The view from our hotel room in Rome.
The famous Trevi Fountain
Detail of Trevi Fountain
A street in Rome
A tiny "lift" in our hotel -- Stelian barely fits inside! (oh, and that's just water on his shirt...).
The awe-inspiring Colosseum
The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum
The Temple of Saturn
Temple of Saturn
In the Roman Forum
Roman Forum from Palatine Hill
The Arch of Titus
Crowds at the Colosseum -- pretty intimidating, but the lines are actually way worse than they look.
Exterior of the Colosseum
Inside the Colosseum. What you see in the middle are the tunnels that were used to move around animals, gladiators, etc. and which used to be covered by a stadium floor of some kind.
Seats in which Romans would have sat to watch gladiators fight each other and an assortment of wild animals.
The Arch of Constantine
Trajan's Column
An impressive monument to Italy's first king, Victor Emmanuel
Another view of Trajan
The oculus of the Roman Pantheon -- it is a large building, and this is the only light source. When it rains, as it did the day we visited, the marble floor simply gets wet, but is slightly slanted to allow the water to drain out.
Stelian outside the Pantheon
An alley in Rome
A church in Rome (San Ignazio) which offers an interesting solution to the problem of not having enough money to build a really nice dome: just get a good painter to fake one on a flat ceiling. Looks pretty convincing, no? (This is the view from the pews).
San Ignazio again -- from the front of the church, the fake dome looks askew and unconvincing (but that's okay -- the choir and priests are probably in on the secret).
Trevi Fountain by night
Another church we admired...not much from the outside, but beautiful on the inside. We walked in and saw a wedding taking place, with many random tourists looking on.
Rome by night
Sculpture at the Vatican Museum
One of the popes seemed to have a thing for sculptures of animals. Of course, this is right up Stelian's alley as well.
The Octagonal courtyard in the Vatican.
Listening through earbuds during our guided tour of the Vatican Museums.
Nice tile mosaics
The famous and beautiful Hall of Maps
Many tourists admiring the Hall of Maps and getting shots of it. This is your last photo op before the Sistine Chapel, where taking pictures is not allowed.
Seeing crazy drivers and park jobs is part of the Rome experience. This guy's blocking half the street.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa! It really is leaning...in an alarming way.
The beautiful hills of Tuscany
A friendly horse at the place we stayed (which was a vinyard).
Not a bad view
San Gimignano -- the closest town to where we stayed in Tuscany. It is very well-preserved, and if it weren't for all the tourists with high-tech gadgets, you wouldn't know what century it was.
One of San Gimignano's 14 towers (built to protect the city from invasion).
An old well in San Gimignano
View from a tower in San Gimignano.
Towers of San Gimignano.
Grapes, with San Gimignano in the distance.
A spooky cemetary that we stumbled upon, which contained old gravestones and a snake that gave me a fright.
Florence -- the impressive Duomo (main cathedral)
Biblical scenes on a church door in Florence
Another view of the Duomo
A brass statue in Florence whose nose gets rubbed for good luck (that's why he's so shiny).
A bridge in Florence
Beautiful surroundings
The Ponte Vecchio ("old bridge") in Florence
A sidestreet in Florence
Sculptures in a square in Florence.
Michelangelo's David (this is not the real deal, but a very good copy by another artist -- the real one sits in a gallery that was closed the day we visited).
Church of Santa Croce in Florence
Amsterdam. They have very scary stairs...very narrow, and very steep. This is in our hotel. We were on the fourth floor, but luckily, they also had an elevator, which we felt more comfortable using.
Houseboats on a canal in Amsterdam.
A street in Amsterdam
One of many beautiful canal views around Amsterdam.
A variety of birds live along and in the canals.
Check out that bird's feet...
The tall, narrow canal houses typical of Amsterdam. Because of the aforementioned stairs that these houses contain, each one is fitted with a hook at the top so that large pieces of furniture can be hauled in through windows (which can be removed from their frames) rather than moved up the stairs.
A bridge in Amsterdam's beautiful Vondelpark
A bike "parking lot" at Centraal Station in Amsterdam. Yes, there really is that much biking there. The dedicated bike paths seem like a great way to get around!
We arrived in Paris on a beautiful evening
The Notre-Dame Cathedral
Paris' Pantheon
In the Jardin du Luxembourg
In Paris -- we pretty much walked everywhere, which meant we were on our feet for 12 or more hours a day, stopping for meals of course. Great way to see the city in a short time.
Paris -- lights starting to come on at night
Statue in a square often used for student protests and demonstrations
A beautiful sunset over the Seine
At the Louvre
Venus de Milo
Bacchus, God of Wine
Child and Goose
The big attraction for many -- it's difficult to get close because of the crowds.
I love this statue (in the Jardin de Tuileries outside the Louvre).
The Parisian lifestyle inspires me to shoot in black and white.
The next Prada model?
I can't stop with the black and white -- here, an artistic shot of a pigeon in the park.
Another view of the spider
Old and new forms of art, side by side on the Seine (the Musee d'Orsay and more modern graffiti)
Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris.
Detail of the facade of Notre-Dame
One of the entranceways
The interior of Notre Dame -- the church can hold 10,000 faithful.
Stained glass inside the church
Once we had climbed 300 or so steps up one of the towers of Notre-Dame, we had a fantastic view of Paris.
Gargoyles on the church's tower -- could not get enough of these guys.
Quasimodo's headquarters: the bell tower.
The Eiffel tower stands out from its surroundings.
The tower that we climbed.
The Eiffel tower close-up
The Eiffel tower even more close-up
At the Louvre again (this time during an evening bike tour of Paris).
The Eiffel Tower by night
The Arc de Triomphe
Last night in Paris...sigh. We know we'll be back eventually, though!
