Rome, Italy

When we were in Berlin, we realized that it was the city for the last century's history. In Rome, however, we realized that it was the city for history of almost every other century before that. From the ancient Roman Empire to the centre of Catholicism for the last 1600 years, Rome has it all. In Rome, there are dozens of sights and churches that, in any other city, we would be going around to see and appreciate. It sucks to be those sights in Rome though. It has way too many crucial and unique monuments and structures that these other, otherwise great, buildings and stops get overlooked and neglected. Before coming to Europe, we had seen like three buildings in our lives that are older than 1914. Then, we got accustomed to seeing hundred year old buildings all the time with the occasional five to eight hundred year old castle. So, it was almost impossible to wrap our minds around buildings and structures that have origins in the BC. We also didn't realize how much evidence there would be of ancient Rome. We expected the Colosseum and Pantheon and buildings such as those, but there are a ton of ruins scattered throughout the city that undergo constant excavation, study, and restoration. Needless to say, Rome was quite the experience. It was also cool because people come to Rome for a lot of different reasons. You have the typical tourist (like us, even though we do not like to include ourselves here), coming to Rome just to see and experience. Then you have those who come for the sole purpose of studying the archaeology and all that comes with ancient Rome. And then you also have those that come as a sort of pilgrimage. We didn't really think about the fact that, since the Vatican (housed within Rome) is the world Catholic headquarters, we should expect to see a lot of black shirts with white collars. We probably saw more priests in one day around the Vatican than we have seen or will see in our whole lives.

So, we spent two days trying to soak up all of the famous, important sights like the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps, and one day moving through the Vatican, experiencing enormity like Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world. We could have used double the time that we had, even if only to digest and process all that we had seen. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Rome and look forward to coming back (although we did not toss a penny into the Trevi Fountain).

The Colosseum:





The Roman Forum:






The Under Restoration Pantheon:



The specacular Vittorio Emmanuelle II Monument:


The Spanish Steps:


The Trevi Fountain:


Inside the Vatican:


The largest church in the world where the popes are all buried underneath - St. Peter's Basilica:


Michaelangelo's Pieta inside St. Peter's:


The Pope's residence:


Outside the church, St. Peter's Square:



We leave Rome and head south for our last stop in Italy. Then, on to Greece in just a few short days!

Florence, Italy

Ciao! We spent four full days in the Florence area and were really looking forward to relaxing and getting a good appreciation for the city and its surrounding Tuscan countryside. We were not disappointed in the least. We spent two days walking through Florence and seeing some of the churches and squares that make it a truly wonderful city. Another major attraction for Florence is its art. We got a sense of the artistic side of Florence even though we are not avid art fans. Florence has many statues and sculptures that line its streets and squares and it was interesting to see so many different naked people. Number one of those is definitely Michaelangelo's David. There are two replicas of the man we saw throughout the city, but we also got a chance to see the real deal in the Gallerie della Accademia. We are glad that we took the time to see the actual sculpture because he does not compare to his replicas, or to any other statue that we saw. It's incredible to see the precision and perfection displayed on his very large and yet detailed features. The picture shown is a replica.







We also took a day trip to the nearby town of Siena. Siena is a great little Tuscan city with wonderful old streets and buildings. It has some nice, large squares where we were among hundreds of locals and tourists alike sitting and enjoying gelato. We enjoyed walking down streets that placed us in the 1700s.




The fourth day we were in the Florence area was probably our favourite. We decided to embark on a Tuscan bike tour that took us up and down many great hills that gave us great views of olive orchards (for olive oil), vineyards, and terrific Tuscan villas. Despite the somewhat surprising workout, we absolutely loved riding through the countryside. It was the perfect way to see Tuscany. We even received a tour of the Corsini winery and villa and were served a beautiful Chianti lunch complete with bruschetta, olive oil, pasta, wine and espresso. What more could you ask for? The lunch was the highlight of course, and will always serve as our perfect Italian meal.

These are some of the sights we endured on our bike tour:














Rome is our next stop after Florence. It's hard to believe we are entering our last month of travel, but we still have so much we are looking forward to seeing. Bye for now!

Cinque Terre, Italy

Italy's treasure. We arrived in the Cinque Terre with a lot of anticipation. We had heard about it from friends and had seen a number of great pictures online before we left. We knew it was something we wanted to do. What is it? The Cinque Terre is located on Italy's west coast and is made up of five small villages on the cliffs and hills overlooking the Mediterranean. Italy has preserved it as a national park and there are some wonderful trails connecting the villages. The villages are, in order that we saw them, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Our first night in the area, we stayed just outside of Monterosso in Levanto, also a beautiful town on the sea. We planned on making the 9 km hike from Monterosso to Riomaggiore in two days with a day off in between. Unfortunately, our Cinque Terre hike was really only a Quattro Terre hike because the path from Monterosso to Vernazza has closed off due to a landslide. We did get a chance to see a little of the first village as we walked through it, but we had to take the train to Vernazza. So, our first day we went from Vernazza to the third village, Corniglia. It was quite a beautiful, and challenging, stretch. The views were, of course, fantastic and the landscape was incredible. We stayed in Corniglia then for two nights and made the trek to Riomaggiore on our third day. We had a lot of time not hiking the trails to explore the villages and take a lot of pictures. Each village was incredible with its own character. We loved the way the houses all squished together and stacked on top of each other. The colour they displayed was always fun to look at.

Vernazza

Vernazza


Corniglia

Corniglia

Vernazza


Vernazza

Vernazza

Manarola




Manarola

Manarola

Manarola

Manarola

Manarola




All in all, we loved just being in these villages and walking their streets. It was fun to explore the crazy walkways and staircases that people use every day to reach their homes. Reluctantly we left, but with excitement for Florence!