Final Post

Well, I've been back in the States for about 3 weeks now and I have some more pictures that never got posted so I thought I would share those with you. Thanks for following my blog!

Capitoline museum statue

The famous She Wolf statue

Medusa

AS Roma vs. Inter Milan match

Easter Sunday at the Vatican

The congregation of 60,000 strong.

The pope giving his final blessings

The infamous Prime Minister Berlusconi in the flesh.
Ran into him as he was coming out of a jewelry store
(probably shopping for one of his mistresses)

Corner of a temple from the roman forum

Inside the Colosseum

Thermal Baths

View of the forum from Capitoline Museum

Exit ramps for the Vatican Museums

The Capuchin Crypt
(Contains the bones of 4000 monks)

Florence and Pisa

A few weeks ago we took a weekend trip via train up to Florence and Pisa. It was about a 4 hour train ride each way. Once again, traveling north seemed to be a great relief from Rome (much better food and cleaner).

What was I gunna do? just let it fall?

River in Pisa

Nightfall in Florence

More Locks on a bridge

Swordfish outside of a seafood restaurant

Giant claws

The Duomo

Michelangelo's David
This is hands down the most amazing piece of art I've seen in person.
and yes this was a hard picture to get... they are very firm on their no pictures rule.

As I was sitting behind the sculpture, admiring the slingshot draped across David's back, two American girls sat down next to me and began talking about the sculpture... "Oh look at the big crack across his back. Remember in history class when they talked about how Michelangelo screwed up and cracked David?" (speaking about the slingshot that David used on Goliath)   I got up in silence and walked away wondering if our education system is THAT bad. I sure hope this was just an isolated incident.

Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa

We took a small class trip to Tivoli (about 20 miles outside Rome) to see Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa.

Hadrian's Villa was constructed around 200 BC and is now in complete ruins. The villa was constructed for Hadrian (Roman Emperor) because he disliked the palace in Rome. The villa was originally just a getaway, but eventually turned into a permanent residence for Hadrian and a population of about 3000 Romans. The villa consisted of 250 acres of developed land and buildings including palaces, thermal baths, theaters, temples, libraries, and living quarters.

Large pool

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I fed this duck about 1/3 of my box of cereal haha.

His lady friends that didn't share with.

more of the ruins

Villa d'Este, which is only a few miles from Hadrian's Villa, was constructed in the 1500's and is very intact still today. Many of the materials and art works from Villa d'Este were actually taken from Hadrian's Villa. This Villa is quite a bit smaller and has fewer buildings but has a bigger focus on the gardens, which are still well maintained today.

Staircase in the Villa

One of the many fountains