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

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

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Next stop on our trip: Venice!!

We had decided early on that Venice was a must see during our time in Italy. Its quite a ways from Naples however so a flight was necessary. No problem however because flights throughout Europe are typically pretty cheap. We flew roundtrip for under $100 for the both of us! We arrived in Venice at around 10am and after a little bit of confusion about how to actually get to the Venetian Islands we finally arrived and I. was. in. LOVE.

The colors, the textures, the architecture, the water...it was all just so overwhelming. Paul and I both commented at different times about how it almost feels "fake". It feels like you are at a theme park in a way, its all just so "over the top." I couldn't get past the fact that people actively live and work here. While the tourists are certainly taking over the city almost 70,000 people still live in Venice. We saw children playing ball in the street, we saw some ladies doing an outdoor yoga class at one point...its still a place that people call home and it was just astounding to me.

The main form of transportation in Venice is the Vaporetto (water bus) that literally acts just like a bus. You get a public transportation ticket and there are stops all along the Grand Canal and other areas close to the islands. You go to the "bus stop" wait for it to arrive, hop on the boat and travel to your desired stop and then walk to where you need to go. No cars anywhere and the streets and alleys are a never-ending maze of storefronts, cafe's, hotels bridges, and museums. There is a large university on Venice as well as thousands of vendors selling selfie sticks and other trinkets galore. We found ourselves just having the best time hoping on and off the Vaporetto, wandering the streets, stopping for cappuccino and gelato and parting ways with our money for gifts and memorabilia.

Don't we look so Italian? =)

I was obsessed with all of the amazing doors throughout Venice. I loove a good textured door and there is no lack of exactly this type of door throughout all of Venice.

Another thing we LOVED about Venice was all the dogs. We noticed it pretty much as soon as we got into town. People everywhere had dogs with them. Mostly on the smaller side, but still an unusual amount of people with dogs, especially in such a touristy place. We started counting them, but we got to well over 100 in our first day there so we stopped. One little guy in particular stood out to us because he just wandered behind his human mom following her wherever she went. She was headed the same direction as us, so we watching him follow her for quite a while. Such a cutie.

The area down by St. Marks square and basilica was one of our favorites. We listened to a couple of Rick Steves audio tours while we were there and found the history fascinating. We went up the Campanile as well to check out the view from up high and that did not disappoint.

This square actually floods because of rising tides (and the city is apparently sinking as well) about ONE HUNDRED times a year! Can you believe that!! They have these stacks of what look like tables all over the place to put up when the waters rise so people can walk on those instead. We saw some over in an area near our hotel and couldn't figure out what they actually were at the time. They had some interesting things stamped on them as well, so when we finally figured out what they were it all made sense.

If you are planning a trip to Venice make sure to read this next paragraph, it is hands down my BEST piece of advice from our entire time there. Public bathrooms are HARD TO FIND. They are very few and far between and almost all of them require a fee to use them. Anywhere between .50-1.50 Euro. We figured out a great trick though! Stop at a coffee bar!! Almost all of them have bathrooms and as long as you buy something you can use the bathroom. Espresso/Cappuccino was typically 1.50 eruo so we would go in, get a coffee and then use the bathroom. Perfecto! Also, they feel its very important to let you know their stuff is not made in China! ha!

We stayed two nights in Venice and on Tuesday we headed back to Naples for the remainder of our trip. We celebrated with a lunch at a non-touristy restaurant and TWO scoops of gelato!