Rome

Our first stop in Italy was Rome. Our purpose there was purely to be tourists. Rome is a crazy city because it has that big city feel, except there are ancient ruins everywhere. Just sitting amongst the city. There is pretty much no need to know Italian in Rome, everyone speaks English. We had a guided tour of the city our first day, from 9-5. We saw pretty much everything, and learned more than my brain can contain. On the second day, we had a choice of what we wanted to go where we wanted to go. We decided to go inside of the Colosseum and to the Sistine Chapel and to the top of St. Peters Basilica. Rome was awesome. Here are pictures.

Outside of Circus Maximus. There is a lot of history here that you may want to google if your interested.

Group picture outside of the Colosseum

Just me outside of the Colosseum

The Colosseum from the inside

Spiral ramp at the Vatican

Inside of Vatican City

The dome at St. Peter´s Basilica

Example of how all walls look inside of St. Peters

Dead pope inside of St. Peters

Inside of St Peters Cathedral

Spanish steps

Sistine Chapel

Inside the Pantheon

Piazza Novana

Roman garden

Rome from the top of St Peters

So there was a quick tour of Rome. I could talk for hours about it if you wanted to. We also went to Bologna, Venice, Parma, Milan, and Florence so I have quite a few posts to go. Plus I took over 500 pictures, so I have a lot of sorting out to do.

Return from Italy!

You may have noticed a lack of posts lately. Well I am sorry, but I have been in Italy for two weeks. I have about 500 pictures to sort through and share, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. So I have decided to ease my way back to the website by just updating you on what I have been up to since my return.

Well I have been back from Italy a grand total of about 60 hours. I am exhausted. I thought it would be a good idea to ignore my tiredness and try to go on like I was never gone. Ian picked my up from the airport with these flowers (did I mention that I love him?)


And I came home to a spotless clean apartment and freshly laundered sheets. I went out on our porch and saw my plants look like this...


They are fruiting!!! And...my hummingbirds have returned.

The day I got back, I went to a bachlorette party for my friend Sabrina. It was kind of a surprise party for her, so here she is after our unexpected attack.


And she has a pet ferret. Cool.


We decided to take advantage of yesterday, being the second longest day of the year, and take a night hike. It was a good idea especially because we got to see a lot of wild life that we do not usually see. For example, we ran into an area where there were about 5 owls. Because it was dusk my camera had a horrible time trying to capture any pictures of them, but with a little manipulation with my photo editor here at home, I am able to share this with you...


This owl stared at me for about five minutes before flying away. We were impressed at first, and then concerned that maybe owls will attack humans? or dogs? So we moved on.

Here are a few more photos of the hike. Not high quality since we were working with a difficult balance of sunlight and darkness.


Well, I think that I will start to post pictures from one day at a time. Just check back every once in a while every few days and hopefully things will start progressing. I miss everyone and if I have not talked to you since I have returned, be expecting a call! And now, a nap.