On a vaporetto in Venice.
We met up with a college friend of Nicholas's. She now lives in Germany.
Venice residences often had beautiful flowers.
I was preoccupied with people's shoes for the entire trip. Europeans don't wear athletic/running shoes like Americans do. Most of the guys had on sissy sneakers or sandals of some sort. Most women had on stylish yet highly impractical sandals that I knew just couldn't be comfortable.
I loved how people shopped in Venice. These little old ladies got off a vaporetto with their wheeled shopping bags. They were so cute.
Everything on Venice has to be brought in by boat. Everything. "Il meglio per me" means "the best for me."
A look of San Marco's Piazza from the Correr's Museum. Notice the drains have water around them. That water is coming FROM the drains at this point. San Marco is the lowest point in Venice, so it floods first.
View from the Bridge of Sighs. Prisoners in the Doge's Palace walked along this bridge on their way to their cells. As they took their last look at Venice, they sighed.
View of Murano, which is known for its glass making.
Kinda like a dollar store.
Nic is not allowed to pic.
A pigeon pooped on me! This was the day after I got locked in a bathroom and the day before I had water thrown on me. An inauspicious beginning to a fabulous trip.
About midday, the water in San Marco's Piazza got to its highest point. Many people gave up dodging the water and simply took their shoes off. We figured when in Venice, do as the Venetians do.
The water receded during the afternoon but got high again that night. As we were eating dinner, a siren sounded. I thought it was a tornado siren, but it was a flood warning. Apparently around the full moon the tides get higher and Venice floods. Some say Venice will be completely under water in a century.
View of Venice at sunset.
A fire "truck."
Did I mention everything is transported by boat?
The bell tower (campanile) for San Marco's.
Us in front of San Marco's Basilica. We went to Mass there Sunday morning.
A gondolier.
The requisite picture of me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The leaning is quite noticeable and a little alarming. It started leaning before it was even completed, and each successive builder tried to correct the lean. The Tower is the campanile for the Duomo in Pisa.
Nicholas's requisite picture, but he's pushing the Tower over.
An interesting hair dryer at our hotel in Florence.
View of Florence from Piazzale Michaelangelo. The big dome is the Duomo in Florence. Our hotel was a block from it.
Life imitates art.
Little motorcycles were ubiquitous.
Closeup of the front of the Duomo. I love that this church was built in the 1300s with a big hole awaiting a dome. No one at that time knew how to build a dome, but they were sure someone would figure it out. The dome was added by Brunelleschi in the 1430s.
This massive, intricately carved door is on the SIDE of the Duomo. No surface is left unadorned!
Some of Michaelangelo's unfinished works line the hall leading to David at the Accademia. They're called The Prisoners because they appear locked in their hunks of stone.
Michaelangelo's David. Seeing it in person just doesn't compare to pictures or even reproductions.
A teeny tiny gas station for the teeny tiny European cars.
Mastro Lindo!
Our simple hotel room in Rome. It had been a long day.
Oddly, the toilet's tank was near the ceiling.
Made it to St. Peter's Square!
Nicholas "leans" against the Egyptian obelisk in the middle of St. Peter's Square. Similar obelisks are found throughout Rome.
As you can see, necessity clearly is the mother of invention. It was hot and sunny the morning we were part of Pope Benedict's weekly audience. A couple thousand people gathered in St. Peter's Square to see the Pope and hear his address.
Pope Benedict came through the crowds riding the popemobile. It's hard to judge how close he was to us. Maybe 40 feet?
After the Pope drove through the crowds, he got up on the dais. He's the little white spec.
Because he was so far away, the Vatican thoughtfully had four giant screens showing the Pope.
Vatican stamps can be used in Rome but Roman stamps cannot be used in Vatican City.
Inside St. Peter's Basilica. "Huge" does not begin to describe it.
Sunlight streaming into St. Peter's. The tall dark thing is a bronze canopy over the altar. It reaches seven stories into the air.
Just to give you a sense of scale, here's Nicholas in front of a statue of St. Andrew. Though large, this statue is easily overlooked.
There are no paintings inside - everything is a mosaic.
We climbed about 200 stairs to the bottom of the dome. Here's a look across the dome. The letters are part of the verse "super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam," or "on this rock I shall build my church." All the words Jesus spoke to Peter are written in St. Peter's. Notice the people across the way, above the words.
A look from the bottom of the dome to the floor. Check out the elaborate tiling.
From the bottom of the dome we climbed an additional 300+ stairs to the top of the dome. Here's a look toward the square (which is really more of an oval).
A view of the Vatican Museums from the top of the dome.
On the roof of St. Peter's Basilica.
Going down from the top of the dome. It was a little tight in places. Notice how the walls curve to shape the dome.
Ceiling of the Pantheon. This dome inspired the dome of the U. S. Capitol.
Me in front of the Arch of Constantine
Arco Tito, or Titus's Arch, in the Roman Forum.
The hinges on this door are original. They're about 2000 years old!
View of the Foro Romano.
Another view of the Foro Romano.
At the Colossuem. It could hold 50,000 people.
I wore sandals (practical ones) the day we walked around the dusty Forum. My feet were so dirty. Nicholas said I had authentic Roman feet since theirs must have gotten dirty, too.
Me and our trusty Rick Steve's guidebook in front of the Trevi Fountain. I highly recommend Rick's guidebook!
In Assisi. Assisi was once part of the Roman Empire, and the curved part is what remains of a Roman amphitheater.
Assisi is a medieval town complete with a fortress.
Gorgeous flowers.
This was on a ceiling in what used to be a market in Assisi. It was painted after 1492 because there are turkeys pictured, and turkeys were a New World animal.
The little chapel was given to St. Francis right after his conversion. The big church built around it, Santa Maria degli Angeli, was added in the 1700s. It's rather ironic that St. Francis, who taught simplicity, should have his chapel surrounded by Christianity's seventh largest church.
At Ostia Antica, where you can tour the ruins of an old Roman port town. I love columns!
Ruins at Ostia Antica.
Ruins of a bar in Ostia Antica.
At the train station in Ostia Antica. "Floor negative one, please."
