Friday, June 19, 2009

Rome - in reverse order

Many of you know that we had our camera stolen while we were in Florence (more on that later). So don't laugh at the ridiculous number of pictures I am posting, just remember that you woulda been getting a lot more if I still had that camera! Without further ado, here are our Rome pictures, the ones we still have at least... and sorry they're in reverse order because of how I uploaded them and I am too lazy to put them back in chronological order=)

Trey digging into a caprese salad.


I was all about taking pictures of the food we ate because it was all so beautiful.




Earlier that day at the Spanish Steps, super crowded and nothing too amazing about them. They are very close to Trevi Fountain which is very cool. No pics from that=(

I love this shot of Trey from the top of Castello St Angelo which was used to guard Vatican City back in the day. The best thing about the castle was the views we got of Rome and St Peter's.

Inside Castello St Angelo. You walked up this huge circular ramp to get inside the main part of the Castle. It was a pretty good incline too!


View of Rome.




Close up of St Peter's taken from top of the castle.


St Peter's Square. It is HUGE! They were setting up for a mass on Sunday. You can kind of make out the chairs up front. Apparently the Pope pulls a pretty good turnout!

Outide view of Castello St Angelo taken from the bridge right in front of it.


The pictures we took from the top were just under that tall statue you can see. Oddly it had a big radio tower thing which you can also see a little bit.

Yet another gorgeous shot of St Peter's basilica taken from a bridge just like the one you see in the foreground. The river is the Tiber River.


This is a favorite picture of mine. This was as we were walking away from St Peter's. I love how St Peter's is kind of framed by the buildings and tree.

Photo op in front of St Peter's, probably one of, if not the most beautiful piece of architecture I've ever seen.

"Pieta" inside St Peter's. Mary holding Jesus after he was crucified. It will surely bring tears to your eyes.




A small portion of the vast ceiling in St Peter's Basilica. This place is so unbelievable, pictures could never capture it. It's just one of those places you have to see for yourself.


The canopy in St Peter's Basilica, also larger than life.



This ceiling in one of the hallways leading to the Sistine Chapel was unbelievably ornate. You think there is a relief (it doesn't look flat) but it is just painted.

This is a dome somewhere in the Vatican Museum. Italy is all about some domes.


We had a few pics in the Coloseum since I used both cameras there thank goodness.


This is taken from the Roman Forum which was kind of where the daily life of ancient Rome occurred. In the background to the right you can see the Vitoriano on Capitoline Hill(building with the statues on top). And right in front of that you can see the Mamertine Prison where Paul and possibly Peter were imprisoned. We lost the closer up pictures of these places.



Cool old church between Coloseum and Roman Forum, not sure what it is.

The Arch of Titus, built to commemorate the capture of Jerusalem in AD70.

Close up of the Arch of Titus.


Lunch right before we headed to the Coloseum. Yummy!

I think we ate almost all of this.


The next couple of pictures are from Campo de Fiori which is an open air market until about 2pm and then a cool place to go at night for dinner.


I loved shooting pics of all the produce. I thought one of these blown up and maybe black and white would look cool in my kitchen one day=)




Look at this tiny little Italian Woman buying meat from this trailer! She really was so small.








Piazza Navona, this was taken on our first full day in Rome.


The ginormous fountain in Piazza Navona




Dolce Vita, "The Good Life"


Fountain in Piazza Navona.

Beautiful windows and flowers are EVERYWHERE in Italy.


This was where we ate dinner the first night in Rome. I came back the next day to take a picture because I thought it was so charming.


Wide view of Navona.


I had this great plan of taking pictures of lots of bikes in Italy and making something cool with them. But I must've taken all the bike pics on my other camera, so this is the only one I have left.



Overall, Rome is a great place to visit because of the rich history and endless churches, museums and ancient ruins. I would love to go back with a Christian tourguide and learn the history of Rome from a Christian perspective. We were pretty sure our tour guide (for Coloseum and Forum) was not a Christian and it would've been interesting to hear things from another perspective. My favorite part of Rome was definitely St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum and especially the Pinacoteca, which is the gallery of paintings and tapestries. If you click on this link, you can take a virtual tour of it! http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Pano/PIN/Visit_PIN_Main.html You absolutely must do a tour of the Vatican, otherwise I don't know how you'd begin to appreciate its works. It's much more pleasant to hear the information rather than reading it out of a book. We booked our tour at the Vatican through their official webite and the tour guide was phenomenal.


The worst part of Rome is that the public transportation is soooo confusing. We just never really could figure it out. Truly it is just easier to walk most places. We would usually just give up and end up walking everywhere. We did get the Roma Pass though which gives you 3 days unlimited public transport and also two museums free and then a discount at the others you go to. So we got into the Coloseum and Palatine Hill/Roman Forum for free and then got discounts everywhere else. Next time I go back, I am going to try to learn some Italian first!


Stay tuned for pictures from Florence...

1 comment:

Corey said...

Wow, those pictures are just beautiful!! Thanks for sharing with us!!