Veni, Vidi, Vici: Rome

"I came, I saw, I conquered." -Julius Caesar

We came, we saw, but we definitely did not conquer Rome in the six days we spent there. We did manage to see quite a bit of it though, and it was all AMAZING.

On our very first day in Rome, after a long and uncomfortable train ride overnight from Venice, we set off exploring. Our first stop was the Spanish Steps, the widest staircase in Europe. 

View from the bottom of the Spanish Steps

Next up was the Trevi Fountain, which turned out to be one of our favorite places in Rome. Legend has it that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you're destined to come back to Rome some day. 

Absolutely breathtaking!

Throwing a coin in the fountain; he's definitely coming back to Rome!

Since Patrick and I had 6 full days in Rome, we were able to take our time and see most of the major sites; we even revisited some sites more than once (Five times for the Colosseum...it really is that impressive!). It was pretty amazing seeing the Colosseum; you always see it in movies and on TV, but you never actually think that one day you'll be standing inside it. 

Pretty impressive, huh?

Inside the Colosseum

Some of the other pretty great sights we saw were the Pantheon:

The best preserved Roman monument

A very impressive view of Rome from Trastevere:

Rome is such a beautiful city!

Many, many beautiful churches:

The Vatican:

And to top it all off, we even saw the POPE!

Can you see him?

That's right, we've been blessed by the Pope. We've never been able to say that before!

All in all, it was a great trip, and probably our favorite place that we have visited so far!

As for that announcement I told you about...

For all you lucky people back in the States, Patrick will home sooner than later, as in January 10th! We decided it would be best if he went back to try and find a job, since the job prospects are basically non-existent for him over here. Get ready to welcome him back with all the good food, friends & family he's been missing over here! :)

Hasta luego!

Ciao Venice

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately; it's been a busy month filled with traveling. Like I've said once before, Spain loves their 'holidays', so I had an extra long break from work (I may or may not have skipped a day or two, but that's beside the point...).

 We were first only going to go to Venice, but Patrick really wanted to go to Rome too, and it didn't take too much convincing for me to agree. Like everyone here has told me, I have to 'aprovecharme', or take advantage of, living in Spain and being so close to all of these fabulous countries. And that's exactly what we did.

Welcome to Italy!

As soon as we stepped off the plane, Venice greeted us with rain and freezing temperatures that we're not quite used to in Spain. We didn't have a map and weren't quite sure what to do, so we just started walking. That was what we did for the majority of the trip, and it's actually quite charming walking through the many winding streets and canals in Venice. 

Over the Grand Canal

Since it was pretty rainy and cold the whole time we were in Venice (note: don't go to Venice in December!), we did quite a bit of "indoor sightseeing", a.k.a. we visited A LOT of museums. It sounds boring, but most of them were actually very interesting. Although we both enjoyed Doge's Palace, my favorite was the Palazzo Mocenigo, a fashion museum with dresses and costumes from the early 20th century, while Patrick's was the Museum of Natural History (who doesn't love dinosaurs?!).

Doge's Palace

Patrick and I definitely enjoyed ourselves in Venice, although it would have been a bit more pleasant had it been warm and sunny instead of cold and rainy, but hey, we were in Venice! We took advantage of the time we had there and explored basically the whole island. But let's not forget about the food; I think we ate enough pasta, pizza and gelato in Venice to last us a very long time, and it was excellent!

This post would get way too long if I included our trip to Rome, so I'll save that for the next post. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. :)

Gondolas

In front of the Rialto Bridge

Finally some sun in Venice!

Over the Grand Canal

The canals were very charming :)

Patrick on one of the many bridges in Venice

Next up: Rome and a little announcement...

Hasta luego!