Italy, 3-14/18 September 2006

Taking in the sites of Rome

the Victor Emmanuel Memorial

Trevi Fountain

the Pantheon

St. Peter's Basilica

The Vatican Museum

Our favorite spot in the Vatican Museum (also when I was there in 1997) was the "hall of maps," which had the most amazing, intricately painted/sculpted ceiling... It's very cool.

Chen-Nee really liked the paintings by Raphael near the Sistine Chapel (this one was "Philosophy," iirc)

Cool views from the top of the dome

The Colosseum

We wandered back that way in the evening to see how it was lit up, and since the moon was perfectly situated I couldn't resist a night shot...

a painting I liked in Piazza Navona (should have bought it! Oh well...)

The ruins of the Roman forum

Florence

The Duomo

Palazzo Vecchio

The central market in Florence was pretty cool... Huge rounds of cheese, nice prosciutto, ... (Note Chen-Nee's happy expression - biggest smile of the trip! :D )

View of Florence from Piazza Michaelangelo

We stayed mostly in bed & breakfasts, which was fun - the Italian/Japanese couple running the Novecento B&B was by far the coolest

Tuscany

Driving through Tuscany was the highlight of our trip - quaint countryside, with a villa or walled town on practically every hilltop... Truly beautiful.

The town of Volterra was pretty cool, but we were very surprised to find that the castle (to the right) had "STAY AWAY! NO PHOTOS!" signs - turns out it is now being used as a prison?!?! (Talk about missed tourist opportunities!)

San Gimignano (from our hotel room window)

We sampled both the grapes...

... and the wine (fairly extensively, since it was so cheap and great!).

Our (very cool) Smart "forfour"

One of the small towns we hit as we (very randomly) explored the smallest (sometimes un-) paved roads on the map

The cathedral in Sienna

The "Le Crete" area in Tuscany

Pisa

yup, it most certainly does lean! All the people trying to take pictures of themselves holding up or knocking over the tower were comical...

Cinque Terre

We took a day trip from Pisa to Cinque Terre, a beautiful coastal region with five villages connected by a network of trails

A bad sign (thunder and lightning on the horizon). We only made it to the fourth village before the storm hit, and had to take the train to the fifth instead of walking...

The cathedral in Lucca (just Chen-Nee, after Mark had left)

Back to Pisa (and a climb of the tower)

The Arno River in Pisa