Italy // Ercolano and impromptu family photos!

The day has finally arrived. Our last and final day on our whirlwind adventure to Italy. We decided to make the day a little more low key. We had spent the previous day in Rome and our legs and feet were tired and we had a very early flight the next morning. 

Originally we were going to go to Pompeii but instead we decided to go and check out Herculaneum which is in Ercolano which has a similar history to Pompeii. It is situated on the opposite side of Mt. Vesuvius (closer to the water) and was completely covered in mud from the volcanos explosion in 79AD. In the 1980's it was discovered and has been essentially dug out of the mud ever since. Because the city was essentially "filled up" with mud from the bottom up it actually served to preserve the historic buildings and dwellings better than the ruins at Pompeii. Only a small portion of the city has been uncovered with plans to excavate even more. 

This first photo is from the walkway going down from the visitors center to the entrance of the site. Hopefully you can see how what is there is sitting well below where I am standing. All of that was under ground until the 1980's! How crazy is that!?! 

We went on a hour long guided tour which was very helpful. Our guide showed us some of the houses and helped us to image how they must have looked originally. She explained how the people in the city had 11 hours from the time the volcano erupted until the flow hit the city so many many people were able to escape to Naples or get in boats and escape out to the sea. There are many bodies that they have uncovered as well mostly down by what used to be the docks. They also found one in the temple or worship center they had at the time. The parishioner stayed in the room and guarded the church until the very end. 

It is striking to see how well some of the structures held up considering the age of everything here. The paintings and frescos on the walls were quite beautiful and signified that this was a city of great wealth. It was right on the edge of the sea and many people came there to holiday or just build extravagant homes in a luxurious location. 

Since Ercolano was only about 40 minutes away from where we were staying we headed back to the house when we were done and had the afternoon to rest up and get ready for our long flight home. That night we had plans for a traditional Italian dinner with our hosts and friends of theirs who also are stationed in Italy. 

We headed up a very long and windy hill to this amazing restaurant that overlooks Naples. Since the location was so scenic we decided to do a little impromptu photo session before dinner began. There was also a super tiny and cute little car that we parked next too so of course we had to take pictures of that!  

How cute is SHE!! Those eyes!! 

After our amazing dinner we headed back home to get some sleep and prepare to adjust back to "normal" life. Everything about our time in Italy was so awe inspiring and breathtaking and we are so incredibly blessed to have been able to have this opportunity. Thank you so much to Darby and Garrick for hosting us, being our travel guides and making sure we didn't die on the roads of Italy! Thank you to my grandma for helping make this dream a reality. And thank you to all of you who have followed along with our adventure! My dream and prayer is that everyone I know gets to experience travel to Europe at least once in their life! 

Other posts from my trip to Italy:
The Best Travel Buddy | The food! | Naples | Amalfi Coast | Venice | Capri | Rome | 5 tips for traveling with your DSLR

All images (with the exception of random iPhone images) taken with:
Canon 6D | 24-105mm f/4.0 lens

Italy // Rome

Rome

What an experience. We only had ONE day for Rome and boy did we make good use of it. Everywhere you turn there is something AMAZING to see so I was in a photographer's paradise! 

We took the train into Rome and then hopped on the Metro to the Colosseo stop. You literally walk up the stairs and the massive beauty of the Colosseum stands before you. It is literally AWEsome. 

We walked all through it and just took it all in (while listening to a Rick Steves audio tour of course.) To be in the place where atrocious things happened SO long ago is quite surreal. It was amazing to see how the floor of the stadium is gone and you can see all the goings on underneath. Amazing. 

Outside of the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine which also has a very interesting history. Everything there is so BIG and so OLD. 

The Arch sits in between the Colosseum and the Forum (like the Forum shops in Vegas!) Walking through the Forum you really get a sense of what Rome in its age was all about. This is where everyone lived, and so much history took place. Rome was an empire for a few hundred years and to think about everything that happened right where we were walking was again...surreal. 

The size of many of these ruins was astonishing. How they were able to build all of these massive structures is beyond me. A true testament to what their empire had going on at the time. 

After the Forum we headed through downtown Rome to find the Pantheon. Another massive building that has the largest open air dome in the world (I think). 

On our way we saw other random, MASSIVE and gorgeous buildings just situated in between the normal more modern downtown buildings. So impressive! 

It was in the piazza della Rotunda (the plaza outside the Pantheon) that we saw here. Darby says she is always on the lookout for them because she sees them quite often. A old little Italian grandma looking out the window. I had to take a picture otherwise I might not have believed it myself! 

We ate lunch and then caught a cab to the Vatican! WOW! What a site! This picture does NOTHING to justify just how big this place is. The blue dome is St. Peters Basilica. 

We walked all the way around to the back to go in the museum. We made our way inside and walked the seemingly neverending halls to finally make our way to the Sistine Chappel. No photography allowed in that room and even though the room itself was packed with upward facing visitors they attempted to keep it as quiet as possible. We got aching necks taking in all the glory of the ceiling frescos and seeing those paintings in person that I have seen on TV and in the Movies thousands of times was very, very cool. 

After the Vatican we walked around a bit, snacked on some gelato (not Cinnamon flavored but I finally found a place that had Cinnamon!) bought some beautiful oil on canvas art of the Spanish Steps (which is the first picture below) and then wandered the streets looking for a place for dinner. We found a place and I had the best risotto of my life and then we headed back towards the subway. We spotted a fun trattoria and an even cuter little car on our way so we stopped for a photo op. We also wandered by the Trevi Fountain which if it wasn't under a ton of scaffolding would have been amazing to see. 

I'm not sure why I have such a weird expression on my face in that last pic! 

Last but not least, a collage of all of the selfies we took on this day. Paul has a built in selfie stick so we made it to good use throughout the entire day. 

Rome, we can't wait to come back and really spend some time checking out all of the amazing things you have to offer. Thank you for having a lot of stuff relatively close so we could feel like we actually accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time! ~The Wolfes

Other posts from my trip to Italy:
The Best Travel Buddy | The food! | Naples | Amalfi Coast | Venice | Capri | Ercolano | 5 Tips for traveling with your DSLR

All images (with the exception of random iPhone images) taken with:
Canon 6D | 24-105mm f/4.0 lens