Summer Vacation Part B

June 9: Rome
We left Venice to meet up with the AIST group. It was impossible to miss 40 girls traveling together all in blue shirts, so we found them quite easily. After everyone got their luggage and some euros we made our way to Vatican City. It is its own independent state in Italy and is where the Pope lives. We had a tour guide and she took us through part of the Vatican museum. It is so impressive and I swear it never ends! You could just peak into a room and it would be filled with hundreds of statues!

This tour continued onto the Sistine Chapel. This is where Michelangelo painted the ceiling and the last judgement scene. You aren't supposed to take pictures, but my sneaky husband was able to snap a few shots without being yelled at.

This shows the final judgement on the right side

We then walked through St. Peters. This is the largest Christian church on the earth right now and words can not even explain the size and how phenomenal it is! Everything is made of marble or gold and it is gorgeous! Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta (Mary holding Christ) and that is stored here. 

Those baby angels are bigger in size than me! Just to give you an idea 

The Pieta

 Outside their are the Swiss guards and we were able to find the statue where the wind blows west (this is on Angels and Demons).

 We were then dropped of at Piazza del Popolo (People's Square). This is what traveler's to Rome would first see and it was often a place for executions.

 We then walked to the Spanish Steps, and enjoyed people watching! We were waiting for someone to fall into the fountain, one person got pretty close and it looked painful!

We then walked back to the bus, and drove to our hotel. We checked in, ate dinner, and called it a night!

June 10: Rome
We drove into Rome and picked up another tour guide. This is the Circus Maximus and is where they would hold chariot races fitting over 150,000 spectators.

Next stop = Colosseum. This was finished in 80 AD and could fit 50,000 people. We weren't able to go inside but we learned a lot. It was used for all sorts of entertainment. We learned that their used to be a silk covering over the top. Spectators were given tickets and their are appropriate gates where they would have to enter to find their seats. It is held together with iron rods and when the middle ages came and they needed more iron they just took it from here, or when they were building part of St. Peters they just took some of the marble.

This is why Rome is known as the eternal city. There are parts of each building that are thousands of years old! They just took what they needed at that time. Some pictures of the different levels of Rome.

The Arch of Constantine. This is still in contact because Constantine is the one who declared that all of Rome be Christians.

We walked to the Pantheon which was a temple to all the gods. But when Christianity was declared, those were taken out and replaced by saints. This is famous for its dome. It makes the building a perfect circle and it is made out of marble! It is all original and was preserved because it was used as a church. There is an oculus (or hole) in the middle of the ceiling which allows rain and other weather to enter the church, but don't worry the Romans are smart and figured out a drainage system 2000 years ago for that! The tombs of Raphael and Queen Margherita are buried here. Referenced on the movie Angels and Demons.

We walked to the Piazza Navona and say the fountain of Four Rivers (the major rivers on every continent at that time). This is also on Angels and Demons.

We ate lunch in the square and then had some free time to explore the city. We found our way to the Trevi Fountain! Its legend if you toss a coin into the fountain you are ensured to return to Rome, so of course we did that!! But this fountain is incredible and so big! There are details on every inch!

We continued walking and found many obelisks, churches, and a park where we all took a little nap and people watched!

Then it was time to return back to the bus and hotel to eat some dinner and watch the Euro cup! Our last night in Rome! What an incredible city!

Our 1st Married Summer Vacation!!

After being in Springfield, we've seen everything so we decided its time to venture on to bigger and better things . . . nah just kidding, this trip has been planned for almost a year now, because I got an invitation to represent America, with a bunch of other girls from around the country, and play softball against some teams in Italy! So these next few posts may get a little boring or long, and you may actually learn some history if you slept through it like me in school, but if I don't write it down I'll surely forget! (I only seem to remember things from movies, so this will just have to do). Let the adventures begin -

June 5: Chicago 

We woke up bright and early to pack and drive the three hours north to Chicago! This was my first time every going to Chicago so we wanted to have a whole day to just site see and explore the city.   We checked into our hotel and then took the subway to downtown. I was a little nervous, but luckily Lyndon is pretty big and could protect me if there were any creepers on the way so that made it better. We walked around and went to Giordano's (this famous and awesome pizza place) for lunch! We ventured through Millennium Park and saw the bean, outdoor theater, beautiful gardens, and the fountain! 

The library was 9 stories (mom would've been in heaven)! And we rode to the top of Willis Tower (used to be Sears). This is the tallest building in North America! They recently built a ledge where you can stand out there in a glass box basically and pray that it the sumo men don't try to join you and it breaks! But it was awesome!!

Lyndon set up a dinner for us at Chicago's Chicken and Waffles, he knows the owner and they had a business meeting, while I just stuffed myself with delicious waffles and fried chicken (odd I know, but who cares it was good)! 

June 6: Flying Day

We flew from Chicago to Laguardia, NY and then were able to find a taxi to take us to JFK. We checked in and my parents got there about 5 minutes later! I love meeting up with them! Cody also received his mission call this day to - he's going to serve in San Jose, Costa Rica for the next two years!! This was talk of the day and we are so stoked for him! However, it is really weird that he is old enough to be leaving on a mission already, but we all have volunteered to pick him up! Then came the 8 hour over night flight to Venice, Italy! 

June 7: Venice

We arrived in Italy about 11am and took a water taxi to our hotel! Coolest ride ever! Where else do you take a water taxi to get to your hotel (did I mention there is no other way to travel around there but by boat)! 

This is the hospital entrance

Ice-cream boat

Since we are traveling with my dad there is no time to be wasted, we freshened up and headed out to explore the city connected by hundreds of islands! My job assignment was to come up with the list of things to see. So we started out by going to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark Square). Here we explored Saint Mark's Basilica (or church). The pictures won't give the grand idea of how spectacular everything is but I'll try to put in some details. So all the gold color is real gold ($), its all marble, there are hundreds of mosaics, and the four horses on top are from Constantinople from the Fourth Crusade.

the campanile (bell tower)

 views from above . . .

the clock, fed the pigeons, and listened to music and ate some gelato.

We found the grand canal and the famous Rialto Bridge, which was finished in 1181. 

We called it an early night as we were still trying to adjust to the time change and ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed!

June 8: Venice

Other items on my list of things to see were the Ca' Rezzonico (its 4 museums put together, one of them is the building behind the navy guys). It was actually "Navy Day" in Venice, and we actually spotted the president of Italy!

We went through the Doge's Palace (or Duke's). We learned that every Duke had to supply their own furniture, and you were Duke until you died. It is incredible! Their are exquisite marble fireplaces, and paintings that fill entire rooms! 

 This is the bridge of sigh's, it leads from the Duke's palace on the left to the prison on the right

 we peaked into an amazing opera house, had a pizza lunch and chocolate dessert

went on a gondola ride: 

listened to a concert with Vivaldi songs in the church where Vivalidi himself used to live and work. And I just think my parents are cute! 

We also learned that the building next to our hotel is our buddy Elton John's house (the yellow building). He wasn't there this time cause I think he heard my dad was coming, but next time we'll try to get a private concert!