Rome Day 3: More Things to See

For Day 3 in Rome, our last day, we decided on more sightseeing of historical sights here and there.

First we went to the Spanish Steps, yes, we climbed up to the top of them where the church is. There were lots of people viewing the fountain and the stairs, vendors selling food and flowers, artists selling paintings and caricatures. It was a busy place!


Then we trundled out way over to the Pantheon, which I had been wanting to see the whole trip! There were several cafes outside and all I kept thinking was how cool it would be to say "Yeah, I eat lunch outside of the Pantheon" every day!


We also went back to the Trevi Fountain during the day. It was still crowded, and still had the same carvings and statues, but it was nice to see in the daylight as well as at night.


We had lunch at an unknown plaza with more fountains and statues. The cafe we were in was in the right side of this picture. Behind us was yet another large, brick church with lots of statues.


After lunch, we went to the train station and headed off to Florence for the rest of our Italy trip!

Rome Day 2: Vatican and a Castle!

On Day 2 we went to St. Peter's and the Vatican. We signed up for a "sketchy tour" with someone picking up tourists off the street. It ended up being sanctioned by the museum at the Vatican, but we didn't know that until we were actually sitting in the museum. We did get to skip lots of 2+ hr lines though! In the end it ended up being worth it!

Our first stop on the tour was St. Peter's Square where we got a few pictures of the Basilica. We were able to come back after the tour was over as well:


This picture is taken from the viewpoint that hides all of the rows of columns in the arch on one side of the square. Behind each column in the picture, there are actually three others, but they are perfectly aligned so that you cannot see any of them:


After the tour we went through the museum and the tour guide led us to his favorite pieces and explained a little about each one. It was pretty interesting. Apparently about 75% of the red marble art in the world is located in the Vatican. The end of the museum tour led sdtraight into the Cistine Chapel, which the famous Micheangelo paintings! No photos were allowed inside, but it was beautiful! And large! And likely to give you a neckache if you stared too long. Following that we were led straight into the catacombs of the popes, also no photos.

We finally made it to the inside of St. Peter's Church (or Basilica). Everything was grand inside with elaborate carvings along each pillar and wall. This picture does not do it justice:


After visiting the Vatican, we walked over to an old castle only a few blocks away which used to serve as the retreat for the Pope in case Vatican City and St. Peter's was invaded. We ate lunch there and were joined by a very bold pigeon:


We walked along the river afterward. This is a picture of the Castle at night and the bridge of angels leading to it:


We ate dinner at Navona Plazza where there were many street artists. Including this guy who was making beautiful paintings using spraypaint! We ended up buying one of his prints!


After the long day, we made it back to our hotel and simply passed out.

Foiled!!!

So the blog was blocked in China and I could make no updates or even view the site.

I am back home now but have to leave for work again soon.

I promise to finish the updates on the rest of Italy in the next couple of days!

Rome Day 1: Ruins and Colosseum

So I'm already back in Amsterdam from Italy, but I am going to be a firm believer in "better late than never" on these posts...

Our first stop was in Rome to explore ruins and plazas. I swear Rome has more history within a few blocks than anywhere else I've ever been. They have incorporated parts of ancient and more recent history into current and modern buildings, built the buildings around old crumbling brick walls, made viewing platforms and fenced off the frames and columns remaining from once beautiful temples. It was quite impressive. The first thing we did was wander through preserved Roman ruins from the Roman Golden Age - although some of the buildings had been converted after Christianity was introduced, which is why you see a lot of crosses. The tiny black dots in this first picture next to the triple archway structure are people, to give you some perspective of size.



This was an archway next and in the background the remaining columns from the Temple of Saturn:




And of course, we did the necessary Colosseum. This was as large and as impressive as you can imagine. Even more interesting is that apparently all of the marble that used to line the outside of the structure were taken and used for churches elsewhere in Rome, leaving behind the pitted holes you see on the outside walls, where iron hooks were used to hang the marble panels on:


From the inside it's interesting to see pictures and or browse 'then and now' books to really get an understanding for what was there (seats and statues and friezes) and what is there now. The stadium, even when it was built, had a wooden floor that they would raise animals up through it, and the recreation of that is in this top corner where you can see that fence. Underneath where all of the rows of walls are is where the prisoners, gladiators, animals, etc were, though apparently there are tunnels that lead out of the underground section and the better gladiators lived outside of to Colosseum.



That night we wandered through the city and found a couple of arches, several fountains, churches and a temple. We also stumbled across what used to be an old theater, which was converted from the inside to still be used as a theater. They were selling tickets for a concert inside this building as we walked by:




We had dinner at Navona Piazza (Navona Plaza) as per suggestion of a couple people and watched a mime "steal" someone's bike and imitate various people walking down the street, as well as street artists painting with oil paint, watercolors and spray paint. Our goal was actually to get to the Fountain of Trevi and see it lit up at night. We were lucky (in a way) that they were cleaning trash from the fountain while we were there, so I got to get a couple of pictures with no people blocking the fountain. Even late at night, it was CROWDED. Jackie said this is where you're supposed to throw coins in over your shoulder to ensure you return to Rome, so like good little tourists we did. ;)


And that was the end of day one!

Amsterdam again!

The second and third day in Amsterdam were also fantastic.

On the second day we first had lunch/breakfast at The Pancake House. Dutch pancakes are very different from US ones and stuffed or covered with all sorts of things! Mine had a garlic spiced meat and Andrew's had Apples backed into it and ice cream on top!




Then we took a canal bus to look at various sights in the city. Amsterdam has a general center and then concentric rings and cross sections of canals radiate out from the center. We found the Museum of Science and Technology... which has it's very own PIRATE SHIP!

And Central Station, where you can catch a train to various other parts of Holland... or the airport:



Next to it is a parking garage for bicycles! Everyone rides a bicycle in Amsterdam. No one walks unless it's to get to their bikes, very few people drive a car, some people take the public transportation (which is pretty damn good), and pretty much everyone rides a bike. The parking garage isn't enough! There were bikes everywhere!

We also caught an impromptu breakdancing show!


Afterwards we went back to the place we're staying and made dinner and then ventured back out to The Anne Frank House (or The Anne Frank Huis). They didn't allow any photos inside, but it was really interesting to wander through where she and seven other people had lived for years before someone turned them in, never being able to leave and being completely dependent on others for food and support.

On the third day I wandered for a bit on my own, but then a few of the people Andrew lived with before were coming over for dinner so we prepped and cooked until they arrived. It was a fun night though! A couple from China, a girl from Spain and her Dutch boyfriend all came over to eat with us and hang out. It was nice to have a chill evening.

Day 4 I wandered on my own, bought some souvenirs, went to the center where the museums were but there was over an hour wait to get into any of them by the time I got there, so I just wandered outside and went in search of statues and other things to take pictures of.

That evening we packed up and went to Italy though! Which calls for another post at another time! We've been here 2 days now, starting in Rome and then tonight we'll get on a train to Florence. Exciting!

Amsterdam! Day 1!

I made it here without delay and have done a fair bit of walking around the city. The apartment/condo we're staying in while Andrew's advisor/mentor is "on holiday" is really nice! He and his wife have three small children, so there are lots of bedrooms and childproof open spaces. Lots of European furniture as well (which to those in the US probably makes it look very modern and chic). Last night we made dinner, rather than go out, and sat outside and dined al fresco! Tonight, as long as it's not raining, we plan to do the same thing as all of Andrew's neighbors from the apartment he had before are going to come over for dinner.

It has been chilly here, but we've only gotten rained on a couple of times. The first day I was here, we walked around to see various things. The city is connected by various rings of canals so many of the houses and buildings have water views.

We walked to the old palace, which undergoes construction and preservation in the summer (as do most of the buildings because it's when the weather is the nicest:

Across from it is a statue surrounded by people and pigeons constantly. There's a lot of sitting and people-watching in Amsterdam (and other European cities):


We also did souvenir shopping and walked through a flower market. They had bulbs of dozens of kinds of tulips and a huge variety of exotic plants! Bonzais, birds of paradise, pitcher plants, various cacti, lotuses and all sorts of things.


And we found a delicious cheese shop!



That was all for day 1. Yesterday we did other sightseeing things, but I'll put more up on those later. Tonight we're cooking and just hanging out. Tomorrow I'm probably going to do some sightseeing and wandering the city on my own and then in the evening we leave for Italy!