As promised, thank you Jordan for being so impatient, here are pictures of Rome! Because my sister is so impatient, I am posting more pictures than you'll know what to do with! As Kyle took 500... I won't be posting 500, but I had such a hard time narrowing it down that I'm just posting my favorites; I have no idea how many there are, you'll see once they're all posted! Here goes!
Saturday we walked to the Church Trinita dei Monti, in the northeast corner of Rome
Outside Trinita dei Monti, and the top of the Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps, absolutely teeming with people
Piazza del Popolo with the twin churches
Spectacular View of the Piazza del Popolo, Plaza of the People
The altar in Santa Maria del Popolo, most unfortunately, the Chigi Chapel, which was designed by Bernini was under restoration, so I don't have pictures of it :-(
The Triton Fountain in Piazza Barberini...Bernini, Piazza Barberini was very close to our hotel, so we often strolled down to have lunch or dinner here!
The spectacular Ecstasy of St Theresa by Bernini, thanks to Kyle for the artistry of this photo
The church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, the small, little known, out of the way church that houses St Theresa's Ecstasy
On Sunday, we walked to the center of Rome. Here's we're at the Piazza Navona. Representation of the Rio della Plata (South America), part of the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini
Representation of the Danube (Europe) of the Fountain of the Four Rivers
Representation of the Ganges (Asia)
Finally, representation of the Nile (Africa), Bernini carved him with his face covered because he didn't know where the head of his own river was!
Now we've moved onto the Pantheon, unfortunately it was undergoing some restoration as well, but look how awesome it is, possibly one of our best lunches we enjoyed was at a little restaurant right outside of this fantastic building; the oldest Christian church in Rome
The world famous Oculus or Demon's Hole at the exact center of the ceiling in the Pantheon.
Raphael's tomb in the Pantheon
One of Kyle's many panoramic photos of the inside of the Pantheon.
Moving on again, we're now at the Trevi Fountain, where you're supposed to throw coins in over your shoulder, everyone's got their theories as to why... I just did it for fun!
The panorama feature on our camera gives the scene a little bit of a fisheye effect, but I kind of like that.
Yes! we were actually in Rome!
For Monday, we booked a day trip to Pompeii and had to go through Naples, which was a crap hole, but the Bay of Naples leads to the Isle of Capri, I've only been there once and we didn't get a chance to go this trip... it was Capri or Pompeii... luxury at the beach or history in the ruins? Well, we consider ourselves intellectual individuals... and it was going to rain that day
Vesuvio!! Translated from Oscan, ancient language of Pompeii and Naples, it means Mountain that vomits Fire or something like that. This and the next photo are the only shots we got of Vesuvius unfortunately, before it was swallowed up by clouds.
The mountain used to be almost twice as high before the eruption in 79 AD ripped it apart so badly that it now has one crater (the right side mound) and the rest that forms a gigantic valley that you see in the photos, the left mound is just what's left of the original mountain.
Before entering the ruins, we entered New Pompeii for lunch, there, there was a monument to the victims of September 11. Pretty respectful, eh? It was a pleasant surprise.
Finally entering the ruins of Pompeii. That angry looking person on the right is not angry, that's her thoughtful face
The gymnasium in Pompeii where the gladiators trained. Little bit of trivia: the dust, ash, and very small stones that covered Pompeii preserved the city so well that all the gladiator equipment found under the 20 some feet of debris are the only accurate models of gladiator equipment that exist. The equipment in the movie Gladiator (Russell Crowe, you know the one) is modeled from that found in Pompeii!
The theater where most people spent their time because of a retractable roof!
Ancient graffiti!!! How cool is that??
The next several photos will be of ruins, this post is long enough already, and we're only half way done, soooo, for now, the rest of the Pompeii pictures, and Rome part deux tomorrow!
So, that's about half, and my computer is getting a little glitchy over how large this post is, so, as I said, Roma part II tomorrow!! Ciao!
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