The Escalantes: February 2013

Ok, so I know it's almost been 1 year since our trip to Europe (can you believe it?!) but I was recently shorting through my pictures remembered that I never posted any pictures from ROME (or Palma de Mallorca, Spain)! We stayed in Rome longer then any other city (about 5 days) and managed to take over 700 photos. Do worry, I'm not going to post them all! But here are some of my favorites with some brief highlights of our time there.

Long train rides

In pursuit of our hotel

Just walking down the street and then out of no where: The Colosseum. Right in the middle of the city. Amazing.

Really Really old Roman ruins

Just walking down the street, this kind of elegant extravagant work is on every corner.

I love the cream and rust colored buildings

The only day we were rained on during our time in Europe!!

Such an aesthetically pleasing city

Adam

Eve

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore - the inside was beautiful and had the most amazing tiled/mosaic floor with beautiful symbolism and colors. I did not take photos out of respect. This is one of the four Patriarchal Basilicas of Rome

Piazza della Repubblica - piazza meaning city square

Rome was filled with amazing statues in the middle of major streets. (Fontana del Tritone-Tritan Fountain)

The city of Rome is still partly surrounded by its huge ancient Roman city walls.

Beautiful garden in the city (just outside the old Roman walls)

We hiked up above the city and enjoyed some amazing views.

View from atop a hill.

Another beautiful park

"People's Square" (piazza del popolo)--just a large gorgeous square where lots of people walk around.

Crossing the Fiume Tevere (Tiber river) on our way to see Vatican City

Can you see Michael? Looks how small the car is!

Amazing. Simply Amazing architecture in that there is nothing simple about it.

The Palace of Justice (Palazzo di Giustizia) is a grand building in a city of world famous landmarks. It was erected in the 1880s. It houses the Supreme Court of the Italian Republic.

Castel Sant'Angelo. AKA Mausoleum of Hadrian. Initially commissioned by a Roman Emperor (by the name of Handrian) as a mausoleum for himself and his family. A Mausoleum is a building constructed as a monument containing a burial chamber for one or more deceased persons. Cool fact-the building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle. (Today it's a museum)

Looking back at the city of Rome

Vatican City
(as you can see it was getting dark, so we didn't actually get to see it this day)

Crossing the river back to the old city.

Don't laugh Dominic. Don't you dare laugh. :)

The Pantheon

The Fountain of Trevi.
At about 90 ft tall and 160ft wide - it is the largest Baroque style fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. We walked past this many times during out time in Rome because of it's majesty.

Temple of Hadrian. Built in 145 and is now incorporated into a newer building (17th century)

The Next Day... (May 29th)

We wanted to see the Fountain of Trevi in the daylight.

We got to see so much of the city because we just walked and walked and walked through all the narrow alleyways.

hehe

Cool Restaurant

Temple of Hadrian (notice the more modern building attached on the right side)

Taking a delicious lunch break!

Back to the Pantheon. We basically retraced our footsteps from the previous night so that we could spend more time checking out the sites. (Dominic had been a little cold the night before so we hadn't taken as much time at these sites as we had wanted).

Gotta love the hair

Inside the Pantheon. This is the Oculus and the main source for light.

One of the really cool things about the Pantheon is that the dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome and is supposedly one of the best preserved of the Roman buildings (-thanks wiki- I didn't know that).

The original Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire in the year 80. The pantheon was rebuilt, but was burned again in 110. Not long after the second fire, it was reconstructed a third time. I think this is the building that stands today.

Crossing the bridge back to Vatican City. Here we are at the Castel Sant'Angelo once again. Looks kind of like a mean fortress if you ask me. One of the less ornate and beautiful pieces of roman architecture that we encountered.

Drum rolllll......Vatican City.

Inside the Vatican. Amazing lighting

Seriously. Amazing lighting.

It was so quite and reverent although there were hundreds of tourists inside.

in Awe.

Outside the Vatican.

And here we began to take lots of fun photos...

We had to take advantage of the outfit change

Is that a 6-pack already? I think all boys innately flex for the camera.

Look how little his feet are!

Love. Love. Love.

and Love.

more Love.

The brick streets were amazing. We thought Dominic might enjoy admiring them up close.

The all encompassing view.

I want my house to be this color. And I want a fancy street light just like in front of it.

Walking back to the hotel. Thought we would cruise past some of our favorites again.

The next day...

exploring some museums

We just couldn't resist taking more and more pictures.
Fisheye lens in Daylight.

Arch of Costantine. The arch was dedicated in the year 315. That's pretty old. Just sayin.

Look how happy he is! He loves the Roman ruins.

Love. Love. Love.

and Love.

I married such a handsome man.

The next few photos are all part of the Roman Forum. This is a rectangular plaza surrounded by ruins of several important ancient government buildings right in the center of Rome.

Back to explore the old old ruins. We cruised past these the first night we were in town. But now we had tickets so we could walk all around and explore.