Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Italy 2011-Part 1

After Belgium Bill and I took off for Rome. We landed late at night...waited forever for our luggage, saw this sweet sign on the way to customs:



















...and then we took off to our hotel. (On the way we saw a peek of the Coliseum at night... A M A Z I N G!)

We could not wait to get up and go sight-seeing the next day! This was the view from our roof-top terrace during breakfast. (click on any picture to see it in a larger format)

























We grabbed a"hop-on hop-off" tour and saw the main sites. So very cool! Everything you wanted to see was within walking distance, but we really enjoyed the ride around the city. Did I mention that we had perfect weather the whole trip? I know. Unbelievable.

Seeing the ancient ruins and all the buildings we study in our homeschool was such an amazing experience. I need to take the kiddos next time!

ancient ruins


part of the Roman Forum

There's a story to these church steps. You know those relatives that you HAVE to invite to your wedding? Yeah...when you get married at this church you just have the ushers direct them to this entrance when they arrive. (We are encouraging our kids to get married in Rome now. hehe)

riding the tour bus

gorgeous building and piazza

crossing over the river to see the castle

the famous castle sant'angelo




Cobblestone, Pizza. Bikes. You saw these three things all over Rome.

This Basilica was right outside our hotel!





At The Flavium Ampitheatre (or Coliseum as we know it!)

















Arc of Constantine outside the coliseum

Gladiator wanna-bes!


people engraved their names on the coliseum walls


a picture of the palatine area from the coliseum



Animals and pottery found in the ruins of the coliseum












































even though the coliseum is in ruins you can see the seating levels, the stage area, and the corridors and storage area underneath.


see the marble seating for the most important people in Rome?







at Da Vincis Machinery Museum






















inside his mirror exhibit


at villa borghese overlooking the plaza

Bill with Rome behind him




At the famous Trident shopping area-some of the most exclusive and expensive shopping areas in the world. We just looked!  Sort of!


























Okay-I did get my girls something Prada, but I got a good deal!

At the Spanish Steps! I am not sure what the fascination is to be honest. People just sit on them and watch other people.



Everywhere we went we saw people dressed up and taking donations. This person is supposed to be the Statue of Liberty.

Got a few pieces of art from this gal.

Trevi Fountain

Tossing my 3 coins in for a guaranteed return trip to Roma. haha.

And Bill faked tossing coins in cause SOMEONE took his and threw them in earlier. :)More to come later! I still have over 1000 photos to edit. :P





5 comments:

  1. Very cool pics, Sharon. The last couple made me think of that old romantic comedy movie "Three coins in the fountain". Wasn't that great of a movie, but it came to mind. Looks like an awesome trip!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love these pics. It all looks so incredible and exciting. I'm glad you guys got to go! Stuff me in your carry on next time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, I just came by to thank you for the wonderful PPP goodies! I totally enjoyed seeing pictures of what has been one of my dream vacation spots for years! I even showed them to the DH, just in case he has any doubt as to where I'd like to go! LOL! Looking forward to seeing more!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love Rome! Hope to got across the river to Trastevere area to see some of the funky student and artist places... also did you get to that hill with the pottery? (Oh gosh I have forgotten the name of it now, near the gay area off to the south east hill, where over centuries potters threw out all their old pottery and a whole hill was made up of it.) Now I need to get back to Rome and remember it all again!!

    ReplyDelete