Italy!

We're back. 897 pictures later.

Somehow in the 4 days that we've been home our kitchen has become this messy stressful monster that I avoid. Because, you see, when I look upon it I feel like crying. The kitchen is that dirty. Like, lose hope, consider drinking, procrastinate until you can't any longer and then finally break down and clean it, dirty.

We're only two people, I still can't understand how it's that bad. Jet lag, I know has been a contributing factor. We come home from work and immediately want to sleep. The fact that Brett caught a nasty cold a day before we left Rome and he's been fighting it ever since he came back. I'm afraid it's winning. Antibiotics might be needed. One way or another...the kitchen needs cleaning. But I can't quite find the inner strength to tackle it just yet...so I'm blogging instead.

The pictures uploaded backwards. Start at the bottom, with Milan and work your way up. (No I don't want to rearrange them - have you tried doing that on blogger?!)

So we'll begin with Rome...which was the last city we visited.

Rome is huge. Surprisingly Rome is not Italy's biggest city. It's the capitol but the largest city with the most people is Milan. I learned that among other fun facts on our bus tour. From Anna - our tour guide. Really she deserves a post of her own - but just picture a spunky British woman with a quirky laugh and that's Anna in a nutshell.

Rome was great in that there are so many ancient ruins to visit. We were there for three days so we saw a lot. We saw the Pantheon - which is still standing after about 1900 years. The dome is made of concrete and it's still standing. Scientists are currently studying what exactly about the concrete is so indestructible, because our concrete used today barely lasts 20 years, let alone 1900.

We saw the Forum which are the ruins of Caesar Augustus' Palace. Yes, the same Caesar Augustus from the Nativity Story, the one that declared the tax that sent Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. I asked. At the time it felt like a stupid question but it turns out it wasn't. Julius Caesar's remains are in the forum as well. People still leave flowers too.

We saw the Trevi Fountain, below. Its huge and its crowded. I'm not complaining, it was beautiful - we threw coins in, too. We only threw one though. The way to do it is that you throw three coins. The first is wishing that you return to Rome. The second is that you wish to fall in love, and the third is to wish to be married.

I'm sure we were told who sculpted it but at the time we were winding down from an extensive trip around Italy and discussing many pieces of art.

The Trevi Fountain

And of course, we saw the Colosseum. This was Brett's favorite. In anticipation of this trip, he didn't watch Angels and Demons, he didn't watch Under the Tuscan Sun and he didn't watch Life is Beautiful.

He watched Gladiator. Even though our guide informed us that the movie wasn't even filmed anywhere near the actual Colosseum and the storyline was incorrect, and he told us that the gladiators and the animals never rose from beneath the arena, I know he was playing the movie in his head when he walked in there.

The Colosseum. Which in fact, isn't it's actual name. It's called the Flavian Amphitheater. But because of a large statue that used to stand outside that was referred to as the Colossus, in Latin "Colosseo," it got that nickname. (See, I listened.)

Brett feels the need to represent Boise State no matter where he is. He really liked the idea of being almost halfway around the world, ands still showing his team pride.

He's got to represent Boise.

We took a tour of the Vatican while we were in Rome. In all reality you need about 3 days to tour all that the Vatican has to see. There were so many statues, frescos, tapestries, you name it.

We saw the Sistine Chapel...THE Sistine Chapel. The pictures you see in history books, art books, all over pop culture...even on Arrested Development - we saw them. You can't take pictures though. The cleaning of the Sistine Chapel was so expensive an outside company had to come in and help. Now, the outside company has all the pictures rights. So if you want a picture (without a mean Italian guard shoving your camera saying "NO PHOTO!!"), you have to buy an extremely expensive one at one of their many stands.

There are many other things you can take pictures of at the Vatican, which we did, but since I took exactly 897 pictures...I had to pick and choose.

St. Peter's Square. The thing in my ear is called a "Whisper," it's how we could hear our guide, Francesco, over the crowd. We wore one every day while we were there.

You can actually pay to climb to the top of St. Peter's Basilica. It's all enclosed all the way up and gets kind of tight in places. It wouldn't recommend it to anyone who gets claustrophobic. Once you're up top you get an amazing view of all of Rome. My fear of heights got to me a little bit, but it wasn't nearly as bad as climbing the bell tower in Florence. (I had a small hyperventilation issue.) The Vatican, throughout the day became more and more crowded. We had to wait in a very long line, so we could get in another long line to climb the long way up to the top of the Basilica. But it was a very cool view.

Top of St. Peter's Basilica with a view of St. Peter's Square.

On the way to Rome, we had a quick stop in a town called San Gimignano. It's a preserved medieval town in Tuscany and it was gorgeous. It was my favorite city. We only spent a couple of hours there but everywhere you looked was a beautiful view. I really wanted to stay longer but he had a schedule to keep.

Gladiator Helmet. We saw this in a shop in San Gimignano.

An example of the view I was talking about. How would it be to wake up every morning and have this outside your window?

Again, the photos are out of order, we actually saw Pisa before Florence but regardless, here are the pictures. Pisa was a small stop but that's because you can see everything within a couple of hours. It's literally just a picture stop. I really thought the tower was taller but, it was still impressive. Its been leaning for a long time.

Brett on the top of the leaning tower of Pisa. Brett and his cousin Shane went up top.

The Famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. No - we didn't do any leaning or holding-it-up pictures.

Before San Gimignano and Rome, we were in Florence for two days. We really liked Florence. Everything is centrally located and easy to find. You can walk to what you need easily and they have a really good restaurant. Not to mention the pizza we had there. It was delicious

and HUGE. I had a huge calzone that I just couldn't finish and the waitress was ashamed.

The delicious pizza margherita, pesto and calzone. Everything we had in Florence turned out to be delicious.

Before Florence we stayed in Lucca and saw Pisa. In Lucca we had an oil tasting, which required a lot more thought than you would think. I guess I lack the culinary desire...to me it was just drinking oil in small amounts. Oil with slight aftertastes. Apparently one had green grass and almond. One burned on the way down. It was the only one I could separate from the rest. I do have pictures, but you'll just have to come over and see them. There were just too many to choose from.

We also saw Cinque Terre, which are five towns, or "Five Lands" located on the Italian Riviera. We saw two of the five towns, Monterosso al Mare and Riomaggiore. The beaches were beautiful, but private. Brett still snuck down and put his hand in the water. in Riomaggiore there is a trail you can walk with a loved one. The legend is that if you bring a lock and the two of you leave your lock on the road of love, it will seal your love forever. Nobody had any locks and it wouldn't surprise me if they had locks for sale for insane amounts on each end but we didn't look for any of them.

There was a way to climb down on the rocks and get down by the water. It was a hot day so Brett dunked his head in the Mediterranean. He said it was really salty.

Monterosso al Mare in Cinque Terre. It was very beautiful.

Brett and I overlooking the Mediterranean.

Before Cinque Terre we saw Venice. Venice was beautiful and filled with so many cool things. The canals were filled with boats and gondolas. We took a tour of the Doges palace and St. Mark's square. We couldn't go inside St. Mark's cathedral because they were having a service but it's supposed to be beautiful inside.

We went on a gondola ride. Our guy didn't sing but still the scenery was amazing.

Brett and I in Venice, overlooking a canal.

On the Gondola

The first night was spent in Milan. We flew in early and even though we were told to fight the sleepiness to fight jet lag, we still took a long nap. The rest of our group came in the evening and there were a few of us who wanted to go into Milan and see the city. We didn't have a lot of time but we saw the Stazione Centrale, which is the train station but even that was really elaborate. The train to go see the duomo was down though so we had to take a bus to the duomo.

It was really amazing. In the day you can pay to go inside and climb up top. The square around there was really cool too. We had pizza and gelato for the first time there. We had no idea but we ate at a place called Spizzico which is like their gas station version of pizza. We thought it was good, but it got so much better after that.

The Duomo in Milan.

We saw so many famous pieces of art, The David, The Birth of Venus, and so many famous churches and cathedrals. Honestly I need to sit down and go over our schedule again because I can't remember all of them. We packed so much into the 7 days that we were there, that we were usually on the bus by 7:30 a.m. and fast asleep by 9 p.m. It was amazing though.

The food was delicious too. Don't get me wrong, there were some things we tried that we didn't care for, but most everything we tried was good. We had amazing lasagna in Venice, really good Pesto in Florence, Pizza everywhere was usually good, and various pastas all over.

And then there was the gelato. Gelato is so much better than ice cream here. There were some places that had better gelato than others but still, everything was amazing. We tried to have it as much as possible, once and sometimes twice a day. You really can't get enough.

There are so many details I'm forgetting but again, we saw so much and were able to experience so much that I'm sure it'll probably require at least another post. It was really an unforgettable trip.