Italy - Our Top 10

During our nearly one month stay in Italy we were able to visit an array of different regions and cities. To wrap up our trip, before moving onto Vienna and Berlin, here are our top ten Italian experiences.

Ancient Rome

No trip to Italy is complete without visiting the Colosseum. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, it is not only extremely impressive, even by today's standards, but also a testament to the building acumen of the ancient Romans. If that wasn't enough, you can walk in the footsteps of Augustus, Caesar, and the rest of Rome's important historical figures in the ruins of the Roman Imperial Forum and Palatine Hill.

The Colosseum - the centre of Ancient Rome

Cinque Terre

Five cities perched on the Ligurian coast caused us to forget everything - blog posts, TV, calling home, and even bickering - if only for a few days. Rightly a UNESCO World Heritage Site, these five cities still seem to operate the same way they have for hundreds of years, oblivious to the millions of tourists flocking to see them every year.

Riomaggiore - our home for 4 days

Pompeii and Herculaneum

Perhaps the best opportunity to step back nearly 2000 years and explore a fully functioning Roman city - from palaces and temples to storefronts, cafeterias, and small family homes. Ironically, by being destroyed, Pompeii and Herculaneum survived, untouched and avoided the slow degradation of generation upon generation building on top of each other. 

Pompeii - destroyed but not gone

Burano

A photographer's playground, with it's brightly painted houses and winding canals, Burano provides the authenticity that Venice is now missing. Even as water buses deposit groups of tourists on the island hourly, it somehow manages to retain a laid back, peaceful feeling.  

 

Burano - full of colour

Sculpture

With the likes of Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, and Bernini (wait, he wasn't a ninja turtle), the Italians easily dominate in the field of sculpture and there's no better place to bask in the glory of their masterpieces than Florence. The Uffizi, Bargello, and Accademia museums feature works by these famous sculptors as well as many others. 

Giasone - one of our favorite sculptures in Italy

The Vatican Museum

Our favorite Italian museum (that we've visited), and a serious contender for best overall, the Vatican Museum won us over with it's collections which are large both in size and scope. From ancient Egyptian artifacts, to Greek and Roman sculptures, classical and modern paintings, and the museum's architecture, the museum offers something for everyone - and it's also home to the Sistine Chapel. 

The Raphael Rooms - one of art's great achievements

Pizza

Naples may be credited with the invention of this tasty dish, however we found restaurants throughout the country serving up mouth watering versions. Our favorites were Senzanome, in Florence, and Dar Poeta, in Rome. 

Pizza at Senzanome

Montemartini

Unable to get enough sculpture in Florence, we added a trip to the Montemartini Museum to our Roman itinerary and were blown away at the exhibition space - a historic electric plant. The contrast between the soft white marble sculptures and dark metal engines, valves, and pipes is gorgeous and provides a great photo opportunity as well. 

Juxtaposition at Montemartini

Basilica San Marco

Unrivaled for the title of most opulent by anything we've seen to date, Basilica San Marco makes up for what it lacks in size and scale with an abundance of sparkling gold mosaics. The lavish exterior, situated next to the equally stunning Doge's Palace, and mosaic covered interior leave visitors with a true understanding of how rich and powerful this republic really was. 

Basilica San Marco - one of the best in the world

The Pantheon

Was it famous before Dan Brown included it in his best selling novel Angels and Demons? If so, it's impossible to tell now, as visitors flock to the site hoping to glimpse a hidden symbol, or at least Raphael's tomb - which actually isn't that easy to spot. However for us, the building's architecture is the real draw. 

The Pantheon - an architectural marvel

A reminder, many more photos from our time in Italy, as well as the entire trip through Europe can be found on our Flickr page.

Hope you enjoyed our list...think we missed anything? Let us know!

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Visiting the Vatican

I didn't know quite what to expect before visiting the Vatican. 

As the world's smallest independent state, ruled over by the pope and high ranking officials of the Catholic faith, I had notions that perhaps the city would be overly religious, gilded in gold, uptight, and extremely rigid. What I found, however, was something completely different.

What I did find is an abundance of culture, covering countless eras and cultures; breathtaking architecture, both inside the Vatican Museum with it's numerous frescoes and carved ceilings, as well as outside in St. Peter's Square; hoards of tourists, queuing for everything from entrance into the basilica, to pizza at lunch, and a glimpse at a famous sculpture or ancient fresco (ok, I did expect the tourists). 

The Vatican museums stood out as a wonderful surprise and easily ranks as my favorite traditional museum we've visited during our trip. The Vatican's treasures are both remarkable and immense, and a visit to the museum provides access to displays featuring ancient Egyptian sarcophagi, Greek pottery, intricate tapestries and mosaics, faded frescoes, amazingly carved marble statues, paintings from the likes of classical masters like Raphael and Michelangelo to modern masters like Dali and Chagall, and everything in between. If that wasn't enough, at some time during your visit, you get a chance to look up at the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, easily one of the most famous sites of the Catholic faith and one of art's greatest achievements. 

Greek antiquities and sculpture in the Vatican Museum

Gorgeous paintings and detail

Domed ceiling in the museum

Mosaics cover the floors in the museum

Ancient Egyptian sculpture

Roman bronze statue

In addition to some wonderful exhibits, the museum is well laid out and the vast rooms offer some escape from the thousands of other daily visitors. Although an "express" route is available for those short of time, or only interested in the Sistine Chapel, we decided to take our time (and escape the rain for a bit) and were extremely pleased with the decision. It would have been a shame to rush though such an amazing museum and miss out on some of the lesser known, yet still immensely fascinating, displays. 

Fresco in the one of the Raphael Rooms

After our visit to the museums we made the short walk over to St. Peter's Square, home of the largest church in the world - St. Peter's Basilica. Unfortunately the line for entrance to the basilica stretched around most of the square itself, even so late in the afternoon. Electing not to wait, we didn't get to explore the interior of the basilica. But that wasn't the end of our experience in the Vatican.

Bernini's masterpiece - St. Peter's Square

**Please don't spoil the following part for Nonna - we want to tell her at Christmas

We returned a couple of days later to take in the Pope's regular Papal Audience (Wednesday mornings) in St. Peter's square. Although our main intention during this second visit was to have a rosary blessed for Travis' Nona (the Pope does a general blessing at the end of the address) we found the morning extremely enjoyable, sitting in the sunny square, people watching, surrounded by stunning architecture. Various groups waved flags and banners, bishops and cardinals addressed the crowd, and Pope Benedict gave some general remarks.

Nuns at the Papal Address

The rosary for Nonna at the Papal Address

The Papal Address

There is a reason the St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum's are on almost every list of sites not to miss while in Rome - they are places of almost unrivaled history and beauty. We thoroughly enjoyed our day there from start to finish, and we feel that skipping the Vatican would be missing an integral part of Rome's character.

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Rome - A Photo Essay

Exploring Rome by foot is easily the best way to take in the sights of this marvelous city. However it can also be exhausting, as many of the main attractions are spread out there can be a lot of ground to cover. Even with five days in the Eternal City to see the main sights and a few off the beaten path treasures, we still returned home each evening exhausted.

The sheer number of attractions Rome has to offer can be quite overwhelming. To combat this, we grouped them into three rough sections and covered one per day (Day 1: Trevi Fountain - Spanish Steps - Borghese Gardens - Santa Maria del Popolo; Day 2: Pantheon - Piazza Navona - Tomb of Unknown Soldier; Day 3: Colosseum - Roman Forum - Palatine Hill). Our remaining two days were dedicated to the Vatican and a "clean-up" day for any one-off destinations we were unable to cover previously. Overall, this process seemed to work quite well, (except when we would see something in the distance and remind ourselves it was for another day), and we were able to cover everything we set out to. 
 

Ponte Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo

The interior of the Colosseum

The Colosseum and Hadrian's Arch

The Stadium of Domitan on Palatine Hill

The Roman Forum

Arch of Septimus Severus, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and Santi Luca e Martina

Statue of Castor (or Pollux) in Piazza del Campidoglio

The Pyramid of Cestius

The Papal Address in St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square

The Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps

The rooftops of Rome from the Borghese Gardens

Santa Maria sopra Minerva - Rome's Gothic Basilica

The oculus of the Pantheon

Collections of the Vatican Museum

Magnificent Ceiling in the Vatican Museum

One of the countless frescoes in the Vatican Museum

Ceiling fresco in the Vatican Museum

 

*A note on getting around: Being of weak feet already (read: I never bypass a bench without taking a rest) we were fortunate to stay near the Termini train station and utilize the metro system - we'd simply catch the metro towards our destination, then hop off and continue on foot for the day before finding our way back to the closest station for a short trip home. As a result we were able to cover more quality miles by foot instead of tiring out early by walking to our destination. Rome also has an extensive bus system that we saw many people using - however, we found the metro to be less busy (aside from rush hour), quick and reliable, and more efficient as we were staying so close to a main station.

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