last week, on June 19, husby and i celebrated our two
year anniversary – and found out we are growing this perfect little guy:
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| dont you just love his perfect profile? i could stare at that nose and lip all day! (and sometimes do) |
but we really celebrated our two year anniversary a little
earlier this year by taking an amazing and beautiful 9-day vacation to
italy! i wanted to share our trip
and the amazing time we had!
we started our trip traveling through paris and i was
reminded why i hate the french.
our flight was late getting in and there was MAJOR construction going on
– we had to go through customs (WHYYYYY do you have to go through customs when
you aren’t even leaving the airport?
no idea.) we found out a few days before we left that we were expecting,
so that explained why RUNNING through the airport was exhausting, but
nonetheless absolutely necessary.
we had to go through security, again, and they were so rude and
obnoxious. i wanted to slap a few of them in the face.
although the last ones on the plane, we made it. and then i
got a nose bleed. and i asked the flight attendant for a tissue. and her
obnoxious frenchness said – get a tissue yourself. so sweaty, nose-bleeding, pregnantly exhausted janae had to climb over
the nice 90-year-old italian-only speaking babushka on the aisle to the airplane bathroom
for a tissue. ugh. 40 minutes in paris was more than i needed for the rest of my
life.
but then we made it to VENICE and all our troubles were
forgot. it was so peaceful and
gorgeous – everyone said that the air there is gross but i thought it smelled
incredible. with no cars, the streets were quaint and narrow and winding and
amazing. as a floating city, all the buildings are crumbly and falling into
each other – people are impressed by the leaning tower of pisa, but i swear
most of the towers here rival any lean coming from pisa. we stayed right next to san marcos
cathedral and woke up our first morning in town to a blissfully empty
square.
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| San Marcos |
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| our beautiful, blissful empty San Marcos Square |
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| Ca'd'Oro |
next, we ventured down to florence for lots of touristing and fine-eating. i certainly had the best food here than anywhere else – i literally dream about bufalo mozzarella. we saw the david and the ponte vecchio and the pitti palace with its boboli gardens. we bought spices and silk neckties and scarves. we visited the magnificent il duomo and the famed gates of paradise. i felt transported back to my history of creativity class with all the paintings and buildings we saw.
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| il duomo |
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| gates of paradise |
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| inside the dome of il duomo |
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| the palazzo vecchio - and where the David originally stood - the original is now in a museum (which we saw, but couldnt take pictures of) the original was damaged in the early 1800s during a riot so it was removed and replaced by this replica. |
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| perseus and medusa |
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| michelangelo and dante are both buried here |
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| statue of dante |
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| we took a tour of the world-famous italian leather school which is inside this church |
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| one of our few photos together :) |
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| the baptistry |
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| pitti palace! they made it out of boring brick because they didnt want the poor people of florence to know all the riches they had stashed away in there. with its size... im not sure they were adequately deceived... they were poor, not stupid. |
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| one of the first bath houses |
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| michelangelo was supposed to design the facade of this church - he wasnt able to complete plans before his death and so they've just always left it blank. |
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| the back of the pitti palace - from its extensive boboli gardens |
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| one of the many, many "guest houses" in the boboli gardens |
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| michelangelo's grotto (where "the prisoners" were originally housed - now replaced by replicas - we saw the originals in the same museum as the original david |
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| the medici's had a private above ground passageway that led from the palazzo vecchio to pitti palace - so they didnt have to walk across the bridge with all the commoners |
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| husby needed a break from all the art museums - so we went to the science and engineering museum dedicated to galileo |
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| 3 of galileo's actual fingers. he's a cool guy... but really? his fingers? who preserves these and puts them on display? |
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| now this is what i call a scale |
seriously – ive traveled a lot in my life – but traveling with this guy is THE BEST. he makes every experience better. and he improves the picture, right?
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| in front of the spanish steps in rome |
finally, we headed down to rome – the eternal city. we had a great (but tiring) time touring saint peters, the colosseum, the palatine and roman forum, and most of all, the sistine chapel. we employed rick steves’ podcasts and really got to get into all the details to enjoy all of what Michelangelo painted there. it was one of the highlights for sure. and for those of you who know my obsession with hands – you know how much i LOVE the creation of Adam fresco.
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| the colosseum |
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| trajan markets |
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| the aquaducts |
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| the cross inside the colosseum dedicated to the christians who were murdered here |
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| sculpture of moses by michelango - one of his last pieces and it was never fully completed |
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| these are reportedly the chains that bound saint peter, preserved in a reliquary |
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| la pieta |
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| the flavian aviary |
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| the "real" caesar's palace |
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| the roman circus - still under excavation |
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| the fountain of truth! i missed this the last time i was in rome! |
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| pyramid of cestius |
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| the pantheon |
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| particularly interesting because it is lit during the day entirely with a single hole in the ceiling for natural light |
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| the tomb of raphael |
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| best place we had lunch in rome! |
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| trevi fountain! make a wish to return someday to the eternal city! |
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| we searched for a long time to find this cathedral from the da vinci code - st. maria in ecstasy - there were like 8 cathedrals all on the same intersection... it was not easy to find. |
we had planned to go to Pompeii for a day, but we decided to be restful instead and elected to see a closer, and arguably cooler ruin site. its called ostia antica and was rome’s first colony for its proximity to the sea and acted as rome’s seaport. it is remarkably reserved, much less touristed, and you are free to wander around and through the ruins, some of which date back 4th century BC.
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| an ancient cemetery on the outskirts of the city |
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| this is how the heated their homes - through water vents in the walls |
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| their ampitheater |
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| these mosaics are so well preserved and date back to some of the earliest settlements of the area - these were "shopping stalls" and these mosaics demonstrated what the stall sold - in this case, fishing nets and grains |
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| this is the mill for the town |
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| an ancient tavern/hotel - seth is playing bartender |
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| cold celler |
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| ancient apartment complex living |
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| this is the oldest building that dates back to the 4th century BC. it originally served as a fortress, but became essentially the city hall. |
we came back through the Netherlands and wished we had much more time there. everyone was super sweet (maybe its all the drugs?) and it seemed beautiful. we picked up this adorable little piggy bank there to let our little one know we were thinking of him on our trip.
anyway – hope you enjoyed the photos of our beautiful and romantic second anniversary celebration. its been the best two years of my life!
