Vatican City

The balcony off our hotel room.

We dedicated our entire last day to Vatican City and boy was it worth it. For art lovers, it doesn't get much better than this. The Vatican museum houses some of the most famous religious artwork in the world. Seeing Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel in real life was just breathtaking. We didn't take a lot of photos in the museum because we were trying to just focus on soaking in the experience. We did catch a few shots of some of the big works.

Raphael, The School of Athens

I had never heard of Van Gogh's Pieta. It was the last piece he painted.

When in Rome! After having an art overload, we stopped for some espresso at a local coffee shop. I definitely could get used to this! By the way, Grant is hooked on espresso now.

Next, we walked around St. Peter's Square. It is hard to understand the vastness of this square. It can hold 400,000 people. It was a gorgeous day with sunny warm weather.

Then it was into St. Peter's Basilica. This is the largest Christian church in the world. It was mind blowing.

St. Peter's Basilica

Inside the Basilica.

Michelangelo's Pieta. I have seen this piece in art history books and there it was in real life! 

Heavenly light shining through?

We climbed 500 steps to the top of the basilica. Got a little tight toward the top.

View from the dome. Worth all the huffing and puffing to get to the top.

St. Peter's Square from the dome.

It was just one of those perfect days. We ended our trip with walking along the streets and window shopping. Rome is quite a bustling city after dark. Grant got this great shot of the street near the Spanish Steps.

Then it was time to head back to America. Thanks for following us along our trip. We certainly filled up every day to the max. Now the question is, where to next?

Ancient Rome

We left Florence on a high-speed train to Rome. It only took 1.5 hours to get there. When we arrived, we had a goal of seeing Ancient Rome in an afternoon. It was tough to fit more than 2,000 years of history in a few hours, but we managed to pull it off.

We walked all around the ruins of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.

We ended the day with gelato at the Trevi fountain.

Florence

Although we have been staying in Florence this entire trip, we haven't done any real sightseeing. We decided to try a guided tour for our day in Florence. There was so much to see, and parking and getting around can be tricky. We hopped on a bus and listened to the history of Florence spoken in English. It was a nice treat.

Panoramic view of Florence. And yes, those are mean rain clouds in the background.

Just at the edge of the crowded city is beautiful protected green space. Such a beautiful contrast.

An attempt at a self portrait.

A stop at the duomo.

Front of the duomo.

The bronze "Gates of Paradise" on the baptistry.

Detailed frescos inside the dome.

Duomo.

We visited the Academy where we saw the statue of David. No pictures were allowed, so we don't have any blog proof of the visit. 

Eating pizza in the square.

City market place.

The only bridge that survived WWII. It houses the gold smith shops. Grant wouldn't let me visit for fear I would drain our checking account. Smart man.

Is Grant not developing some great photography skills? It was almost dark out when he took this picture at the Uffizi museum. I am pretty impressed.

We ended the day visiting the Uffizi museum (used to house the offices of the Medici family) where we saw Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" and other works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Rembrandt.

When we finished the tour, I once again had soggy shoes from the rain. We found an Italian movie theater that had a film with English subtitles. We got out of the rain and caught a film. 

Where did we park?

Siena is a charming well-preserved Medieval town that features a spaghetti bowl of narrow streets winding up and around the hillside around its central town square...or at least that's what we read in the guide book. We were looking forward to the history lesson, but the weather had other plans.

When we arrived in Siena, we didn't really pay much attention to where we parked, because it was a main parking lot for the area. Well, that was just dumb. When we left the city center, we realized that all the streets look exactly the same and there were no maps or street signs. We ended up walking for an hour in the cold rain with a broken umbrella. It was pretty darn sad. We did eventually find the car and released a huge sigh of relief.

Siena, where all the streets look the same.

I made a bet with Grant before we left that I would only bring one pair of shoes on this trip. I won that bet and now wish I had lost. The shoes I brought are lightweight and have mesh on the top. Great travel shoes, right? I discovered in Siena, that when it rains, they become amazing sponges that gladly welcome the water into my shoe where my sock greets them with a second level of absorption. All day, I had a totally soggy pair of shoes. I will never travel with one pair of shoes again.

Siena was beautiful, just too cold and wet for very many pictures. Here are a few from the day (mostly inside shots).

Watch tower near the cathedral.

Cathedral (Duomo) and bell tower.

Ceiling in the baptista.

Front of the Duomo.

Duomo altar.

Duomo floor. Yes, even the floor was a piece of art.

The city is literally a museum in itself. We just wish it was a little warmer so we could have lingered.

Cinque Terre and Pisa

After seeing photos of Cinque Terre before we left, it was the stop I was looking forward to the most. And it lived up to the hype. Cinque Terre is made up of five small villages along the western coast. They almost look like they are going to fall right off into the ocean.

There is a path that goes between each city that you can hike. Only one section was open that day due to rain, but it provided some stunning views.

Riomaggiore - the eastern-most village.

The start of the "Via dell'Amore" path to the next town.

 

Town of Manarola where we ate lunch. Grant ordered fish and it came as an entire fish cooked whole.

We hit Pisa on the way back to Florence. And we were happy to find that the tower was still leaning. We ate gelato while gypsies tried to sell us watches and cigarettes.

Beautiful close up of the tower by Grant.

Tower and church.

Tower in all its leaning glory. We were going to take the "holding up the tower" picture, but the other 7,000 tourists seemed to be holding it up pretty well already.

Pretty baptista behind church.

I was amazed by what we fit into one day! The downside to the day was coming home carsick and vomiting in the bidet. Apparently that is not their intended purpose. I feel better today.

Valentine's Day in Tuscany

Well, we have done it. How can we ever live up to Valentine's Day in Tuscany? This is just unbeatable.

We started the day walking to the car rental pick up. Along the way, we stopped to get some Italian coffee. I asked the server if he spoke English and he said of course! So, I ordered a latte and Grant ordered coffee. Wow, we really didn't do our research. He brought out hot milk for me and one sip of the strongest espresso you have ever had for Grant. We combined the two to make a coffee milk creation. We now learned that a cappuccino means latte and cafe Americana means coffee. We should be set.

Driving the rental car was quite an experience for Grant. People here are so aggressive with their driving. He did a great job weaving in an out of streets and managed not to hit any pedestrians! We drove through Tuscany to a few small cities. I will let the pictures do the talking.

On our way to pick up the car.

Woo Pig Sooie!

This just looked really "Italian" to us.

Greve in Chianti town square.

Greve in Chianti.

Greve in Chianti.

I really felt as happy as I look!

Wine tasting at Brolio in Chianti.

Sunset in Tuscany.

Brolio Castle. A family actually lives there.

Now we are waiting to go eat our Valentine's Day dinner in Florence.