guys were everywhere trying to sell these ridiculous things :)
From the top of the bus. I have no idea what this is because at one point the guide said there was just too information to try to tell us everything so just relax and take it all in visually...and then italian music played...really???!!
Duo accordion players
Still crowded at the Spanish steps the next day!
Gelato!
Espresso!
When we got back to our apartment we were locked out (checkout was 11am and our taxi didn't arrive until 5pm so we just kept the key and had our luggage inside). We didn't exactly trust Valentina to bring our luggage down or even show up so we were so glad when we ran in to her on the street! It was 4pm and she had obviously just woken up (same clothes and make up as the night before) and very much out of it! There was no way she would have remembered our taxi!! So she let us in and we got our bags and got out of there!
Anyway, aside from the logistical hiccups, we had a wonderful time! Thank you Mom for taking this trip with me!! And thank you Geoff for taking care of our kids (even though you used a babysitter twice!!! haha!). I am so thankful for these opportunities and memories of our time "across the pond" :)
Our taxi driver sang while he drove us to the apartment :)
After waiting for two hours for the girl to let us in to the apartment (slight misunderstanding which was just the beginning of our troubles with "Valentina") where were exhausted and hungry but jumped in a taxi to meet up with our tour guide of the Vatican.
The wall surrounding the Vatican city.
Michelangelo on the left (older, not attractive, bitter) and Raphael on the right (young, handsome, happy). Our guide said to understand the art you have to understand the artist...it truly helped to understand their styles! They were both extremely talented!
Inside the Vatican city
The detail is stunning. I could just use up all of my adjectives about Rome right here so...stunning! amazing! incredible! impressive! Pretty much sums it up :)
Although my heritage is mostly Swedish and Scottish, I do think I have a Roman nose ;)
Gallery of maps
The story of Christopher Columbus :)
Raphael painted this wall. After seeing the Sistine chapel, he was so impressed by Michelangelo's work that he came back and painted his face...
...on this guy!
Unfortunately, no one can take pictures in the Sistine Chapel (a Japanese firm has the exclusive rights after they cleaned it) but it was cool to see in person :)
So now we walked out of the Vatican to check out St. Peter's Basilica (the largest church in the world). It was massive!!
St. Peter's square (in front of the church)
Thank you fellow tourist for taking a blurry picture :) Oh well :)
There are 900 citizens of the Vatican - all priests and nuns.
Now on to dinner! Yummy food and wine :)
Ok, so back at our apartment we got in our jammies and I tried to log on using the password Valentina gave me for our Wifi. She kept saying "cucina" so I tried typing that as well as kitchen and all the other various spellings of the word. I finally had to track her down (she also lived in the building and we kept running in to her around the neighborhood over the weekend). She came to our apartment and showed us where the password was...in the "cucina" of course! Notice the tiny piece of tape on the left on the tile...that is it! We would never have found it - crazy? :)
The next morning I am not happy after realizing I left the credit card at the restaurant the night before...too much wine I suppose...ugh!
Happier after some coffee and hopeful about getting the card back (which we did!)
We were staying just down the street from the Colloseum!
Mom got annoyed with me because I kept taking pictures of her with food :)
The colloseum did not disappoint! We also had gorgeous weather all weekend!
There was a huge archeological site (as well as several all over the city). They are still digging and finding history layer after layer...
Roman forum and Circus Maximus
The mouth of truth! Made famous by the Audrey Hepburn movie...legend says that if you aren't telling the truth and you stick your hand in the mouth, you will lose it! The line was so long we didn't wait for the photo op, so I just took a picture through the gate :)
An old theater
Public monument
Everywhere you go, there is an ancient building or monument or fountain!
Fun doors :)
Dig in front of our neighborhood
The Spanish steps and the piazza di spagna. Mom was not impressed...her expression made me laugh! It was just so crowded! There are a lot of high end shops around this area and nice restaurants, etc.
Ok, so I have heard the Trevi fountain is overrated, but I didn't think so!
Shopping and prosecco, yay!
This picture is for Aunt Margaret!! Mom said you would appreciate the Italian leather :)
This is Mom's impression of a stereotypical Italian :) We had to amuse ourselves while we waited for our bus (our bus tour was terrible!!). They did not stay on schedule and we spent a lot of time looking for the hop on hop off spot or just waiting for the next bus!!
These guys were everywhere trying to sell these ridiculous things :)
From the top of the bus. I have no idea what this is because at one point the guide said there was just too information to try to tell us everything so just relax and take it all in visually...and then italian music played...really???!!
Duo accordion players
Still crowded at the Spanish steps the next day!
Gelato!
Espresso!
When we got back to our apartment we were locked out (checkout was 11am and our taxi didn't arrive until 5pm so we just kept the key and had our luggage inside). We didn't exactly trust Valentina to bring our luggage down or even show up so we were so glad when we ran in to her on the street! It was 4pm and she had obviously just woken up (same clothes and make up as the night before) and very much out of it! There was no way she would have remembered our taxi!! So she let us in and we got our bags and got out of there!
Anyway, aside from the logistical hiccups, we had a wonderful time! Thank you Mom for taking this trip with me!! And thank you Geoff for taking care of our kids (even though you used a babysitter twice!!! haha!). I am so thankful for these opportunities and memories of our time "across the pond" :)
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