Rome

On our first night in Rome we did the "Dolce Vita Stroll"down Via del Corso and ending at the Spanish Steps. 

Spanish Steps

National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II... this monument was huge!

We had a picnic amongst lots of Roman ruins that night. We could even see the Colosseum all lit up... so pretty!

the buses in Rome were crazy crowded!

Colosseum

Arch of Constantine

We downloaded and listened to Rick Steves free audio guides for several places in Italy. They were really helpful to know what we were looking at and learn a little of the history. We felt really cool walking around with our splitter and headphones.

Roman Forum

view of the city from the Victor Emmanuel monument

Pantheon

inside the Pantheon

We went to one art museum because Chad wanted to see the "discus thrower" statue. 

After the museum, we went on the "Heart of Rome" walk. We saw the famous Trevi Fountain and ended at the Spanish steps. The fountain and steps were packed with people!

The line to get in the Vatican museum was crazy long. We were expecting this, but were still blown away by the line wrapping around the city walls. It wrapped down several roads and took us about an hour and forty-five minutes to get in. 

Vatican Museum and top of St. Peter's Basilica in the background

inside the Vatican Museum... we saw the Sistine Chapel at the end of the museum tour

inside St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican city

in front of St. Peter's Basilica

On our last night in Rome, we went to the west bank of the Tiber river to Trastevere. 

a Trastevere street

We ate what Chad considers one of his favorite Italy meals (thanks to Rick's recommendation... we would highly reccomend Rick to help plan a trip!). 

Our dessert... a nutella and ricotta calzone. sounds strange, but it's delicious!

And that finally concludes the Italy posts! Only took me a little over 2 weeks :)

Florence

We didn't have much time in Florence, so we hit the highlights. We saw the duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) and toured around inside. It's amazing it was built in 1296. 

Florence was hot! We stopped and got gelato at this place that offered about 50 different gelato flavors.

 This is not the real David statue, but it is a replica of David where the real one stood at one time. We had tickets to the Accademia for the next morning to see Michelangelo's real David statue. It was really amazing. I think Chad and I both enjoyed looking around the Accademia more than we were expecting. 

 Ponte Vecchio bridge

 view from the Ponte Vecchio bridge

 We walked (hiked) up to a garden/overlook- Piazzale Michelangelo- to get a good (and free!) view of the city. 

random Florence street

 and Amy, we found the kind of scooter you need to get when you decide to upgrade... it's a BMW!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is on the west side of Italy, along the Ligurian Sea and is part of the Italian Riviera. It is five little communities and they are just precious and so neat. We took the train from Venice to Cinque Terre. Even though spending hours on a train every other day or so might not be the most fun thing, we really enjoyed looking at Italy out the window as we rode. So beautiful!

You pretty much stay in home-like places. There aren't hotels. This was the view out of our window in Vernazza (town # 4). It overlooked the little main street.

We wasted no time and headed straight to the water as soon as we checked in our room. There aren't sandy beaches, more like pebble,  rocky coast areas. 

We climbed up to the top of Vernazza after dinner on our first night and watched the sun set over the town. 

and of course, got gelato in the town square...

Vernazza's square at night

We got up the next morning to head out to explore the other towns. We took the train and headed all the way south to Riomaggiore (town # 1) first.

We got breakfast in Riomaggiore and sat on a cliff overlooking the sea. 

Can water get any bluer? I love water like this!

In Manarola (town # 2) we did the town walk and then explored the vineyards along the mountainside. This was one of my favorite parts in all of Italy. Although it was a challenge to try to keep my husband from eating/stealing peaches/lemons/grapes/berries from the vines. All of the lemon trees in Cinque Terre were amazing. And we got so much lemon stuff because it was sooooo good.

Manarola

There are trails between each of the towns, so after we took the train all the way South, we hiked back to Vernazza. The hikes were along the sea and you got great views of the towns. 

To get to Corniglia (town # 3) we had to climb a ton of steps. Steps and I didn't get along that great. I had to take so many breaks. We had already been hiking all around and climbing steps in the other towns and when I looked up and saw hundreds of steps up the side of the mountain I was less than thrilled. Chad was awesome to wait with me as much as I needed to stop... which was often :) We probably climbed over 1,000 steps this day and hiked all around. That plus almost 7 months pregnant was a bit challenging at times, but so worth it to see all we saw!

This is Corniglia sitting up on the cliff. We started at sea level and climbed up to the town (on the other side of that cliff are the steps). 

On our hike from Corniglia to Vernazza. (Corniglia in the background)

When we arrived back in our town, we headed straight to jump in the water and soak up the sun. We didn't have beach towels or anything so we would just sit right on the pebbles. Chad created himself a comfy pillow. 

we loved strolling around Vernazza in the evenings

We walked down to the town square and saw them creating this huge design with sand. Later we learned it was an event called "mandala in piazza" but it totally reminded me of rangoli in India. 

The next day we went north to Monterosso (town # 5)

Chad did eat some berries along this trail...

This was where we stayed in Vernazza. I'm standing on the doorstep in the little allyway, then you climb up about two more flights of stairs to our room. 

We loved finding a bench and people watching. All the little old local people were my favorite. They would stroll up and down the main street in Vernazza and then sit and talk for hours. 

If you ever get the chance to go to Cinque Terre, GO! We so enjoyed it!