Rome, Italy

After an incredibly long flight (14hrs not direct) with not much sleeping involved we took a taxi to our first hotel. The views arriving in the city were breathtaking! As we get out of our cab we walk straight into this square which includes a fountain & the Pantheon! It was seriously such a good first impression being right in the middle of everything. Our lovely pink hotel was called Albergo del Senato. We quickly changed & set down our luggage to head out into this gorgeous city. 

The bottom picture on the left was taken from our hotel window & the bottom right is the view from the roof.. Pretty incredible.

After a quick tour thru the Pantheon we headed on our way to the Colosseum. It was an amazing walk with plenty of cool buildings & charm.

The colosseum did not disappoint. It was so amazing to see this huge old structure in the middle of a functioning city. I have always loved roman gladiator stories & history which made me even more excited to see the colosseum. It's crazy to think of what really barbaric things used to happen in this place. The Arc de Constantine & Roman Forum were impressive as well. It really is amazing these things are still standing!

On our way back to our hotel we decided to go up top of the Pizza Venezia (white bldg.) because we heard it was the best view of Rome. It surely was.

Back at the hotel our concierge gave us a recommendation for dinner. It worked out perfect since it was right by the Trevi fountain which we wanted to see. You could hear the water long before you could actually see it.

We heard it was prettier at night so we didn't stay long & headed to dinner where I had a delicious ham pizza & Jeremy had plain noodles. 

We grabbed gelato for dessert & went back to hang out at the fountain.. Perfect place to people watch.

We walked around to some other spots like the spanish steps & then hit the hay for the night.

The second day in Rome we woke up early to head to the much anticipated Vatican Museum. We used a guide name Rahuel that our uncle Johnny had used a couple months earlier & he seriously was the best. He was an ocean full of knowledge. I was skeptical if I would enjoy the Vatican tour, but I was seriously captivated by everything. So much history in every detailed corner. I'm pretty sure Jeremy wanted to take notes he was so fascinated :)

I could go on & on about each individual painting, ceiling, staircase and what have you but you really need to see it to know how incredible everything is. The pictures don't do it much justice but just to give you a small idea of the Vatican.

Of course the highlight was seeing the Sistine Chapel, we could of spent hours in there looking around. It really is unbelievable Michelangelo painted the whole ceiling & wall, what a talented man.

 The bottom left picture is of the only part they didn't clean to show what a big difference it was before.

You are not supposed to take pictures but I just had to take a couple..

After a couple hours we said goodbye to Rahuel to trek around alone.

We decided to climb up the steps of St. Peters Vasilica.. Bad idea! There was a million winding cramped stairs. It was hot & jammed with people. I felt so claustrophobic & sick. The views were pretty cool up top, but I would not recommend climbing up the million stairs to get there!

What an amazing place, you really could spend a week there looking at everything. After the Vatican we walked back by our hotel to get lunch. It was nice to eat outside & have some yummy pasta.

After lunch we fell asleep in our hotel lobby, we were exhausted from all the walking around & time change I'm sure.

Here is where disaster struck.. Since we were traveling with 6 people + luggage we could never fit in the same taxi, so as we were splitting up to go to the train station Jeremy told the other half of our party we would meet them "in front" of the train station. Well when we got there the station was a lot bigger than we had expected. Brooke, Jeremy & I waited & waited with no sign of Vaughn, Jake & Bri. The girls would stay by the bags as Jeremy would circle around looking for them. I was not feeling super well and was on edge looking around for the gypsies which we had heard so many stories about. So with 15 min left to our train we decided we should run to see if they were waiting there. It was really sad that Brooke who is with child was miles in front of Jer & me even though I was only carrying a backpack but struggling in the back. Things weren't looking good, we had missed our train & still didn't know where the other half of our group was. So as Jeremy went to switch our tickets Brooke went searching through the crowd to see if she could spot them. 5 min before our next train she saw them & Jeremy just yelled to me RUN! So that's what I did... until I looked back to see Jer hadn't followed me & I now was standing in the middle of a crowded train station with no phone, money, or even my own bag. I was freaking out. It was probably only 2 minutes but it felt like a lifetime searching around for my hubby to come save me. I was so scared I was going to be left in Rome all alone. Moments before the tears came Jeremy found me and we hopped on the train right before it took off. We were so relieved to be back together, though everyone was  really tense from all the anxiety. After some drinks of water & time we could all relax & laugh about the whole ordeal.

We got into Florence just in time for dinner. I got awful steak while others claimed to have the best lasagna of their lives!

Next up Cinque Terre.