Italy Part 3, Rome

Ah, Rome.  Our last and favorite stop on our little tour of Italy.  We had 3 nights in Rome, but could have easily spent a week or two there with all there is to see and do.  We have so many great photos from Rome that even after narrowing it down to my faves, I will still have to do two installments.  Remember- you can click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to see more detail.

We arrived in Rome around 4pm or so, dropped our belongings off at the hotel, and rushed out to start touring around town.  The first few photos are from the Piazza del Popolo

The obelisk below was brought from Egypt to Rome in 10BC.

The next two photos are of the Spanish Steps, which were unbelievable packed with people.

Across from the Trevi Fountain, there were locks covering the gates around a church.  Couples from all over the world have written their names and professions of love on the locks and thrown away the keys.  Unfortunately, I've read that since we left the thousands of locks have been removed.

The Pantheon (126 AD)

The next two photos are in the Piazza Navona.  The first is of the top of the church, and  the next shows part of the Fountain of the Four Rivers, designed by Bernini.

Castel Sant'Angelo

We had an amazing tour of the Vatican with the most knowledgeable tour guide ever.  It was one of our favorite parts of the trip.  

St. Peter's Basilica

The window the Pope speaks from on very special occasions

The baldacchino designed by Bernini (a mere 98 ft. tall).  Click on the photo to enlarge it and look for Bernini's signature bees on it.

A Swiss guard (I think he was looking at me when I took the picture!)

Walls going out from the sides of St. Peter's in an arch

"The Torso," a huge inspiration for Michelangelo

One of so many amazing ceilings we saw

View of the dome of St. Peter's from inside the Vatican Museum

TO BE CONTINUED...

Italy Part 2: Florence

From Venice, we took the train south to Florence (Firenze). I'm not sure if the archway below has a name or what it is. It was in a ritzy part of town that we walked through daily on our way to other places.

Our first full day in Florence, we took a side trip to Tuscany (about an hour away). We spent the entire day touring with our guide, Angela. This was definitely one of our favorite parts of the Italy trip. Tuscany is beautiful and completely peaceful.
The first picture below is looking down on Florence as we were driving out of town.

On our tour of Tuscany, we went to two vineyards to taste Chianti Classico, olive oil, and honey. All of the vineyards in the area traditionally produce all three on location. We learned a lot about how Chianti is made and all of the regulations you must meet to get the DOCG certification for your Chianti. The photo below shows Cyprus trees at one of the vineyards.

Olive trees at the same vineyard (this photo was done in Antique colors)

Part of the castle where we ate lunch. I had the freshest, yummiest spelt salad!

Acres and acres of vines

A view of some of the tiny medieval towns scattered among the hills



Back in Florence now. Can't remember which church this is...

The Ponte Vecchio (Italian for "old bridge") over the Arno River. In addition to being a bridge, it is also the home to many goldsmiths and jewelry shops.



Facade of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (part of "the Duomo"). The campanile (bell tower) is on the right.

We climbed the over 400 stairs of the campanile to get better views of the Duomo.

The following are views of the Duomo from the campanile. The Duomo is still the largest brick and morter dome in the world.


View of Florence from the top of the campanile (done in antique colors)



The photos of the Duomo are definitely some of my favorites. It was hard to pick which ones to put on the blog!

Italy Part 1: Venice

Over Easter break (you can say "Easter" here because it's a private school), Nate and I went on what I consider our second honeymoon- a trip to Italy! I took probably 200 photos, but have deleted some so that now I'm at about 150. We obviously won't be able to put every single photo on the blog, but we'll put as many as possible. This blog post is going to be about our first stop, Venice. Stay tuned for more about Florence and Rome. (The Rome photos are definitely the best!) We welcome, and thoroughly enjoy, reading your comments on the blog, so leave us notes after you read!

Venice, as you may know, is built on the water. There are are about 400 bridges, like the one above, connecting the town. All of the bridges are stairs, not ramps. If I had thought about this, I would have packed everything in a backpack, not a large suitcase that had to be lugged up the stairs. Oh well, I'll know for next time! :)


It's all about the boats in Venice, even for fresh produce!


Venice is the home of pizza, and we had some really good pizza there! Actually, our pizza wasn't from the place above, but this made a better photo.


The famous Rialto Bridge. It's so large there are stores all over it.

Classic photo of the canal from the Rialto Bridge.


St. Mark's Basilica in the busy (and pigeon-ridden) St. Mark's Square. As you can see, parts of it were under renovation. Most historic buildings we went it seemed to be partially under renovation. I'm pretty sure that they're constantly renovating once a building gets past, say, 400 years old or so.


The top of the church. Click on the photo to enlarge it and check out the detail. The inside was beautiful, but we weren't allowed to take photos.


One of the paintings on the outside of the building.


That white building was definitely leaning- it's not the camera angle!


Me on the Rialto

The Races

A couple of weeks ago, Nate and I were invited to go to the horse races in Sha Tin. The couple who owns the bus company our school uses also owns a couple of race horses, so they invited us to join them. It was an all day affair, from 12-6pm on Sunday not including getting there and home. It was definitely an interesting cultural experience, very different than how I'm guessing the Kentucky Derby is. Everyone (except us) was dressed in black, oddly enough.
We sat in the owner's box most of the time, munching on yummy food and watching races. Before their horse's race, however, we went down into the owner's ring, where the owners, jockeys, and trainers schmooze while the horses are paraded around. That was pretty cool. Unfortunately, their horse (Sunny King, #11) didn't win...or even place.
It was unreal how much money was being bet on the races. Nate and I, on the other hand, stuck to bets of about $10HK, which is $1.25 in USD. We're high rollers.

Valentine's Day and Living in Clouds

So things have been super busy at work recently, and we've not been the best at updating the blog. I promise we'll put lots on soon with our upcoming trip to Italy! Until then, here are a few photos from February.

Nate and I have woken up literally inside a cloud a few times over the past month. It's pretty crazy. We can't see anything out our windows. Here are a couple of photos we took the first time it happened.


The next set of photos are from Valentine's Day. Nate and I got home from dinner and thought it would be fun to play around with our new camera. It has this feature where you can set the timer to take several photos in a row. It feels like paparazzi. Anyway, here are a few of the photos we got. I think they're hilarious.