ROMA part 1- Vaticano

When in Rome....please go to Vatican City.

I decided to do Rome in (probably) 3 or 4 parts. We have so many pictures from so many cool places I can't fit them all on one or two blogs.

On our first night there we opted to eat at a sushi (yes, sushi) restaurant right across the street from our hotel. We decided this because we were going to be having big Italian meals (and I mean big) for the next two nights after that. And of course, for dessert, there was an gelateria right across the street from our hotel as well (which was visited 3x by the Edwards throughout the 3 days we were there). The sushi was surprisingly good and the gelato, well we were in Italy so I'll let you guess how the gelato was :)

On the next day we visited Vatican City. Home of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.

A little bit of history on Vatican City that my hubby shared with me is that it's considered a country! It's the smallest country in the world and ruled by the Bishop of Rome- the Pope. The whole thing is surrounded by a wall and houses beautiful buildings and gardens. Like I said we took SO many pictures in here, I'm going to post them in sections. These are of the Vatican (or Vatican Museum).

The rest of these are mostly of the decor inside the building. There were lots of Greek and Roman statues inside as part of the exhibits but I was mostly fascinated by the amazing painting and decoration of the ceiling and walls inside. (Plus you already got to see statues from the British Museum, they look pretty much the same.)

Can you imagine being the Pope and getting to walk through this whenever you want???

(PS, the last two look like they're carved, but they're actually painted)

I've never been a huge art person but you cant help but appreciate the incredible skill that was put into all of the decoration of this building. If you are ever in Rome, this is definitely a place you can't miss! There's so much more too it than what I posted.

After the Vatican we visited the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take pictures in there so we don't have any :( But trust me when I say its really surreal to be inside a place with a painting that you only see in books...on tattoos...on clipart.......Michelangelo's painting of Creation.

It's so much more than just the middle part (the part where Adam and God are almost touching fingers). It spans the whole ceiling and starts with the very beginning of creation and ends with the story of Noah. On the sides of the ceiling there are smaller paintings depicting the lineage of Jesus. So cool!

Michelangelo also painted the front wall (behind the altar). The name of the painting is The Last Judgement and it was painted about 30 years after the ceiling. One side of the painting shows people ascending to Heaven being pulled up by angels. Michelangelo did a self portrait of himself on this part. The other side shows demons pulling people down to Hell.

(The Last Judgement, I got this off the internet)

It's surreal being in a place like the Sistine Chapel. You walk in and you just see a huge group of people, all quiet, staring at the ceiling. It's one of those places you just want to be in there by yourself to just take it all in. It's considered a holy place so there's a dress code. I had to make sure my shoulders were covered and was wearing a skirt that was at least to my knees and Jonathan had to wear pants.

Anyways, up next we have St. Peter's Basilica!

Beautiful Paris...

Paris is such a beautiful city. It's pretty much everything you would imagine old-school Europe to look like. It also has soooo much history! Kind of like a GIANT downtown Franklin for those of you know who know what that is.

On our first full day in Paris we took a tour of the city and also went up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. Jonathan couldn't get enough of that structure. We have probably around 150 pictures of it! Don't worry, I won't make you look at all of them, but here are a few from the morning we went...

Ready to go in!

Pilier Nord, North Pillar, is where we went in

Some views from the second level...

The rest of the first day we had these passes for a "hop on and off" tour through the city. Basically its this bus line that runs through the city and stops at all the major sites. You can get on when you want and get off when you want. It was nice having that instead of having to figure out bus routes that were in French.

We were pretty exhausted from lack of sleep and lots of busyness in London and going to Paris so the after we rode the bus for a bit we headed back to the hotel to rest and went to the little market down the street and got some stuff for dinner and just ate in the room! We were a little boring that day...

However, the NEXT day we literally walked almost all over the city. It was great experiencing Paris as more of a local than a tourist (except when we'd pull out the giant camera to stop and take a picture, or two...or twenty....)

We started off at Revolution Square. This is where Marie Antoinette was beheaded and also most of the other nobles of that time. At the time, there was so much blood from all of the beheading, cattle wouldn't even cross the square because they were afraid from the smell. In the center of the square is an Egyptian obelisk that is over 3000 years old. It's the oldest thing in the city.

Next to it is a beautiful fountain...

From the square we walked to the famous Louvre Museum.

There were the most beautiful flowers in the gardens around the Louvre, Heather if you're reading this they make me think of the wildflowers you find and put in your vases :)

In front of the Louvre

From the Louvre we walked to Notre Dam, and on the way we saw this little painter. Definitely something you feel like you'd see in a city like Paris...

He was just sitting by this bridge, painting away!

And here is the breathtaking Notre Dame...it's official, cathedrals are my favorite.

Amazing right?

After that we did a little exploring...

Then we hopped on a bus to go back to Eiffel. It was an open top double decker bus so Jonathan was able to get some great shots of different things...

that's not what I mean...

:)

Under this gold dome is where Napoleon is buried....in SIX caskets...legend says it was so he wouldn't come back!

We really wanted to sit on the grounds next to it and just take it all in. So we got some ice cream and did just that....

We then walked back to the Arch de Triumph, where we took the underground to get back to where our hotel was.

We had dinner at a charming little cafe that was on the walk back to the hotel. You hear that French people hate Americans/speaking English, but if you just make an effort (even a simple 'Bonjour!' as a greeting) most of the time, they are very nice to you! At the cafe, the manager greeted us and even brought us a menu in English without us even asking!

theres a reason why they call it French bread....

This was delicious.

A charming church across from the cafe near our hotel

Well that was our adventure in Paris! We loved the city. It was so well preserved. We really enjoyed feeling like we were almost stepping back in time.

Up next, ROMA!