On the road to Italia!
Getting our first Euros!
Ready to roll
This is going to be a long day... remember the 6 hour time difference?
On the plane to Detroit
There's our plane to Rome!
The Kit - eye mask, comb, socks, earplugs, toothbrush, tooshpaste, chapstick and a pen. Business Class perks.
Champagne during boarding
Settled in, ready to fly. Brittany is deciding on the Filet for dinner.
Nice HUD on the plane.
Oh yeah! Movie time :-)
Sleepy time on the way to Rome
Catching up on sleep before landing in Rome
Our driver! He picked us up from the Fiumicino airport and drove us to the River Palace hotel. Really nice guy!
On our way to the hotel in Rome!
Our European Mula
River Palace Hotel
Arrived at our hotel - The River Palace lobby
Our room at the River Palace
We never did figure out how to use the Bidet. Also, note the “two flush” system for water conservation (on the wall).
Even the sinks in the hotel are marble!
The stairway in the hotel. We were on the 5th floor.
Fountain in the hotel lobby
Entrance to Piazza Popalo
Egyptian Obilesk
Exit from Piazza Popalo
Narrow cobblestone street in Rome
Stopped for our first espresso! Look at this spread!
Fountain in front of the Spanish Steps
Where's Waldo (er...Brittany)?
Where's Waldo (er...Tim)?
Approaching the top of the Spanish Steps
Looking down from the top of the Spanish Steps.
About to rain. Started looking for a cafe to while the time
Found our cafe for lunch and some wine
Our first bottle of wine in Rome! - Cafe at top of Spanish Steps after it started raining.
Fabulous host at the ristorante
One of hundreds of beautiful fountains in Rome
Trevi Fountain, hailed as the most beautiful in Rome
Trevi at night made better by gelatto
Notice the glass floor to illustrate everything was built on top of ancient Rome
The Pantheon which is the oldest structure in Rome
The first ancient thing I touched in Rome!
It's big!
Entrance to Pantheon
Enormous door
Inside Pantheon. Marvelous marble floor
Impossible to capture dome.
Inside the Pantheon
At a mall while waiting for the rain to stop, which it did when the bottle was finished.
The fountains in Rome all were drinkable water!
Breakfast spread. Included in the cost of hotel
Our breakfast spread at the River Palace hotel!
Tickets to see the Vatican City
Our tour guide used this sign asking the tour to “Follow Jesus”
Entrance to another country, Vatican City
Sculpture in the lobby of the museum
Vatican courtyard
Newest art installment, “World within world” - it slowly rotates
The pinecone. Bronze sculpture made in ~4 BC. Oldest artifact in Vatican City.
Guide explaining the Sistine Chapel. Inside the chapel there is no photography and talking must be only at a whisper.
Stairway inside the Vatican Museums
Unusual dipiction of Diana who is usually displayed as a goddess of War.
Incredible artwork on the curved cieling. Appeared to be plaster relief, but was actual paint. Only can tell by the shadows which have nothing to bend around.
Tapestry woven of silk and gold.
Hall of maps. Cieling does contain plaster reliefs and frescos.
Outside of the Vatican City after Sistine chapel and before St Peter's Basicila
Tim drinking from the fountains.
Brittany drinking from the fountains.
St Peter's Basicila
Mosiac that was so detailed to appear as a painting.
Detail shot where you can see the individual tiles
Swiss guards that must remain celibate while performing their three year tour of duty.
Outside St Peter's Basilica. The large screen will show the Pope's audience when he is not in Rome.
Cafe between the morning and afternoon tour
Constantine's Arch outside the Coliseum.
Coliseum in background. We had more gelatto
The two outer walls once surrounded the entire coliseum. The white line shows the former perimeter.
Structure was originally covered by marble. The citizens of Rome removed the marble after the fall of Rome.
To the left you can see the cross where the emperor would watch the gladiators fight. In the far center were the senators seats to the games.
Center circle was covered by a stage. Pulleys brought all manner of beasts into the battle
Stadium held ~70,000 spectators. Rome citizens were granted free seats, but sat at the level according to their station. Closer to the ring meant greater position in society.
Roman forum.
Green door was made of bronze. It takes several hundred years to achieve that color.
Our wonderful tour guide for both the morning and afternoon tour
Dinner at Canova off Piazza Popalo
Found a bead store!
New earrings. Captured an old Fiat. Our driver was in love with them.
Cafe for lunch at the Piazza Navona
Sitting at a cafe in Piazza Navona
Our 1/2 liter of wine
Couple on the end were from Sweden married 8 years. Middle couple from NYC married 16 years. Couple on the end from Pittsburgh married 4 days
Our fabuloous waiters that played with their patrons.
Piazza Navona at night
Entrance to an amazing church.
Another beautiful church we stumbled by.
Entranch to Villa Borghese (A big park)
Fountain where we had wine and cheese and bread.
Yes, this is perfectly legal.
Wandered the park with glasses of wine in our hands
We did not share our wine with the ducks
Taking time to smell the flowers.
Would not move no matter how hard Tim tried to convince it
Our rental car to drive to Tuscany!
This is the winery for our lunch and tour.
Light lunch which consists of three courses
First course is Tuscan cured meats, cheeses and green pepper bruschetta
delicious
Wine #1, French Oak Chardonnay
Pasta al Funghi
Wine #2. Nobile which we enjoyed every day thereafter
Third course, semi fredo capuccino
Wine #3 was very sweet dessert wine. Similar to a Port.
Sugar overload!
I love this Nobile wine!
Topping off the casks
We asked to take a picture of our guide, but she is shy and dragged me in too.
Art made of used oak casks
Our lovely tour guide whom we also bumped into in Montepulciano
Rows of a very sweet wine, aged 10 years in the barrels.
A couple from London that we met on the tour.
A couple from Chicago that we met on the tour.
San Cascio di Bagnoni, the town that our Spa hotel, Fontverde was in.
Now entering Fontverde.
The main building - this is the outdoor seating for the restaurant.
Looking to the right on our balcony.
The morning mist
View from our balcony early in the morning.
The TV in our room had my name!!!
The Fonteverde restaurant - Britt had the Swordfish, Tim had the Gnocchi.
Our room is the 2nd window from the right on the orange building.
The amazing BioAquam pool
The Bioaquam pool had a dozen different areas with massage jets in different configurations.
One jet for the feet, lots of little jets for the body - this is an underwater lounge/massage chair.
Feet for Angie, while getting a massage.
Brittany's favorite massage area, which she labeled “The Superman”. A massive set of jets in the middle kept you floating almost on top of the water.
The Superman
The Eutruscan Circuit was a series of saunas and a turkish bath - incredibly refreshing and relaxing
The relaxation lounge, which we used after the Turkish Bath. We grabbed some green tea and an apple
We ate breakfast on our balcony each morning. Brittany kept a journal of our trip.
Look at all that foooooood. Fonteverde thought there were 4 people since we requested 4 espresso's, so they sent us 4 breakfasts.
We begin our morning walk
An Italian and a Brit joined us on the walk
Another shot of San Cascio di Bagnoni
And so begins our hike up the hill of Montepulciano - an amazing medieval town with an abby at the top.
Life imitates art
The abby at the top of the hill. Our wine tour guide actually lives here!
At the top of Montepulciano
What is this...Italian? I can't read this!
Heading to the farm (Il Poggio) for some horseback riding
This is the last known location of Brittany's hoodie... which she lost somewhere in the Tuscan countryside
The view from Il Poggio... The town at the top of the hill is Radicofani
Brittany fondeling the Olives
Whoa... it's bright.
See mom, we take pictures without sunglasses.
Our guide on the horseback ride. He did not speak much English.
Britt's horse was a slow walker, so she was always a ways behind.
Giddyup!
Our very own spaghetti western!
Tim's horse loved him very much
