Firenze

Florence favorites:

(The problem with blogging about things months after they have happened is that you don't really remember much! Anyways, in the interest of getting these up so I don't feel like I am behind in blogging, check out the highlights.)

First things first, we went to the Duomo, which was sweet! We went inside and looked around and then I wanted to go to the top. It was pretty expensive to go to the top, not to mention there was a huge line and you had to walk up all the stairs to the top. I really wanted to go, so Kai decided he would just look around and I could go to the top. He totally missed out! I went to the top, and the view was amazing! I loved it up there, although I looked like a total loser taking pictures of myself. People kept looking at me like, did she really come up here by herself?!

See, the view is awesome! And you can see EVERYTHING!


We also went to see the David, which was expensive, and kind of overrated in my opinion. The actual statue is really cool and when you think about the work that went into making something that big look that good, its impressive. So there are tons of people in the museum to see the David and a bunch of them take pictures. The museum has a few workers in the area who go around and tell people not to take pictures. Of course, I just wanted one, so I took one and then the lady said, 'No Foto!'. I put my camera away and then she ran to the next person and put her hand in front of their camera and yelled, 'No Foto!' Is it bad that I felt like I was entitled to one picture since I paid so much? I didn't have a flash, so it didn't ruin the statue....hmmm...

We went to Piazelle Michelangelo around sunset and it was beautiful!


I thought this apron was funny...

Our hotel recommended this place and it was well worth it. It was a small place that only opens for dinner. Kai had rabbit and I had some chicken dish, but they were both really tastey! The only annoying thing is that some guy from the street came in and started playing his guitar and singing by us. We didn't ask him to come, but he was in there singing...next thing you know, he is asking for tips. I'm sorry, but if I have no choice whether you are singing by me, I don't feel obligated to tip you. Maybe that makes me cheap, but oh well!

After dinner, we were walking around and I had a craving for a crepe...there are tons of sweet shops, but none of them made crepes, tons of them did waffles, but no crepes. Anyways, I was getting tired of walking around and was about to give up looking when we found this gelato shop that made crepes! An asian guy, who spoke italian made my crepe (side note: it seriously trips me out so much when I see asian people who speak other languages (other than english) fluently...like it is their first language!). It was soooo good! Possibly one of the best crepes I had the whole time I was there!

As we left the crepe shop, this guy was putting on a mime show (or he just didn't talk the entire time...not sure if that makes him a mime...). He grabbed this little girl from the crowd and she was totally perfect for the show, not to mention that he was hilarious! Me and Kai were cracking up the whole time. One of his skits is to have people kiss him on the cheek. All the girls do and then when he goes to the guy, the guy says no, but then after lots of prodding, the guy finally agrees. BUT then, the mime man turns his head at the last second and they kiss on the mouth! It is always sooo funny to see the reaction cause people are laughing and the actual guy who gets tricked is sooo disgusted! **Side note: Apparently this trick is pretty common since one of our friends had been the guy who gets kissed on the lips!

After the street performer, we walked some more and found a merry go round! It was in the middle of this big plaza and no one was watching it, but it was still going around. I wanted to get on, but I was too scared, so we took pictures in front of it instead :)

Next day: We hit up the waffle place and Kai got a waffle with gelato, whip cream, and nutella...he was loving his life!

Then we snuck in to this museum (can't remember the name of it) and it was awesome. Basically, we walked in the exit and then realized we were in, so we just went with it and saw half the museum until someone realized we didn't have tickets.

Kai in the entrance to the museum

Then we walked to the Ponte Veccio bridge, sat on the wall and ate some pizza, and watched these kids learn how to row. Their teacher had them paddle in a stationary boat, and then finally let them go out on their own. At first I was jealous and really wanted to try, but then after they were going up and down the river over and over, I was over it :)

That's pretty much it for the Florence adventure...and I am done blogging about Italy!!!

Roma - Part II

Roma...continued...

The Coliseum

Funny story about the picture on the right...there are a bunch of people dressed up like Romans who take pictures with tourists. While I was trying to figure out how to get into the Roman Forum, one of the guys, who looked like Fabio and talked like Arnold said to Kai, "Wanna peechure body?" Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.

The Roman Forum


Kai's favorite place in Rome: Vittorio Emmanuele Building. This place is pretty sweet...you can't sit down on the stairs at all or else the guards will get you...and they are total sticklers.

On the back side of the Vittorio Emannuele is Campodoglio...can't remember any special facts about it, but it was pretty!

The next day, we checked out of our hotel...and Kai was sad :(

We hit up the Spanish Steps, which oddly enough, we thought we had seen on our first day, BUT thankfully, someone corrected us, so we made it there on our last day!

There was a bum who was lying down on the grass when we went to the park...oh wait...thats Kai!

Overlooking the city!

There was a Michael Jackson impersonator down below by the monument who was really good and actually looked a lot like Michael! He got a huge crowd and did a bunch of dances, not to mention that he had his own manager who was massaging his shoulders and coordinating who took pictures with him when he wasn't performing!

Scams: So one of the scams that we saw all over the place was the rose scam. There are lots of Indian people in Rome and many of them are street vendors...for those who aren't selling purses, sunglasses, or knick knacks, there are the rose men. They carry around red roses and give them to tourists. The trick is they start out by trying to give it out, and when people say no, they say, it is a free gift! Then, when you accept, they will follow you around and pester you to give them something for it...needless to say, many tourists get sucked in. Thankfully, we ran into some other people who warned us ahead of time, so we knew to steer clear.

Anyways, affter we watched Michael Jackson perform, we decided to people watch for a bit...and of course, the rose men were working hard. We watched as one guy gave roses to a few girls in a big group. He was very friendly and offered to take a picture for one group, but while he was taking their picture, the other couple left. So once he took the picture, he was on the hunt for the other couple. We watched as he got mad and started asking the other rose men where they went...finally, he spotted them and went straight in to get his money. The woman was a little irritated so after he started hassling her for money, she told him, "You GAVE it to me as a GIFT!". Anyways, he was not having it and was clearly mad, so he grabbed the rose back and she walked off. Immediately after she turned, he dipped the rose in the fountain to get it fresh looking again, put a huge smile on his face, and offered the same rose to the next girl walking past. It was pretty funny to see how fast he changed from happy/nice to mad to happy/nice.

Kai found this hackey sack in our flat in London and brought it everywhere! It drove me crazy!

Last day nutella/banana crepe! It was delicious!

The Pantheon (in the daylight)Our last pizza in Roma

Another stop at the Trevi Fountain

And thats about it for Rome!

Roma - Part I

Disclaimer: So I started this a while back and just never posted...there are a lot more like this, so I'm gonna go through and start posting again (even though we have been back for 3 months now!)

Back to our tour of Italia! Rome was our last stop, and by this time, Kai was pretty exhausted (So was I, but at least I stayed awake longer than he did). Within minutes of getting on the train from Florence, he was out!

After arriving, we decided to head to our hotel to drop off our stuff. I had found a deal at a 4 star hotel (Hotel Campanelle -- definitely recommend it) and since I was sick of being in cheapo hotels, I jumped at the chance. The website had advertised a shuttle service from two different metro stops, so we got off and were waiting for the shuttle (see how happy I look waiting for the shuttle? Or is it because it was warm enough for me to NOT wear my jacket?!)

Funny story about this place...Since there is a definite difference in quality between US and European hotels, I didn't know whether the shuttle was going to be a van, a car, or a bus. For whatever reason, I had my doubts, and since there were no signs noting where to wait for the hotel shuttle, I called the hotel to ask. The guy who answered just told me to wait in the front and the shuttle would be there shortly. After I hung up, I realized that there wasn't really a 'front' of the metro stop, and so I sent Kai across the street to wait, just in case. After about 10 minutes, I was worried we missed it, so I called back again and was asking the guy what kind of shuttle it was, and he was telling me, it was a shuttle. In my mind, I was thinking of some small car coming up with a paper sign on the window, as I was trying to clarify whether the shuttle was a van, or a car, he finally said, it seats 27 passengers, and then I saw it. It was a bus with HUGE lettering all down the side that said, "Hotel Campanelle". Lets just say I kind of felt like an idiot, or the guy at the hotel was thinking it!

Getting to the hotel was a pleasant surprise! It was finally what I expect from hotels! Nice bedding, balcony, clean bathroom, blah, blah, blah. Lets just say I was sooo happy to end our trip in this place.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed back out since there was a lot to see and not much time. Our first stop was the Pantheon, but on our way, we saw this little tricycle car thing! It was soooo little! Yup, there is one wheel in the front and two in the back...

The Pantheon was awesome! It was so cool to see in real life, especially since I learned about it in my freshman humanities 101 class at BYU (but don't ask me to explain what its all about...I don't remember).

After the Pantheon, we headed toward the Trevi Fountain and we ran into this huge monument (I can't remember what it is called now...its been a while). The plaza was really pretty though, it seriously felt kind of magical (especially with the guy/girl in the background)

The Trevi Fountain is seriously AMAZING! We were walking through these little streets, and then all of a sudden, you see it and it is sooo cool (not to mention packed with tourists). The pictures really don't do it justice...

We left the Trevi Fountain and walked around taking pictures with my good old Canon Powershot. This city is seriously so pretty!

The next morning, we woke up early and went onto the roof of our hotel to watch the sunrise, which to be honest, was cool, but took WAY too long, and got a little too cold. BUT, Kai made sure to document it with a picture.

After eating a delicious breakfast at the hotel (not your typical 'continental' breakfast...i'm talking meat, eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt, etc.), we headed toward the Vatican City. On our way, we ran into a lady who asked us if we wanted to bypass a 2 hour line and get into the Vatican Museum with a tour guide. I didn't know how much it would cost to get in normally, so I asked and she quoted me some prices for the Vatican Museum and the She said it was only like 7 Euro more than if you wanted to get in on your own, but for some reason, I just figured we should just stand in the line. We didn't know how much the tickets would cost, so I almost took her word. Thank goodness we didn't. The tickets were WAY cheaper that what she had said they would be, not to mention that the cost to see the Sistine Chapel is included, which she had said was not. We spent the ENTIRE afternoon there. There were so many guided tours going on that we just listened in to different tours as we went along and pretty much got the guided tour for free (yup, we are ghetto). It was pretty cool, although I will admit...I was museumed out WAY before Kai was ready to go.

Top - Left: In the Vatican Gardens / Right: Sculpture Room
Bottom - Left: The Map Hall / Right: The EXIT!!!

Once we made it out, we decided to go back into the city to see the rest of the sites...

Kai outside the city walls

So we finally made it out of the museum and made our way to St Peters Basilica where they were setting up for some big conference where the pope was going to speak. We saw lots of churches while we went around, but this one was by far the nicest. I felt really smart when I went inside and saw this sculpture, Michelangelo's 'Pieta', another thing I remembered from my Humanities 101 class my freshman year!

Michelangelo's 'Pieta'

Me in front of the Basilica

The view from the Basilica

In the main plaza, there is a huge open area and if you stand on this spot, the columns all line up so it looks like there is only one row, but really, there are multiple rows! So, if you look at the picture below, it looks like there is only 1...don't be fooled. Totally made me think of Magic Eye books from elementary!

St Peters in the background...pretty awesome!

The bridge behind me is famous..and really pretty...too bad I can't remember the name :(

There was a lot more stuff we wanted to do, but of course, time ran out...guess we'll just have to take another trip!

Part II to be posted in the near future....hopefully!