Happy Independence Day!

I'm a couple of days late in posting this because I had to catch up on the Italy trip. But if you notice the counter on the right, it is at zero! That's right, Jeremy's duty with the navy is done! Hooray!

Rome

Our bed and breakfast was fairly near to the National Palace, hence the first picture. This is actually considered an eyesore to the Romans as it was built in the late 1800s. It doesn't really match the rest of the Roman sites.

The Roman Forum. It is amazing to see the excavation that has been done and to see all the different levels of cities. The different civilizations would just build on top of the ruins of the civilization before. And since Rome is such an ancient city, there are a few layers.

Our first glimpse of the Colisseum.

The Constantine Arch.

The entrance to St. Peter's Basilica--the largest cathedral in the world. The Catholics are a bit egotistical and gaudy. But they do have some amazing works of art.

Jeremy took a million pictures of all the popes in the cathedral all holding up different numbers of fingers in reference to the earlier post in Siena about the statue of the pope saying "2 Euros." He thought it was pretty funny.

Bernini's papal altar. St. Peter's also is home to Michelangelo's Pieta. Can you tell I love Michelangelo? We also had to see his Sistine Chapel. I recently read a book called "The Agony and the Ecstasy" which is a historical fictional book about Michelangelo's life. It definitely gave me a greater appreciation for his works.

View of the dome from the Vatican Museum. Rome was our final destination. We did see the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps at night just like I wanted to. Just no pictures. And we saw the Boca de Verita from "Roman Holiday" that I had wanted to see. We also did the on/off bus tour to see all the sites. I'd definitely recommend that because you can get on and off the bus whenever you want and it stops at all the main attractions with a bus stopping about every 30 minutes. There is always so much to see and never enough time to see it all, or to sample all of the delicious dishes there. But we were ready to go home and see our kids. So long, Italy!

Amalfi

Our trip to Amalfi was a crazy one. First, we had to catch a 30 min train ride to Salerno from Naples where we were staying. Then we waited an hour to catch a bus to Amalfi. That was one of the scariest bus rides I've ever been on (including a mountainous bus ride in Guatemala). The Amalfi coast is practically a cliff on a very curvy coast. I'm surprised we didn't run any other cars off the road. There were some tight spots where we had to stop as a smaller car squeezed by. And then the bus driver would put his foot to the pedal and we'd cruise along the coast staring out the window at the water down below or the cliff face on the other side. There was an Australian couple on the boat with us and we asked them why they didn't rent a car (since it was obvious they were fairly wealthy). They just laughed and said, "this is why." No one in their right mind would want to drive this road.

From Amalfi we caught another bus that was supposed to take us to a hike called "The Walk of the Gods." The bus driver was supposed to tell us where to get out, but he didn't speak English, and we didn't speak Italian. We got out at a spot that had a sign that said, "Climbing." The bus pulled away and we followed the sign to a rock climbing spot. Not what we were looking for. And, who knew when another bus was supposed to come along?
So we started walking back toward Amalfi. It took us a couple of hours and a 10 minute ride from some kind Italian family that picked up a couple of strange American hitchhikers. But we made it back to Amalfi in time to grab a bite for dinner, catch the last back to Salerno, catch the last train to Naples, and the last metro back to close to our area. And then we had to walk about 6 km back to the friend's apartment we were staying at. We were exhausted and sweaty by the end of the day. But we saw some amazing views!

A waterfall that dropped to a river that ran under the road. There was a sheep trail that led down to it. It was gorgeous! Except for the sheep droppings on the road.

Pisa

Lucca is fairly close to Pisa so we took the train one day to Pisa. We made it a quick trip and walked to see the famous leaning tower, the nearby Duomo and Baptistry, had some gelato, twice, and called it a day.

The obligatory holding up the tower picture.

Florence

On my previous trip to Italy about 7 years ago I only visited Rome and Pompeii and my greatest regret was that I never made it to Florence to see Michelangelo's David, which is my favorite work of art. I know, it sounds cliche, but once you see it in person you realize just how amazing it is. The detail put into it is magnificent: you can even see the outline of veins and tendons in the hands and feet. I seriously got chills when I saw it up close. That alone made the trip worth it for me.

We also made it to the Uffizi museum and saw some more amazing pieces of art. There happened to be a Caravaggio exhibit with one of his paintings, "Medusa" on display. This picture here just doesn't do it justice. It is painted on a shield and the details are exquisite. Kind of creepy subject matter but amazing nonetheless.

We also visited the Piti Palace which had amazing gardens and a beautiful view of Florence.
Jeremy's brother, Jeff, is a professional photographer so he had many photographer friends there for the wedding. I was so embarrassed of our small 7 year old digital camera compared to the high-tech gear of the professionals. He had friends from America, Wales, Poland, and Hungary there. It was so fun to meet all of these wonderful people.

Jeremy just couldn't resist picking the nose of the giant face sculpture.

There was a monument off to the side on the way to the exit of the palace that had crazy sculpture all over it which made it look like it was pulled up from the lost city of Atlantis. It looked like it had coral growing all over it with seashells on it. Crazy and yet very interesting. Florence was definitely my favorite city on this trip. Just beautiful.

Siena

We spent the next 5 days in a villa in Tuscany and visited some cities in the area. The villa was in Lucca which was pretty central to the rest of the areas we went to. One of the cities was Siena. I had never heard of it but it was strongly recommended by Jeff. We first arrived at the central piazza and found this tower and climbed to the very top. It had gorgeous views of the entire city. Apparently there is a recent James Bond movie that takes place here during the annual horse races through the city.

We saw these apples and had to take a picture for my younger sister, Melinda.

Somewhere on or in this cathedral is Michelangelo's sculpture of St. Peter which I didn't realize was there until after we had left.We wanted to go inside this Duomo (cathedral) and found we had to pay 3 Euros to do so. We were a little frustrated because after all, churches should be free, right? We went to Siena with a couple from Hungary who have traveled a lot and they mentioned that every time they go back somewhere the price to do anything increases.

So when we found this statue later Jeremy made a joke that this pope who is holding up two fingers is telling everyone that it costs 2 Euros to go inside. Our Hungarian friends thought it was hilarious.

Venice

Finally, Jeremy is getting out of the navy. In celebration of this momentous event and because we have spent very limited time together during his time in the navy due to his working 90-100+ hours a week (I am not exaggerating), we were able to go to Italy for about 11 days to help Jeremy's brother Jeff celebrate his wedding. We'd like to give a big note of thanks to those who watched our kids for us. THANKS a million to Justin, Tanya, and Anita for watching Nora and to the Hoopes, Elledges and Hedges for watching Matthew and Corinne during that time. It was a relief to know that the kids were being well taken care of while we were gone. The wedding took place in Tuscany, but we chose to travel to other parts of Italy while we were there. Our first stop was Venice. We only spent one night there and walked around San Marcos square and did the obligatory gondola ride. We also had the best food in Italy at a small restaurant called "Il Ridotto."

The street/canal that our bed and breakfast was on.

In San Marcos Square they had about 3 simultaneous free concerts being performed, as well as a whole flock full of nasty pigeons that would land on you if you fed them. No, I did not let the nasty rats with wings land on me.

View from the Rialto bridge.

A non-touristy treasure we found while getting lost through the streets of Venice. It is a military building that we thought was beautiful.

Us on our gondola ride.