Beautiful Venice

Is Venice, Italy on your bucket list? Venice was at the top of my bucket list when we went in 2009 and after going I added going back to Venice onto my bucket list. Go figure. It’s just like Hawaii for me. I was still new to travel blogging when we went and I posted very little on our trip to Venice. Tonight on a www.TravelingMom.com twitter party on romantic travel they asked where the most romantic place you’ve ever been. I could list 10 off the top of my head, but Venice, Italy tops that list. Here’s a photo tour about Venice 3.5 years later!

  We did tons of window shopping, including strolling through a local market. Venice is known for it’s glass and you can see from these pictures that holds true. The glass art was exquisite, as was the glass jewelry.
 Not every inch of Venice is on a canal, although most of it was! On our last morning we strolled back towards the entrance to the city to catch the bus. We stopped in a couple of shops, grabbed some lunch and hung out eating in this park.
Venice oozes romance, but at night it is so much more romantic.

       
  

Walking around the city is an experience. Even if you do nothing but walk around and hang out in cafes you’ll have a great time.


Oh, and some of the streets are pretty narrow.

• A picture tour of the Venice hotel we stayed at: Hotel Riva, Venice Italy
• Walking along the Grand Canal

Daphne and Apollo

 

One of the marble sculptures we saw in Rome, Italy was breathe taking.  Its the Apollo and Daphne sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini located at the Borghese Gallery.  I had no idea a sculpture could have such exquisite details.  These pictures do not do it justice.

Depicted is Daphne is being turned into a laurel tree while Apollo chases her in vain.
Italy Rail Passes
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Grand view of the Roman Forum

The Roman Forum in Rome, Italy.

To see other photo Friday pictures check out Delicious Baby.
Italy Rail Passes
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Inside the Pantheon - Rome, Italy

On our European Vacation we went to Rome, Italy.  While we were in Rome we went to see the Pantheon.  It is a must see while in Rome. 

The Pantheon is free to get into.  You can only walk around the main room.  We had downloaded Rick Steves audio tour of the Pantheon before we went and then listened to it while we were there.  I highly recommend downloading his free podcasts.  Instead of paying for an audio tour. 

I wish I had taken a picture of the small holes in the floor that the rain drains into.  Check out the outside of the Roman Pantheon.

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Outside the Pantheon - Rome, Italy

Are you going on vacation to Rome, Italy any time soon.   If you are make sure to go see the Pantheon. 

The Pantheon is is a building in Rome, Italy.  Commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.  It is not for from Piazza Navona.  For more interesting facts on the Pantheon check out wikipedia.  They have a ton of interesting info on it.   

There are restaurants all around the outside in the plaza.  We went to a college hang out behind it where the food was delicious and cheap.  If you are standing out in front of the Pantheon looking at it, the bar/restaurant is to the right hand side.  This is a great area to hang out in.   

Roman Coliseum and Forum

A few days ago I was eating at a restaurant and when I looked at the kids menu there was a picture of the Coliseum and I thought "I still can't believe I was actually there".  As a historian I thought this was the most amazing place I had ever seen. My husband was hoping for a relaxing vacation, but for the four days we were in Rome, I drug him everywhere! Everywhere you look there is something to see and learn.

While we were in Rome, Italy we bought and used the Roma pass. I thought this was a big money saver. This pass gets you into two attractions and it was good was the bus and subway system. You HAVE to figure out the bus and subway system or you will walk until you can no longer mover your legs! The great thing about the attractions is that some attractions are 2 in 1 or 4 in 1. For example we chose to use it for a pass to the Coliseum, but it included a pass to get into the Roman Forum. So, essentially we got 2 for 1 because it only counted for 1 attraction.

The Coliseum did not disappoint. Although it looks just like it does in pictures there is so much more to see. To walk through it was amazing. There is a part underneath with all kinds of history and artifacts.

In this picture you can see what it looks like today, but if you look at the very end of the pit you will see the floor they have rebuilt. Used to, when this was actually used, a floored completely cover that bottom area along with a ton of trap doors. The "actors" could pop out all over the place; as could the animals that were about to eat them! They also had the ability to put water through there for various events.  The whole Coliseum was much more advanced than I had realized.

Here are a few photos of the Roman Forum. We did not take a tour but instead walked around reading the signs and listening to a Rick Steves podcast tour. These podcast tours are free and awesome. It was easy to understand a tour given by an American.

This huge thing behind me was 1 of 3 remaining structures thy mark the entrance to the old city. Way behind me is also Palatine Hill. Until we were there in person it never occurred to me it was named that because it was built on a massive hill. Someone actually recommended skipping Palatine hill and I'm so thankful we didn't. Back there we saw what remained of Augustus's house and a small arena where the important people where entertained.

Just seeing these three things was a full day. A wonderful day!

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Venice

These pictures are in no particular order but I just wanted to start sharing a little bit about Venice. Venice was amazing. It was by far my favorite of the places we went on our trip. I have never seen a city like this.  I knew before hand it would be incredible, but Venice surpassed my expectations.  I hope we have an opportunity to take our children to Venice.

This first photo is taken along the walk way between the water and St. Marks Basilica. This is a picture of some buildings on the Grand Canal. The last day of our trip we listen to Rick Steve's podcast touring the Grand Canal. Instead of riding in a water taxi we walked it using our map. We saw a lot of other cool stuff by doing it this way.

This is the only time we ate spaghetti the entire time we were in Italy. We did it a lot of other pasta! It was our first night in Venice and our hotel recommended a British pub as a good place to eat and hang out. Sure enough the food was great and there was a bunch of British people in there watching soccer!

A bridge, I don't remember which one.

This is right outside our hotel at night. We were on one of the gondola routes and each night we could hear the singing and accordion.