Royal Ascot

Last Saturday and went with some work friend to the Royal Ascot horse races. Royal Ascot is an event that everyone dresses up for and wears hats and watches for the queen to come by! Oh, and watches the races too. ;) I had a great time dressing up and wearing a hat for the first time. My friend Sarah helped me pick it out since I had no idea what I was looking for or where to buy it! But it turned out well and I enjoyed the whole experience, especially my glimpse of the queen.

The queen (on the far side of the carriage in blue). Her husband, Prince Phillip, is on the near side of the carriage in the top hat.















Me in my hat!
















Quite the fashionable party - me with my friends Brandi, Kelley and Stephanie
















One of the races flying by our vantage point

Vatican City

OK, if you are just coming to this blog after awhile away, settle in for a long ride! This is my eighth (count them, 8!) post about Italy. You might have to go back a page to see the very first post or two. (Hint: Rome is the first one, so work backwards from there.)

Alright, last post - Vatican City! The Vatican is its own country or principality or something, but they don't give out passport stamps. But they do have their own post office. Anyway, once again the sheer size and impressiveness of the buildings was overwhelming. I spent about 6 hours in the museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's basilica (largest church in Europe, by the way).

No pictures are allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but I sat in there for an hour, moving around to different seats to take in all of the artwork. The walls and ceiling are completely covered in paintings and it was difficult to take it all in!

When I made it out to the square, the Pope was giving his weekly blessing. In the pictures below, he is in white in the middle of the platform. After he was done, I visited the basilica and even climbed to the top of the dome to see the view from there.

Venice, Italy!!!

On to my favorite FAVORITE part of my trip - Venice!!! My day in Venice was like a dream come true for me; I was fulfilling something I'd been wanting to do my whole life. I think I was in a daze most of the day, but I do remember it all and I remember how beautiful the city actually is. There isn't explanation for most of my pictures, mostly because I was wandering around snapping random shots of the beautifulness!

There are something like 500 bridges in Venice and the streets are a mix of actual street and canals. Unfortunately, the lower floors of the houses are starting to rot from all of the water so many of them are uninhabited, although top floors still have people living in them. Only 60,000-ish people live in Venice so it's a small city and easily walkable.

Of course we took a gondola ride (my favorite part!) and saw a gondola stop light and two gondola traffic jams. The inside of the basilica floored me with how beautiful and vast it was. It compares to nothing I had ever seen before (well, until I went to the Vatican that is). The weather was a bit chilly while we were there, but thankfully the rain in the morning didn't continue all day.

Just a sampling...












Oh and here's a picture of me with some of my new friends!

Milan, Italy

Milan is every bit the fashionable city that comes to mind when you hear its name. There is also lots of art and culture as well. And Milan has the 3rd largest church in Europe. I really enjoyed wandering the streets (and, yes shopping!) and exploring the church and its roof.

Shopping!






The church and climbing to the roof

Side trips in Italy

We didn't stay for a day or two in every place we visited. There were a few stops we made that were only 1-4 hours long. That's the way you see so much of the country in just 12 days!

First, Pompeii. We all learned about this city in elementary history class. It was covered in the eruption from Mt. Vesuvius. But what I didn't know before was that many people actually escaped Pompeii before the eruption. What happened though was that they came back when the volcano quieted down and that was their fatal mistake. The volcano began spewing poisonous gas and that is how most of the people of Pompeii died.

The ruins of the city are amazing, but again hard to capture it all in pictures. I learned a lot about the city and living in the Roman empire in the first century - pretty amazing stuff! For instance, a smallish city like Pompeii had a gladiator training ground, two theatres and "advanced" sanitation ideas, as well as beautiful artwork and lots of temples. This is the ruins of the main political/social center of Pompeii - the Forum - with the volcano in the background. By the way, it's long overdue to erupt again!




We also stopped in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was meant to be the bell tower of the church in Pisa, but started sinking shortly after it was built. I couldn't resist trying to hold it up!






We also spent some time in the cities of Verona and Bologna and at Lake Garda. But since they weren't incredibly interesting places (although not bad places), I won't waste your time. On to Milan!

Cinque Terre, Italy

OK I'm still hanging in there for my 4th post tonight...about halfway there!

Cinque Terre is a beautiful area on the north west coast of Italy. It literally means 5 villages and is 5 small fishing villages famous for their brightly colored houses and precarious perches. You can't drive between them, but you can take a train or ferry or walk on a path. We took the ferry and stopped briefly in the first and fourth villages and stayed an afternoon in the last one (sorry I don't remember the names). Oh, they are also famous for the basil they grow and make into lovely pesto!!!

Enjoy the pictures - I don't have much else to say about this area besides it was absolutely stunning and I would love to go back!

Florence, Italy

After Sorrento, we traveled back past Rome and into Tuscany to Florence. I took a few pictures of the Tuscan countryside, but none of them did any justice to the beauty, so I won't try to tell you. Google it or watch a movie or something and you'll get the idea. :)

Florence is a very historic and artistic city. It is the city where Da Vinci and other Renaissance men lived. The architecture and art were amazing. It is a city with massive art galleries, including the one that holds the famous statue of David. We took a tour of the city and watched a leather demonstration. After that sightseeing, I spent most of my day exploring the markets and stimulating the European economy!

Sorrento & Capri, Italy

OK, well I'm clearly having problems with uploading pictures. It is working differently than normal, so forgive me if they aren't as neatly placed and organized as normal. It isn't being very user friendly :/

Sorrento and Capri were the most beautiful parts of my trip by far! The weather was amazing, the views were stunning and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of laying on the beach, crusing around Capri and visiting the Blue Grotto.

The view of our hotel area from above. Our hotel is not in sight, but we had a private beach and swimming area that we took full advantage of both nights we stayed there.


















We had dinner in Sorrento that first night after a lounge on the beach. The sunset was an absolutely perfect dinner time view.



















The next day we took a ferry to the Isle of Capri and cruised around the island first thing. Then we had the afternoon to explore (and hit the beach again!). The beaches on Capri are made of big rocks, not sand, so that was an interesting and painful experience. During our cruise, we stopped at the Blue Grotto and switched to smaller boats that we basically had to lie down in to get into the grotto. It was once Julius Caesar's private swimming area and the water reflects the rocks in such a way that makes the water shine bright blue - beautiful!




After our day on Capri, we headed back for more beach time (yes, I'm tan) and dinner at the hotel where we enjoyed another sunset. My roommate and I were lucky enough to have a top floor room that opened onto the roof top terrace. Both mornings I set out there and enjoyed the peacefulness and watched the fisherman. I was sad to leave Sorrento!!

Rome, Italy

I must admit that I've been putting off my blog for a bit because it seems so daunting to blog a 12 day trip around Italy! But as I know some people are anxiously awaiting an update, I am going to try to make a good start tonight. So here goes!

I started my Italy trip 2 weeks ago on Sunday in Rome. I left London very early and was at my hotel by noon. I set off for sightseeing right away, even braving the HEAT (well, compared to London), humidity and occasional rain shower. The first thing I saw was the Coloseum and the neighboring ruins of the ancient Forum.









The thing that I noticed almost right away in Rome was how BIG everything is. Even the normal, everday buildings are large and the roads are wide and big. This is to say nothing of the Coloseum and other ancient buildings and monuments. Everything was on such a large scale!









After I soaked up some history in the most ancient area of Rome, I wandered through the streets to find the Trevi Fountain. The legend is that if you throw a coin over your shoulder and make a wish, the wish will come true and you will return to Rome. I had to try! I also had to try my first gelato of the trip nearby. After that, I wandered back to the hotel to meet up with my tour group.


That night we had dinner and the next morning we headed down towards the Amalfi coast. But we came back to Rome at the end of the trip so I'll go ahead and show those pictures now.

When we came back, I visited the Vatican (I'll do a separate post), Spanish Steps, Trvei Fountain again (had to make another wish!) and the Pantheon.

Spanish Steps


Making a wish


Pantheon