France Italy 2014 Video

Rest Day

Feeling crummy, spent the whole day laying down, just finished a movie and about to start another one. I got up to get some water and realized how beautiful this looked.

Kings and Spies

Local cider made from local apples, this is very delicious.

Back in Action

The queen has returned to her perch.

Landed

Hello Home

Here We Go

Pond Hopping Done

4 hour wait, 5 hour flight. This airport stuff is boring.

21 Hours

This is going to be a long day...

One Last Visit

Last Day

Rain again... We went to the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain (closed for repairs), Piazza Navona and the city Hall. At city hall we rode the elevator to the roof for a good lookout over the whole city. Even though the rain persisted through these 4 days in Rome we've had a blast. Looking forward to coming home, seeing family and snuggling our dogs.

Rainbow

From last night, forgot to add.

Today is the last full day of our trip. We're headed to the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain(currently under repair which sucks), and to the top of city hall for a great view as well as a relaxing stroll around the small streets or Rome. Tomorrow we fly Rome-Toronto-Vancouver. Should make for a long day, flying days are never fun.

Dinner Excursion

We went with our Italian friends up to these hilltop crater lakes southeast of Rome tonight for some street walking and a wonderful rustic dinner. We had an awesome time!!!

Other Pictures From Today

Thou Shalt Not Steal

Except if you're the Catholic Church, I'm sure God made you exempt from that... All the artifacts, all the stone, all stolen by the church. The Vatican museum is as opulent as Versailles was, so much for feeding the poor I guess. The whole experience there really made me realize how much of a business religion is, a mass of mindless people buying official Vatican pictures of the current pope for €59 ($87 Canadian) .... for a picture of a human dressed up in a robe.

Rain

So this morning was hot and sunny, we went and saw the Vatican Museum, then in the line for St Peters church it started to absolutely pour rain. Luckily we didn't get too soaked as we had umbrellas and ponchos, my feet are super wet though.

We are having a late lunch at the Pantheon now.

How Today Ended 2

How Today Ended 1

How Today Started

We woke up after an absolutely crazy night of thunder and lightning, the metro was flooded, cabs were taking an hour to get into town and the buses were jam packed with people. We decided to walk 6km into town as it would take us 70 minutes. Well got about half way walking and the skies opened up again just like last night. We sought refuge in the overhang of a building and to our luck hailed a cab that was about to dart us into town for €10 and only took 15 minutes. Once in town we walked the Forum for 30 minutes in the rain before the skies gave way to Sunshine and hot weather!

5am

http://youtu.be/E6qf288bIkE

Watch this... It's 5am and has been going on for an hour at least. 

Evil Deeds

So there's this religious thing in Rome where you stick your hand in the mouth of a carving in a wall and it will "chomp of your hand" if you've done bad deeds in your life. This knockoff was at a pizzeria we went to tonight owned by carries friend and her husband. I opted to try and to my surprise I still have a hand...

Hey Rod...

I hope when you're here you don't have skies like this.

Arrived in Rome, Carries friends we're staying with picked us up at the train station. Within the hour the skies opened up and poured rain non stop. The subways are now flooded. The Vatican and Coliseum with lightning crashing in the background would have made for some amazing photos. Sadly I didn't have my waterproof GoPro with me. Hopefully tomorrow when we go out the subways aren't flooded and the rain subsides.

Up We Go

So we hiked to the top of the bell tower in the main square, it's over 400 steps and as you can see by the picture of Carrie... Extremely small spaces to climb. It was well worth it for the view.

Out and About

Maybe we're getting use to amazing places, or maybe Siena just isn't that cool, but we weren't blown away with the city. The main square would be amazing during the horse races
between the neighbourhoods but lacks the wow factor of other places in Europe. Still a fun day!

Siena

Brief sunshine, but the clouds are coming back.

San Gimignano

A quick stop in San Gimignano for breakfast on our way to Siena. We will miss the Tuscan Region. Massive booms of thunder echoed in the distance this morning as we sipped our espressos. Our 1 day car rental is returned and we are relaxing in our hotel for a bit before checking out Siena, it's said this city has the most beautiful Piazza in Italy.