When in Rome...

How many times did I say that in the last week? Countless. Anyway, I got back from the Tour de Italia Wednesday night. It was truly fabulous. Italy is pretty much my favorite country. It's so romantic, just naturally. I love the tall buildings that are so close together that they create narrow walkways below. And as you look up, you'll see loads of open shutters and people's clean laundry suspended on clotheslines 20 feet above. It's also very interesting to see how the old is mixed in with the new. It seems very strange to look down at the end of a busy street and see the Colosseum sitting there in the midst of the busyness.
I'll start with my journal entry from the first night in Rome.

Saturday April 8th

We arrived at our hotel in Rome around 6:30 this evening. On the way to our hotel, we passed the colosseum, which is only 1/4 mile away! After checking in, we went for a walk down to the old city...and it was just amazing to view the sites...my senses were overwhelmed. The way I felt while standing there encircled by structures that are thousands of years old is truly indescribable. I cannot even comprehend what my eyes have just seen. Ancient is an adjective that could never even approach doing justice to this place. I can't imagine how they built such GINORMOUS edifices with these intricately detailed carvings SO LONG ago. It's unfortunate that modern architecture lacks much of the beauty and character that ancient architecture provides.
We went for dinner and had fresh, homemade pasta-so good! We followed that with some super yummy gelato. Gelato is truly a gift from God and I'm sure that in Heaven I will just sit and eat gelato all day every Thursday. I'm really excited about my diet of pizza, pasta, and gelato for the next 4 days. No good for my bod, but REALLY good for my soul!

So that was our first evening in Rome. Here are a couple of pictures from the old city and our first gelato with flat Stanley :-)

Sunday was the only sunny day we had and I was so happy! We walked a lot. We went down to Palatine Hill, which is a hill covered with the remains of the first palace. We get our word 'palace' from Palatine. Then did a tour of the colosseum. It's so huge I can't even explain it! It's kind of like the Eiffel Tower-way bigger than you could possibly imagine without seeing it in real life. It's amazing how much of it remains to this day (it was constructed in AD 72-80). Walked around a lot more and visited some monuments, fountains, statues, piazzas, etc. We also did some shopping of course! As Darren always says, "Women be shoppin." Indeed.
Next day we went to the Vatican City and into the Sistine Chapel. It was truly amazing. I wish I could describe it, but of course I can't!! It's just incredible how the artwork remains to this day. So beautiful. The ceiling is completely covered in the murals...with no breaks at all. That in itself just floors me. And at the very center is The Creation painting...which I so badly wanted to photo, but they asked us not to speak or take photographs. However, there were only about 5 of us that actually had enough respect to follow those rules. I was appalled at the people and extremely frustrated by the fact that they simply could not just their mouths and turn off their cameras so that some of us could experience silence in that incredible place. It was also very packed, which is always annoying, but expected. I wish I could have spent more time inside viewing the various artwork throughout.
Monday night we headed to Pisa and stayed overnight there. The leaning tower was beautiful! I couldn't believe how bright and clean it looked, seeing as how the building of it began over 800 years ago (and carried on for 200 years). I thought it would look dirtier and more blackened, like many of the other old buildings I have seen, but no. Maybe they cleaned it recently. Our view from dinner that night was great; we ate outside at the first restaurant on the road near the tower. I probably never thought I would have a meal while staring at the leaning tower of Pisa. Pretty cool. I also hadn't realized that the tower was built next to a cathedral. It was really gorgeous altogether.
(I am trying to add pictures, but it won't let me for some reason. So if you click here, hopefully it will take you to the page with the pics and you can view them as a slideshow...but there are a lot of pics because it's the combination of my pics and jody's pics together.)
The next day we went to Florence. I loved Florence. It's a really beautiful city full of gorgeous architecture and history. I don't remember the names of anything there though because they're all Italian and without my little guide book, I am lost. The cathedral there has to be one of the most impressive I've seen. We didn't go in, but the outside of it was amazing and quite different than any I have seen. I also loved the bridge across the river, which reminded me somewhat of the Rialto bridge in Venice. They are both full of shops and are very interesting sites. I'm a big fan of bridges anyway, but when they have loads of shops (especially jewellery shops with lots of sparkly things!!) they're even cooler. This bridge was particularly amazing because of the way that there were these buildings basically hanging over the side of the bridge...I can't really describe it at all, look at the pictures.
Went back to Pisa and stayed over there that night...and back to Rome the next day to fly out. It was a great trip and I was incredibly blessed to have been invited to join this wonderful family.