Tuesday, July 12, 2016

When in Rome
Rome was really cool, but seriously hot. I felt like I was melting buckets worth of sweat everyday. Minus the heat, large amount of walking, and dehydration it was the coolest experience. :) We met some cool, nice people, and some not as cool or nice people. Feel free to ask me about it in person if you so desire to know more. Might have included a con man. Cough cough. Fun growing up. Basically we saw lots of really cool and historic things. We tried to see as many things as possible in our short time we spent there. It was exhausting, educational and like a dream come true. I don't know where to begin there was just so much that happened. We saw a castle, the Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, Palatine Hill, the Trevy fountain, the pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum and much more. I can't do it. Ask me about it in person. :) One story I guess. We had an apartment to ourselves, which was awesome, but the walls next door might as well have not been there, they were so thin. Most of the time it wasn't too much of a problem, but one night we had three american girls as neighbors. Stereotypes are there for a reason. That's what I've learned on this trip. These girls were loud and talked/acted like valley girls. I'm not kidding. One girl said, "Oh my Gosh, She totally has more likes than me. Why is that?" We waited until midnight to ask them to be quiet, but they weren't. Finally they left around 12:15 ish to go to a bar. Things were great until they came back at three a.m. and were just as loud. McKenna asked them to be quiet. One girl said, " I think they said to be quieter." Then they continued on  just as loud. McKenna yelled at them to be quiet again before giving up. They kept talking for an hour. I was slightly frustrated. Needless to say we were a bit sleep deprived the next day. I'm generally a passive person and slow to anger, but I admit I was frustrated with these girls. Fun stuff. :) We flew from Rome to Paris and stayed in the airport over night and until our flights the next day. McKenna got to her flight without too many problems luckily and her flight was on time. Mine unfortunately was four hours delayed. I spent 17 hours in the airport. I've never been so happy to leave somewhere. Luckily Carson was there for the four hour delay. Helped pass the time. I was excited to see him and tell him about our adventures in Italy. What can I say? It'd been a whole week since I'd seen him. That's a long time to not see someone after seeing them everyday for two months. We were on the same flight back to the states. It felt really good to be home. My mom came and got me. It was really good to see her. All of my family. I crashed on the couch after dinner. They watched The Mocking Jay part two, loudly and I slept right through it until Katnis started yelling at the cat toward the end.  I basically went 48 hours without sleep. Yay for that. Rather not repeat it. Adjusting was harder than I thought it would be. My body decided that as soon as I got home, it would die. I'm doing much better now of course. I miss Europe a lot, especially the food, sights, and culture, but It's really good to be home. Someday I'll go back, but until then, It's been real Europe. Don't forget me.
 The Italian countryside view from the train ride. No mishaps this time. :) Ride on time.
Found these awesome steps on the way to the monument Garibaldi which has a great view of Rome, though the one in Florence was better. In my opinion. These steps are pretty cool. I wish I was a artist.
                                   Passed this cool house on the way. It was a lovely hike.
This wall goes far around the city and is one of the original in Rome.  It was there when Rome was attacked by the french army in the nineteenth century and the second republic was established.
 
Found this cool garden behind the wall.  The bugs were eating Kenna alive, so we didn't stay long, but it was a nice garden where lots of families take their kids. It was nice.

Finally made it to the monument. :) It's a nice one. Garibaldi was a general that fought during the revolution of 1849. He's very admired.
 
So pretty!! If only bugs didn't exist it would have been perfect.
 

                                                                       Love Rome!!!!
This is the Fonte Acqua poala. It's a lovely fountain, quite large.
Passed this on the way, I have no idea what this is, but it looks like a monument of sorts, which makes perfect sense seeing as there are many of them here. :)
 
This church on the left is called San Pietro de Montorio. It was first built in the fourth century on the site that was mistakenly considered to be the place where Saint Peter was martyred. Per usual, it was established by monks and was destroyed and rebuilt over time. Its the monastery is used as a school now I think.
 
This wall on the right has people's names on them. It's like a memorial of sorts, but I have no idea what it really is. Thought it was cool.This is all in the area of Trastevere which is a nice place if you want to experience the culture and history without all of the tourist crowds.
 
walking around Rome. :)
Passed this everyday in a store window. :) He's handsome isn't he? I want to sit on the car for some reason. It's just so cute.
 
Found this pretty church! Love Rome. Ill probably say that a lot.
 The Monument to Victor Emanuel II, also known as 'Il Vittoriano' and sometimes also referred to as the Altare della Patria (Altar of the Nation), is a bombastic monument built with sparkling white marble from Botticino in the province of Brescia. It is decorated with numerous allegorical statues, reliefs and murals, created by artists from all corners of the country. It's cool. Construction started in 1849, and was inaugurated in 1911 at the fiftieth anniversary of the kingdom.
 
Vatican City!!!! These are pictures from the Vatican Museum. Pretty awesome!
 

 
Still awesome!!!
 
These halls are so pretty! So much work put into this place. Super old globe! I don't know what year it's from, but I thought it reminds me of the globe that my mama used to have, though hers is much newer and bluer. :)
 
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant'Angelo, Castle of the Holy Angel), is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. The Castle was once the tallest building in Rome.
 
The pope's bed on the left. Cool ceiling on the right.
 
Picture on the left is a treasure room. Those treasure chests are huge!!!!! ;) You could fit dead people in there. Shh.
 
Left: This is the palace of Justice. :) It's in the Piazza dei Tribunali. Built in 1910, It's popularly called the bad palace. On the Right is a beautiful church that I wish we could have gone into, but we had to pick and choose what we spent time on. :) Tourist problems.
 

 

All of these are cool churches. Some of them we got to go inside of, but generally just saw the outside. I love catholic churches. :) They are as common here as LDS buildings in Utah. I'm going to miss them once I go back to the states. 

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Florence Day Two: The City
Monday, June 20.
Trying to see all of Florence in a day is crazy, but that's exactly what we tried to do. We didn't go inside many places, but we saw most of the main city. It's a cool place. Lots of museums. Because of the storm the day before, it wasn't too hot either. Upper eighties maybe. We started out about nine in the morning and got back about nine hours later. It was a good, but long day. We were exhausted by the time we got back. The mosquitoes here are terrible. They were eating us alive. I've never had so many bites. McKenna reacted worse than I did. Poor thing. despite it all, It was a good trip to Florence.

This hot dog is committing suicide. How sad, yet he looks so happy about it. Mustache man on the right reminds me of Carson.
                                               Eating breakfast by the old wall of Florence.


                    Old Wall. Wishing I could read Italian or Latin.

Our first Piazza! Piazza means square in Italian. This is Hercules fighting a lion.


Real monks. :) We tend to see lots of nuns, but not as many monks.

This is the river Arno. Runs right through Florence.

Santa Maria Novella- the monastery/ first pharmacy in Florence. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. Construction began in 1246 and was finished about 1360. It was built by Franciscan friars and was consecrated in 1420. The architecture is Gothic and Renaissance. It was built on top of a ninth century church.


Our first Gelato! It was sooo good. :)





The inside of the monastery is beautiful. The picture on the right is a cemetery connected to some chapels.



The courtyard and a small chapel.

The church has a museum portion that holds relics, old pope clothes, and items important to the church.

End of Santa Maria Novella. We didn't get to see the pharmacy part of it. Meaning the garden where they grow the herbs and plants used for perfume as well as for medicinal purposes.  It's the oldest in Italy. It was established in 1221, when the Dominican monks from the adjacent Basilica of Santa Maria Novella began growing herbs to make balms, salves and medicines for their infirmary. The superior quality of their products became widely known, and in the 17th century, the pharmacy opened its doors to the public. Today it's still in use and uses traditional methods.

View of the Dome from the streets.

This is the Cathedral of Florence. The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Florence, Italy. Il Duomo di Firenze, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style and completed structurally in 1436. The church is one of the largest in Italy and the Dome is the largest brick dome in the world.

We didn't get to go inside because the line would have taken all day to get through. We saw people playing cards while waiting. We walked all around the church though. It's quite ornate.

We didn't go inside this one either, but it's one of the oldest churches in Florence.
I thought this was great. :) Scrat holding ice cream cones.


Since it was a Monday, the museum with the David statue was closed, but we took a picture in front of it.


Le Ponte Di Vecchio. This is he oldest bridge in Florence and has shops built on top of it.

The pizza was ok, but i'm not much of a tuna fan. Should probably learn Italian.
This square has lots of copies of famous statues. It's a cool place.
I'm now besties with Pinocchio. 




This is the church where all the cool people are buried. No joke. It's an honor to be buried here. The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church.It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile and Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell'Itale Glorie). Legend says that St. Croce was founded by St. Francis himself.
Galileo
A. G. B. Niccolini. This statue is said to be the inspiration for the statue of liberty. 

Michelangelo
Dante


The construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun on 12 May 1294. It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV. The building's design reflects the austere approach of the Franciscans.


Rossini
The Medici chapel is the original location of Galileo's burial. He was moved to his current location  in the nave in 1717. 



Monument to Florence Nightingale.

Back to the cool square. :) I took a Greek and Roman mythology class and we talked about these statues. It's so cool to see them in real life. On the left you have Hercules if I remember right and on the right is Hermes.
                                               Don't do it friend! You have so much to live for.

Found these graffiti signs and thought they were entertaining.



Made the hike to a Michelangelo point that has a great view of the city. It was a decent hike, not too bad except we'd already been walking all day so it felt like we were climbing the stairs to heaven.


                                          The view was pretty great though. Totally worth it.

McKenna collected stickers left by others for Carson while we were there. This one has her a few feet off the ground.

Outside the Galileo museum this sundial tells the time of day, the day of the week, the month and the time of year. Pretty cool, eh? Right: I don't actually know what this this, but they're all over the city. It looks like a snake doesn't it?
                                                               Cool dragon thing. :)

There are so many churches here, well that is true of all of Europe I've decided. I love churches. They're so pretty and peaceful, as well as generally cool which is a nice break from the heat of the day.
Passed this on our way home. I thought it was kind of disturbing and thought I'd share the joy with you all. ;)