Oh what a beautiful morning

The view from just outside the flat in Rome my last morning there, 2 days ago.

The view of NYC/Times Square from the hotel yesterday morning.

And I awoke to this view this morning (at 4am, by the way. Hooray for jet lag).

Hmmm...which would you prefer?

no carb left behind tour

I had a couple of hours to wander around this morning prior to heading to JFK and decided to make one last stop on the no carb left behind tour. For the past week I have eaten pizza or pasta everyday. I'm not complaining at all. It was mostly good...paricularly the pasta alla carabonara I had in Venice. The pastries were delicious. The orange juice and gelato was divine.

This morning in NYC I decided to try a bagel with butter in lieu of cream cheese, they say it's better with butter. I say with butter it lacks an egg. So I'm sticking with cream cheese. Also, the bagels are better by Battery Park...no offense Times Square.

On a slightly related note: I need a salad.

Arrivederci Italia!

Venice: thanks for the yummiest meal and awe inspiring beauty.

Ercolano: thanks for the education.

Positano: thanks for the breathtaking beauty and hilarious drive.

Rome: thanks for the ruins and the Spanish Steps.

Steven and Karley: thanks for the hospitality.

Gloria: thanks for playing Slug Nun.

And to all of Italy: my feet hate you but my heart loves you. I will return.

Built in a day

Got up early this morning to get some early morning shots of the Colosseo (read: before the place is crowded with tourists). It was a beautiful morning, as you can see. So nice to have it right across the street...which meant that "early" didn't have to be terribly early. Which is always a nice thing.

We then rode the Metro over toward Vatican City for our tour of the Vatican Museum. Boy was that overwhelming. Turns out that when each new Pope was chosen he would move into the Vatican with all of his own art that he'd commissioned and purchased over the years and remove all of the previous Pope's artwork. Where did all of that artwork go? To the old Vatican (now the Museum)...it wasn't being used. It was just a storage place. And with each successive Pope the collection got larger and larger and larger. And now it's a museum.

This is called the Pietà by Michaelangelo. It is, in fact, the only piece of his work that he actually signed. See the signature above. Turns out that some other sculptor was taking credit for this sculpture and Michaelangelo got all sorts of angry, grabbed his chisel and hammer and carved his name along the bodice of her dress. I think the guide said this was his first sculpture...not bad, eh?

This is one of the ceilings of one of the halls at Vatican Museum. That's just some of what I had to deal with...I mean, where do you look? There is so much to look AT. The guide told us that if we stood in front of each work of art for one minute it would take us 3 1/2 years to finish looking at all of the art in the Vatican Museum. And that doesn't include the art that is in the actual Vatican...he said the best stuff is there. The other interesting thing, I found, is that the statues and marble from the Forum and the Colosseo...that was taken from there anyway...can be found at the Vatican. Not sure if they (those at the Vatican) saw everyone taking the marble and decided to protect it from the thieves or just join in. I forget that the Catholic Church went through a very dark time. I remember learning it in school, but when I think of the Catholic Church now, I think of the good things and forget that Popes were at one time very greedy. Also, some of them had grandchildren. When our guide said: this is the whatever of Pope whatever who left it to his grandson. I had to ask: The Pope had a grandson? To which he replied: Many of them did, one even had a child with his own daughter and was quite proud of the fact. A cursory search of the Internet did not reveal the name of the Pope and I have since forgotten it. I'd chalk it up to an exaggeration of truth, because what I did find is that several Popes were fairly active, if you know what I mean.

All in all a pretty good day - even with the slight panic attack at the hordes of people at Vatican City.

All Roads

We arrived in Rome this morning via train from Naples. Also arriving in Rome via train was this group of students. We've seen a lot of student groups on this trip. First of all, how amazing is to be able to go on a school trip to Rome (yeah, sure, they probably live close, but I've heard some students speaking US English, British English, French, etc.). Second, how cute are these caps? The group from France had to wear bright orange and yellow crossing guard jackets. These kids? Lucky!

Did I mention that the apartment we booked on www.homeaway.com is directly across the street from the Colosseum? Seriously...I walked out the door and across the street to take this photo. You know what all of those holes are? Holes from the scaffolding they had to install to build the higher levels. And the smaller holes are from where metal pins used to hold up the facade and other such things. But, over time, people just decided they needed the metal more than the Colosseo did, so they pried it out. Like that castle I saw in Spain. It was in ruins because people decided they needed the stone to build their houses more than the castle did. I guess I thought that since Italy had all of this rich history and these great buildings, they would have been a bit better preserved. Too bad they weren't...turnes out they were just as lazy about it as the rest of the world.

I have no idea what this building is, but it is large and still has all of it's facade, so I'm a big fan of it.

And this photo here is for Whitney, who processed my SIM Unlock request for my phone. She wants a photo of the Trevi Fountain...here you go Whitney! Thanks for processing the unlock request. My phone works like a peach here and is invaluable.

I think I could live here

I've been wanting to visit Positano since I first saw it on Under the Tuscan Sun. It looked like such a magical place...how do all of the buildings sit almost on top of each other and not topple down the side of the cliff?

It is amazingly gorgeous there. Not only are the houses stacked so closely that only narrow corridors separate them, but they are also painted such bright colors, as seems to be the custom here in Italy.

February is a fantastic time to go to Positano. There were barely any other tourists there and the weather was comfortable warm. I had a delicious cup of fresh orange juice (which is pinkish here, not orange), a yummy pizza and some delicioso strawberry and lemon gelato.

It just may be my favorite place I've ever been. We were only there for the afternoon, but I already want to go back and believe I will be planning a trip just to the Amalfi Coast in the next few years. Wanna come with?

"So I'm rapelling down Mount Vesuvius..."

Ercolano in English is Herculaneum....and Herculaneum is a town that was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted and decimated Pompeii. Herculaneum is better preserved than Pompeii, from what I read, because it was covered in 25 meters of volcanic ash rock for 1700 years. It was fairly interesting...it's right in the middle of a residential area. You're walking along the street and BOOM! Ancient Ruins.

A thousand words

Oh Venice...what is there to say that photos couldn't say better?



and then this

and can you believe this?

"But come back in November or December, in February or March, when the fog, la nebbia, settles upon the city like a marvelous monster, and you will have little trouble believing that things can appear and disappear in this labyrinthine city, or that time here could easily slip in its sprockets and take you, willingly or unwillingly, back." --Erica Jong, "A City of Love and Death: Venice"

Venezia

The view from my hotel room...that's Venice. Gorgeous! Wish you were here.

Life in plastic...

I'm not sure what Ken did to merit his non-stop assault on Times Square screens trying to win Barbie back, but it must have been HUGE.

That's What She Said

Auguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty and in the pedestal exhibit they've included this quote of his. Ironically, you know what isn't as big as you think it is? The Statue of Liberty! It and it's pedestal is just a bit over half as tall as the Washington Monument.

Even though it's not as big as you'd like it to be, it's still pretty amazing. I enjoyed it. Lots of stairs and lots of wind, but totally worth it. Ellis Island was a beautiful building. We walked through it a bit, but I think I would have enjoyed it more had we gone on a tour. The complex is just so huge and there's only one building open to the pubic. I'm interested to know a bit more about it. You know what I did learn? They charge you $5 to look at the records and see if your family passed through there. There seems to be something wrong about that.

Battery Park is FAMOUS! I've seen it in so many NYC based movies, yet I never knew it was Battery Park. I assumed it was Central Park. And it could be that Central Park has similar benches - I haven't made it there yet - but I'm pretty sure I've seen Battery Park in movies before.

While walking through the Financial District we happened upon this street with 3 (actually 4) names. Federal Plaza, Duane St, FBI Special Agent Leonard W. Hatton Jr Street and O'Dwyer something or other. The O'Dwyer name was on the pole behind me. So my questions are many: What is the actual name of this street? Why must it have 4 names? Isn't naming a street meant to honor someone? How honored would you feel if the street they named after you had 3 names already?

I've enjoyed my time here in NYC and, at first, thought I could live here, no problem. I have now ammended that opinion. I could live here, but I'm not sure I would choose to live here. After 4 days of non-stop people EVERYWHERE, I just want to go somewhere and be ALONE. Even the parks here are more crowded than I'd like. However, if I could be guaranteede a relatively empty park on a regular basis and unlimited tickets to Broadway shows (both on and off), yeah, I'd move here.

Slow down...you move too fast

Rode the NYC subway today. A little intimidating when the subway driver announces that she will not be stopping at your intended stop due to construction. My first thought was: Great! Now I'm going to be late to church. And I have to walk 6 blocks...IN HEELS! Thank goodness for the helpful people on the subway that told us to get off at 72nd and then cross to the downtown track and ride the subway only one stop (the nice gentleman repeated that to me several times, because apparently, in his mind, I'm not only not from NYC, but I'm also retarded).

On the way back from church, as we passed the 59th street subway stop, Debbie and I serenaded those around us with Simon & Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song - because we knew had Lynda been with us, she would have sung the entire song.

Shake, Lego and 30 Rock

Collin and I have decided there should be a Shake Shack everywhere we go. My burger was so yummy. The Shake sauce was a nice touch. Great flavor and a perfect size. Debbie got a veggie burger that was A-MAZING. We will be returning, I'm sure.

For dessert, I asked the cashier for his recommendation...which was the Great White Way. Vanilla frozen custard, marshmallow and crispy rice. It was exactly as he said it would be: Like eating an ice cream rice crispy treat.

Of course we had to go to the Lego store. (FYI to the Lego store in Downtown Disney, I knew you were nothing great, but compared to this store, you kinda suck.) There were such cool murals everywhere and Lego versions of Rockefeller Center icons...and this HUGE wall of Legos. I'd actually like to return because we only explored half the store.

The visit to Rockefeller Center was a success. We enjoyed it more than the visit to the Empire State Building last night. Why? Because we could actually see the Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock...and somehow, that makes you feel like you are looking at NYC from the sky. I wish it had a better view of the Chrysler Building, that's the only change I would make. Of course, I didn't feel like I was at Rockefeller Center until I saw the statue of Prometheus. And the rink? Totally tiny and WAY over priced. The rink at Bryant Park is much better, in my opinion. (We went there too and I rode a tiny little carousel which made me feel like Ranee the Gigantor riding my magical flying frog defeating the baddies everywhere - video game coming soon.)

You like Black people?

Made it to NYC just fine...no getting dead for me...whew! HOWEVER...I did not sleep on the plane at all. JetBlue, if you're reading, my red-eye flight from SEA to JFK was entirely too warm. It was all I could do not to start taking off layers of clothing...and that's something nobody really wants to happen on a plane (am I right, Richard Patrick?). And it wasn't just me...everyone around me was complaining about the heat.

After checking in at the hotel, I slept and then headed to Broadway and Times Square. Times Square being Times Square, there was some craziness there. Young men were trying to get people to go see a comedy show and one of them had the pitchline of "You like Black people? This show has Black people in it." Also a bridal party was getting their photos taken...and it was bitterly cold. I was wearing long underwear (it is very rare that I'm cold, but I was FREEZING today)...and these girls were standing around in strapless gold lamé. Craziness I tell you! I really do hope that the T-Mobile ad appears in her wedding album...cause that'd just be hilarious. Or maybe it's just me.

Piazza di Spagna

I've had this photo as my desktop for the last 6 - 8 months. My desktop is my great motivator. When I get frustrated at the fact that I have to be a grown up and work to pay bills and be responsible, I look at my desktop for the motivation to keep plugging along. This is of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Hooray for trips to Italy!

My next desktop photo will probably be one of these:

or

or

Suggestions?

WAS a jolly, happy soul

I got some non-melt-able ice cubes. Poor Frosty.