Rome

If these pictures don't make you want to go to Rome I don't know what will. How beautiful is this picture of the Colosseum at sunset (minus the white mini-van)? If other people would just get out of my way... :)
Our first day in Rome, we didn't get a whole lot done because our hotel was so far out of the city . We missed the first shuttle from our hotel and we barely got on the second. They dropped us off right down the street from the Colosseum. So we walked to the nearest Metro stop (Colosseo) and rode the Metro to our first, and by this time (as we were starving), our most desired destination Hard Rock Cafe:Rome. These pictures at sunset were right after dinner. The one on the left is the Roman Forum. We snapped some pictures and went back to our drop off spot to take the shuttle back to the hotel. We missed the shuttle that we had reserved, so we went to a cafe to kill time in hopes there would be room on the next shuttle. The cafe was across from this beautiful building (right). We thought that it was very old, but as it turns out, it was built in the 1800s. The later shuttle was fully booked, so we, along with a nice couple from Minnesota who were also left stranded, took a cab to the hotel. It actually ended up being cheaper and more convenient. We agreed to meet the next morning to get an early start on the day. Craig and Kara remained our "cab buddies" for the rest of the trip.
We had a full day planned. First stop: Vatican City. It was cloudy when we woke up. Optimistically, we both decided that it would burn off to give us a beautiful day. We were wrong. It had begun to sprinkle by the time we got to the Vatican. The fountain (top, left) in in St. Peter's Square. We walked around for a while and then made our way to the most important part of our Vatican experience the Sistine Chapel. We waited in line, in the rain for about 45 min to an hour. During which time we witnessed an car/motorcycle accident from beginning to end. We went through part of the Vatican museum and then to the Chapel. The 2 pictures on the right are of some of the hallways leading to the Chapel.
True to all the pictures, it was amazing. This too was different than I expected. I guess I thought that the only paintings were on the ceiling. Obviously that's not true. Although there was more than I thought, the individual "scenes" were smaller than I expected. It was still incredible. Of course you weren't allowed to take pictures, but Jennifer did manage to take a picture of what must be an extremely accurate replica being that she would never break the rules. The picture above, left is inside the Vatican. The picture to the right is the Holy Door, used only during holy years.
Our next stop was the Spanish Steps. I include the picture only to illustrate how disappointing it was. There was scaffolding in front of the church. I understand the need for restoration, but does it really have to be on our vacation?
Then we went to to Triton's Fountain (left) on our way to the Trevi Fountain (right). Trevi Fountain was really cool. It was huge and very beautiful.
We tried to go to Loyola. A church with renowned artwork on the ceiling, but it was closed for riposo (kind of like siesta for 2-3 hours). So we just skipped it and walked 1/2 a block to the Pantheon. Ancient Rome's best preserved building was a welcome shelter from the ever increasing downpour of rain. This picture (right) is the inside of the dome. It's called the oculus. It's completely open so it was actually raining inside the Pantheon.
After the Pantheon we walked about another 1/2 block to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, one of Rome's only gothic churches. We were in desperate need of a break so we went back to our favorite cafe (from the night before) and had a coffee.
We then started our tour of the ancient city center. Our first stop was the Mamertine prison where Paul and Peter are supposed to have been imprisoned. The picture on the right is inside the small cell.
We continued through the ruins. The picture with the Arch is kind of the "entrance" to the Ancient City. The picture of the building with the columns is the Temple of Jupiter I think and then of course there's the Colosseum. We got there about 20 minutes after it closed so we just walked around the outside and peeked though the bars at the inside.
Too bad it was raining, but as you can see, we didn't let it dampen our spirits. It made for several funny memories (haggling for a 2 euro umbrella, and Jennifer squishing all the way across Rome among others).

Weekend Visitors

Our high school friend Michelle (Ford) Dawson and her husband Henry came up to visit several weekends ago. They are living in Florence for a year doing missions. We decided to stick around the area and just take it easy. We took them to some castle ruins you can see from our house. We had never actually been there either, so it was a new experience for all. We had to drive up a very narrow, semi-paved road, with a steep drop off on one side. We then walked a short way to the castle and explored. We think someone is rebuilding or trying to preserve what's left because there were some parts that were clearly new. On the way back down the mountain, this black beast was coming toward us from another trail. We all thought it was a bear at first, but as it continued to approach, we decided it was a very big dog (except for Michelle who was still convinced it was a bear :) ).
Then we went to the BX to get some lunch. This may have been the highlight of the weekend for Henry and Michelle being that they don't have access to any American food.
Then we made the 20 minute drive up the mountain to Piancavallo ski resort. We didn't do a whole lot. We just walked around and enjoyed seeing the snow.
On the way back to our house, we took them to an enchanting mountain village called Poffabro. This particular afternoon it was especially enchanting. It was eerily desolate and still. As we walked through the town, we could hear bells in the distance through the woods. The one man we did see seemed to be walking into the woods toward the sound of the bells. It was kind of creepy. This is a gypsy sign on a door in the town. It's code to tell other gypsies what kind of hand out they got at that house.
For dinner we went to Bierangel. It's a German restaurant we had heard of but never been to. It was pretty good. Henry loves German food and got a 3 meat plate with sauerkraut. Mike had some ribs, and 1 liter of Coke. Michelle had a salad, and I had some weird cheese stuff.

Paris

Unfortunately, you won't see Mike in any of these pictures, because his passport failed to come in time.
Jennifer flew into Paris where I planned to meet her on Saturday evening. Because it was our first trip to the airport Mike and I didn't exactly know where we were going and ended up missing the boarding time by 3 minutes. They were unwilling to us any favors, so I had to book another flight for the next evening. This fiasco gave poor Jennifer 2 days in Paris ALONE, and me less than 24 hours in Paris. However, we definitely made the most of the time we had.
This was the Grand Arch about 1/2 a block from our hotel. It actually functions as an office building. The thing you see on the inside of the arch is actually the elevator. You have to ride in a clear tube. No thank you!
Our first official stop was the Louvre. Because you could probably spend a week in there and still not see everything, our points of interest were Mona Lisa, The Virgin of the Rocks, Venus di Milo, and the Code of Hammurabi.

Our next destination was the Eiffel Tower. It was really cool. It was much more intricate and ornate than I thought. We didn't go up, because we just didn't have enough time to wait in line.

Napoleon had the Arc D'Triomphe built to commemorate his victories. We basically just stuck our head out of the subway, snapped a picture, and moved on.

Being a huge fan of the recent movie "Moulin Rouge" I was excited to see the infamous brothel/dance hall. Different than I expected, it was still cool.

Just one subway stop away from the Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre area we walked up the steps to Sacre Coeur. It is a beautiful church that overlooks the entire city. The picture on the right is Notre Dame from Sacre Coeur. The was the only time I got to see it :(.

We had lunch in a cafe about a block from the Eiffel
Tower. We had an interesting experience with a VERY friendly waiter. Jennifer has those pictures on her camera, so I'll add them and the story when I get them.

My Parisian experience was unavoidably short and sweet, and I look forward to going back to the city. Hopefully next time I'll be able to bring my husband. (But if I can't, you're more than welcome to join me again Jennifer!)