Czech? Check!

I have mentioned how much I love New Brunswick, but the one place I love to visit more is the Czech Republic. I was born and grew up in Canada, but my parents were born in Czechoslovakia, so my upbringing was heavily influenced by Czech values and traditions. I love the fact that I have a diverse background. All of my extended family is over there, so I love that I have people to visit (although, it gets hard when you can only see your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins every couple of years).

J and I went to Europe back in 2008, so some of the following pictures are from that trip. However, I find that whenever I visit, I take the same pictures of the same places, so there was no need to take up more digital memory during our honeymoon.

This time around, we flew from Venice to Prague, I got sicker with the tonsilitis and stayed a couple of days in bed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my cousin (once removed? 2nd cousin?) Ivan, who's wife checked me out at the Polyklinik. I'm so thankful that they could help me out when I was feeling so horrible!!

But last time we were in Prague, we went right downtown and saw all the major points of interest: Prague Castle with St. Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge (Karluv Most), and Old Town Square (Staromestska Namesti). The first picture is the back of the Cathedral. It's gothic architecture and looks amazing.

Inside, we walked around and looked at all the stained-glass windows, statues, and the alter and I was thinking to myself: "When I was younger and came here with my parents, wasn't there a crypt?". So in my less than perfect Czech, I asked someone who worked there where the Crypt was. She said it wasn't open, but then radioed someone on her walky-talky and asked if she could take some nice Czech people from Canada into the Crypt! And they said yes! So we got a mini-private tour of the Crypt, while other tourists milled about wondering why they weren't allowed in. Suckers! She even took us into the final resting place of St. Wenceslas! Yes, that Wenceslas!

After touring Prague Castle, we made it to Hradcany, which is a square that overlooks Prague. Prague Castle is on a hill, so from Hradcany, there are stairs that lead back down into the city. But from the top of the stairs, you get some great pictures.

At the base of the hill, on the Malostrana side of the Vltava river, we went to the shoreline to take a picture of Karluv Most, my favourite bridge.

After seeing Prague so many times (I've been there at least 10 times), I try to add 1-2 day trips so that I get to know the country better. Naturally, we go to visit my mom's side of the family in Dolni Ujezd, and we used to travel to Litomerice to visit my dad's side of the family, who have now moved to Prague. In Dolni Ujezd, near Prerov, we took a little hike to see Drahotus, ruins of a castle from the 13-14th Century. Those of you that have been to our house, you may know the picture where J and I are standing on a bridge and we only found out when we enlarged the picture that my eyes were closed. Anyways, that bridge is from these ruins, but the bridge was built in the 17th century, so it's a bit 'newer'. I love the fact that you can just come across these ruins that have so much history. It blows my mind!

Near Litomerice, there is a small town called Terezin. Last time we were in the Czech Republic, we stopped in Terezin on the way to visit my dad's side of the family. In Terezin is an old concentration camp from the 1940's that is now open as a sort of museum. It's chilling to see the dormatories, the solitary confinement, the place where executions were held. It's hard to believe this all happened, but it did, and it's worth seeing. The next picture has tombstones next to more tombstones. These were victims of the diseases that spread in the abysmal conditions of the concentration camps, like cholera, not mass executions. Terezin was a mid-way point. Prisoners were then sent to Auschwitz if they didn't die of disease first.

About an hour outside of Prague is Karlstein. This was where the crown jewels used to be housed back in old times. You take a train from Prague, get off the train in Karlstein and then walk about 30 minutes up and around a hill to get there. Great photo ops while walking, and once you're up there, you can get a guided tour. It's not one of my favourite castles, but definitely a must-see.

My favourite chateau is Konopiste. It's been used to film a lot of movies, most notably The Illusionist. Other castles/chateaux I have seen with my family: Hluboka, Krivoklat, and Cesky Krumlov, to name a few. There are hundreds to be seen, though.

Back in Prague, we went to the Old Square to see Orloj, the old clock that tells you the time, the date, the astrological house, and according to our friend Chris, Jaromir Jagr's total goals to date (I have yet to confirm this). Everytime I'm in Prague, I have to see it ring the hour as you get to see the 12 apostles, statues moving and ringing bells, and then the screeching rooster at the end (sounds more like a train whistle).

If you have enough time, go on over to Petrin Hill. You can go up with your transfer-metro ticket. Take the cable car up, then go up the tower that looks like a 1/60th version of the Eiffel Tower. Climb the tower and take some pictures, you won't get a better view!

This post could have been a lot longer considering I have been to the Czech Republic numerous times, but my sister has already complained that some of my posts are too long. (Seriously, if you don't have time to read it, then wait until you do. Blogs have information worth reading, Twitter doesn't. Oh Snap! Love you, V).

The Czech Republic is awesome. I am a bit biased, but it really is one of the must-see places to add to your bucket-list. If you ever need help planning your trip to the Czech Republic, you know who to contact. And if I can't help you, my special Czech-info contacts can (thanks mom and dad!).

Next up? Munich!

Menace in Venice.

Any little street or alleyway in Venice is on the map. No matter how wide or how narrow...or how filled with water, it's on the map. The picture above, for instance, is one of the many little streets that you may miss if you keep thinking under North American terms: streets have to be big enough for cars to drive on them. But not in Venice!

We've also been brought up to think that these timy little alleyways are unsafe to go down...but in Venice, it's just any other way to get from A to B. In Venice, we felt so safe walking around at night that we didn't think twice about going down there without any lights. The only problem was finding where we were on the map with the lack of light.

We took the train from Florence to Venice, and were amazed at how all of a sudden, there was so much water! On either side of the train tracks was water. There was a parking lot on the mainland, as Venice is a no-car zone.....which leads us back again to how safe Venice is and we've come full circle. End of blog post. No, just kidding.

You may be wondering, well then how do people get around?? Well they walk, of course! Venice really isn't that big, you just have to learn the fastest ways to get where you're going. It can take you 45 minutes if you go one way, or 15 minutes if you go the other way*. There are very few bridges that cross the Grand Canal and you may have to backtrack before you can actually cross over. That is why they have the Vaporetto! Vaporettos are essentially water buses. Not many locals use them, they are mainly for tourists, but they are cool nonetheless. For 6.50 Euros, you get one trip....and I thought the buses in Ottawa were expensive! However, for about 18 Euros, you have a day pass, so go for that.....and word of advice: give yourself plenty of time to get off the vaporetto (ie, by making your way through all the people to get to the exit). They can't just stop again farther up in the Canal to let you off. They have to go to the next stop and it may be on the other side of the Canal!


As Venice is a no-car zone, everything has to be on a boat. The buses, the taxis, the shuttles to the airport (unless you go to the actual bus station which is at the entrance to the city near the train station). The next picture is a shuttle to the airport.

Even the police and ambulances are on boats! And just like everywhere else, everyone has to move to the side to let them through as they have sirens and lights.

Ok, I've gotten sidetracked. We took the train from Florence to Venice. We took out our map and put on our huge packs. *It took us maybe 45 minutes to find the hotel (after a couple days it took about 15 minutes), but once we did, we were instantly happier as we could walk the narrow streets without 16 kg on each of our backs.

Up one street, over a small bridge, down another street, over another small bridge. The Grand Canal has lots of mini-canals that cut Venice up into little pieces. But going over the little bridges gives you these great views that are so typical of Venice.

The Gondoliers are waiting at almost every main intersection, but they are pricey! 80 Euros for a 45 minute ride...when you can just take a Vaporetto. Of course, it won't be as romantic, but just think of this. You save the money you would have spent on the gondola and have a nice romantic dinner!

Speaking of dinner, we had the most amazing mozarella balls!!! They were like little bites of heaven, and totally worth the rationed lactaid pills.

The morning of our only full day in Venice, I woke up with a sore throat. I knew I wasn't coming down with a cold. I knew I was coming down with Tonsilitis. I had the 'itis 3 times in 2008 so I knew really well how it felt. I started getting a fever too, but was determined not to let it ruin our trip, so I pumped myself full of Italian Echinacea and Vitamin C in the hopes that it would go away. But it only got worse...what a menace tonsilitis is. And with travelling, you are touching so many things that everyone else has touched, that the 'menace' was probably following us around since we arrived in Rome. Another word of advice? Carry around some hand-sanitizer.

So back to our only full day in Venice. We went to the market! The Rialto Bridge is one of the few bridges that cross the Grand Canal. It's so frequented that there are tons of little shops and a great market at which you can buy lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and seafood. We tried some fresh fruit, and only looked at the seafood. Strawberries are romantic, eels are not.

After our little snack, we gazed over the Rialto bridge at the continuous traffic on the water.

The Vaporettos were running, there were taxis all over the place, there were boats filled with goods, and then the gondolas were in the mix too. We were surprised that we didn't see any accidents, but people really know how to steer the boats in Venice!

After the Rialto Bridge, we took the Vaporetto to St. Mark's Square. We had learned from our experience in Rome and we dressed to see the Basilica. Once we got there, we made our way up the Campanile, and saw a bird's eye view of Venice.

Later that night, after a nap and even more Echinacea and Vitamin C, we took the Vaporetto back to St. Mark's Square. St. Mark's is the main tourist attraction in Venice and even at night it was filled with people. Each restaurant in the Square had a live band playing well known songs like Moon River and Que Sera Sera....it would have been really enjoyable had my fever not gotten worse. Totally recommended though, just leave the tonsilitis at home. On the way back, the city lights were lit up and we took a few pictures from the Vaporetto.

There are several little islands of the coast of Venice, even one which has the cemetery. The islands, from what we hear, have some great beaches and had we spent more time in the area, I would have insisted we spend a day on the beach. However, our time in Italy was over and we had to catch a plane to Prague. Perhaps we will go back some day, but as short as our time was, we got a feel of how people live there. So despite the menace, we really loved Venice (and perhaps the tonsilitis was a good thing otherwise I wouldn't have a good rhyme for Venice).

Next up? Prague!

The Importance of Florence, with a memento of Sorrento

My husband J finds hairpins everywhere. In the bathroom, on my dresser, on his dresser, on the floor, even in the washing machine. It drives him crazy. Of course, when I can't find the one I was using I just go get another one...anyways, there is a point to this story. See the first picture? That's a super-mega hairpin turn in Sorrento. So even in Italy, J couldn't escape the hairpins!
On a morning filled with thundershowers (and not regular Canadian thundershowers, these were full-blown Italian thunderstorms) we found out over breakfast that our day trip to Mount Vesuvius had been cancelled. It's a crater up there, and the rocks get slippery when it rains, making it a pretty unsafe trip on such a day. We are both planners and we immediately had to figure out what we were going to do that day. This is how it happened: the man that was serving breakfast (who also owned the hotel) had broken the bad news to us....in body language. He didn't speak any English, but a simple "Vesuvius?" and us nodding our heads led him to start shaking his head and fluttering his fingers as if it were raining (which it was!). So we understood that the tour was cancelled. He saw the sad expressions on our faces and immediately said "Cappucino?" and we nodded our heads and smiled. We could hear him making the cappucinos in the next room and we started thinking what we could do. Pompeii was so small a town that there wasn't much to do, but we new there was a tourist information office just around the corner. When he came back with the cappucinos, he said "Sorrento! {insert more italian...lots more italian....and then} Cirsumvesuviana!" We knew that Sorrento wasn't too far, we just didn't know how to get there. From what we understood, he was saying that we could take the Circumvesuviana Train to Sorrento. The man left again....only to come back with a bottle filled with yellow liquid and he exclaimed "No Vesuvius? Limoncello!" and gave us the bottle as a way of saying "Sorry, your trip was cancelled". We thanked him (thanking people is one of those things you always learn in a foreign country) and went to our room to do somemore thinking. We decided that we would go to the Tourist office, see if they have a map of Sorrento, and then walk to the Circumvesuviana Train station (not Senturio, but Scavi) and catch the next train. For 3 Euro 50, it was definitely worth it.
The train took about 45 minutes to get to Sorrento. The city was beautiful! Ocean front, small town feel, and lots of little shops. Unfortunately, we hadn't read up on the city before-hand and didn't really know what to see, but we spent some time by the water and had a nice afternoon. From what people tell me, Sorrento and Capri are absolutely gorgeous, so you should make a stop there if you're in the area.

We arrived back in Pompeii in the evening, had dinner, and then packed. The next morning, we caught the train back to Naples, then caught the Pendolino to Florence. Ok, I have always heard that the Pendolinos are these fast trains that only travel in Europe, but I didn't know they went that fast! No joke, at one point the train was going 250 km/hr! I'm surprised we didn't either a) take off into outerspace or b) go back to the future.

Our hotel in Florence was right near the train station, so it didn't take long to find. We stayed at the Hotel City, and it was quite nice! Old style rooms, lots of character, and minutes from everything. We dropped our bags, showered, and went to take a stroll to get our bearings.

One of the most beautiful things in Florence is the Duomo. It's a church that looks like no other that we've seen before. It's so big and the streets are so small, that we could only get pieces of it in photos, but it was amazing to see.

Next to the Duomo is a Campanile (tower) up which we went. Lots and lots of stairs, allowing us to continue our Rome diet into Florence. At the top, we got some gorgeous views of the city, including one of the top of the Duomo.

The city's most popular piece of art is the statue of the David, by Michaelangelo. The real David is in the Academia museum, to which be bought tickets. However, before we got there for our set time, we saw the David twice in other locations in the city.

These were, of course, replicas of the statue....but we learned that we really didn't need to spend the money on those museum tickets. I think I've mentioned before that we've decided we're not really 'museum' type people. All the busts and sculptures and regligious paintings were beautiful, but after we saw a couple they all started to look the same. One thing we've heard over and over again is that the Ufizi museum is great, but we didn't go so we can't comment. We can only comment on the line-up....it was loooooooooong.

We made a stop in the Santa Croce (I laughed everytime J said this). The Santa Croce is like a huge mausoleum where important people were buried. People like Michaelangelo, Marconi, Galileo, among others. This place is huge and it was definitely a bit chilling to be in the burial place of such historic people.

J told me about an amazing look-out that he had heard of from someone at work. It was Michaelangelo hill. We had to cross to the other side of the river to get there, and on the way, we saw the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte is a really cool bridge that doesn't look like a bridge at all. From the outside, yes it's over water so it does look like a bridge. But from the inside, the shops on either side of the bridge hang over the water and obscure the view, so it just feels like you're in another small street full of shops....shops with lots of expensive jewellery.

We made it to the base of Michaelangelo hill and started up the shallow stairs to the top. We were both breathing a bit harder by the time we made it to the top, but the view was so fantastic!

There were even two brides with their grooms getting their wedding photos done with the beautiful backdrop. I will have to convince J that next time we go to Europe, I'll have to bring my dress, he'll have to rent a tux, and we'll take our wedding pictures over again....

After we climbed back down the hill, we went to the Piazza with the replica of the David and sat near the fountain. We'd already been there a few times to people watch. It was such a fun thing to do! We first made fun of the municipal police uniforms, complete with hard hat and purse (check out the awesome pigeon in flight!!):

We even set my watch for 60 seconds and counted all the gladiator-type sandles we could see. We got up to 18 pairs! Crazy!

Our last afternoon in Florence, we went to the Boboli Gardens. I'm not sure how big they are, but these gardens are breathtaking. Lots of fountains, lots of greenery, it made us forget that we were in a European city.

We bought some sandwiches, chips, and Fanta and strolled the grounds. It was a very peaceful afternoon and totally worthwhile.

Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot to mention our big night out in Florence. Our second of three nights in Florence, we decided to go all out and have a big dinner. We went to Za Za, the restaurant recommended in Fodor's 25 Best of Florence...only to see a huge line-up. So, we went to the place next to Za Za. We must have spent about 5 hours there, eating dinner, drinking wine, joking around with the waitor, and meeting a nice couple from England. The husband is one of 6 whisky barrel makers in the world! He made the barrels for the new Robin Hood movie (which we had to watch on the plane ride home "Oh look! There's a barrel!....Oh look! There's another barrel!"), and has made countless barrels for window displays in Marks and Spencer stores, and for the display in the Guiness factory in Dublin. Awesome!!! I think that was one of my favourite nights in Europe.

I've heard that when you're in Rome, it really feels like people live there and work there. But when you're in Florence, it has such a touristy feel that you don't really get the impression that it's a real working and breathing city. I'm not trying to say anything bad about it, but everyone seemed to speak English, so you didn't get that authentic italian feel. However, it is still a city worth experiencing and if we hadn't been run down from Rome, we probably would have stayed longer to experience the true Tuscan landscape...maybe renting one of the villas on the hilltops in the distance...

Next up? Venice!

A Romp in Pompei?

There you have it. The Eruption of 79 AD and how it buried the city of Pompei, among others. Ever since I was young and I read about this famous disaster, I was fascinated with the city that was preserved in time. There are 45 hectars of Pompei that have been discovered, but another 21 that are lying in wait. Excavation is slow so as to not 'ruin the ruins', but the 45 already uncovered are amazing. Everything is covered in pumice, the cooled lava filled with holes where airbubbles would have formed.


One of the first sights you see is the Pompei colosseum. Gladiators used to fight for their lives in this smaller version of the Rome Colosseum.


When you go to Pompei, you pay your 11 Euro ticket and enter the gates. Then you are strolling the streets from 2000 years ago. You enter into homes where people used to live. There are paintings on the walls, paintings from 2000 years ago!!! 2000 years!!! I think it was at this point where we started saying 'Wow, that is messed up!' to everything that we saw. Canada has history, sure it does. But Italy has History, with a capital 'H'.


One of the things that was most amazing, or messed up, was the fact that as we walked the stone streets we could see the grooves from the carriages that used to travel up and down transporting goods. See those elevated stones near the top of the picture? That's a pedestrian cross-walk, elevated so that people didn't have to step in the raw-sewage flowing down the streets. Awesome.

After weaving through the houses and streets, you'd come across the 1st MacDonald's ever. These little snack shops were set up with little bowls where different foods would be on display. You could pay different units to eat there. One unit was considered a portion of wine.


If you've been to the Roman Forum, here's a smaller version, the Pompei Forum. See that cloud in the background? It's hiding Mount Vesuvius...it was so hard to get that perfect picture of Vesuvius in the background of the ruins...it was early afternoon and I still hadn't gotten it...


One of the things I wanted to see the most on our entire honeymoon was the plaster casts of the people that had died in the tragedy of 79 AD. Below, you see two pictures of people who were buried in lava and rocks, whose bodies decomposed to form pockets of air in the rock. When the city was uncovered by archaeologists, they poured plaster into these pockets of air and voila, a plaster cast of a dead person. Seriously folks, it was messed up. I only put two photos so that you can go and see for yourself just how cool these plaster casts are. Behind the bodies you can see all the jugs and pots that were used to carry water or to cook.


Now, as in every society, there were women of the night that also needed a place to work. Hence, 'A Romp in Pompei'. One of the most popular places to see in Pompei is the 2000 year old brothel! People were actually lining up to go in, and it took maybe 30 seconds to see it. There are 8 rooms, each with a bed (nicely preserved for us by Vesuvius):


AND, when you got in there, much like MacDonalds, you put in your order. Position #1, #2, #3 and so on and so forth! A night with a woman of the night cost you 8. That's right, 8 portions of wine. You can just make out that the next picture requires viewer discretion!


Like I said, all day I was trying to get a perfect picture of Pompei, one that we could eventually have blown up and put on our wall. By mid-afternoon, the clouds had cleared and we went back to the forum to get that perfect picture. Unfortunately, I waited too long for some tourists to get out of the way and my camera died. It was devastating. Almost as devastating as the Eruption of 79 AD.
But it's ok! The next day, as our tour of Mount Vesuvius was cancelled due to early morning thundershowers, we decided to go to Sorrento instead and on the way to the Circumvesuviana Train station, I caught that perfect picture!

For me, Pompei was definitely the highlight of our trip. So, if you are looking to go to Pompei, take the train from Rome to Naples, and then hop on the Circumvesuviana Train line and get off at Pompei Santuario (with the church symbol - Alternatively you can get off at Pompei Scavi, a different entrance to the ruins). Walk about 5 minutes and you'll find one of about 10 hotels in the city. Word of advice, spend a little more money for a hotel. You won't be spending as much as Rome and you'll get a pretty nice room. If you have a craving for MacDonald's after seeing the 2000 year old version, there's a Micky D's just down the street. There's also a Burger King to create some nice competition. Seriously, Pompei has turned into a tourist hub just like Rome, but at least you'll never actually see the golden arches in the ruins themselves.
Next up? Sorrento and Florence.

The Rome Wonder-diet: Pizza, Pasta, Wine, Gelato and 8 hours of walking a day.

On October 4th, 2010, we flew in to Rome at 9 am. We found our way to the baggage check, got our huge day-packs, and made the small trek to the Leonardo Express into the city. Jet-lagged like crazy, we both looked 'out of it' on the train, but we mustered the energy to put our packs on and eventually found our hotel. We stayed at the Londra & Cargill which was, for all it's purposes, very nice. Definite plus was the included breakfast...buffet style, and as much espresso as you want! Zowee! That first one actually made my eyes pop.

Unfortunately, we got there a bit early as check-in time was 2pm and we arrived there at 11:30am. They allowed us to stow our bags and told us to come back in 4 hours as our room should be ready by then. 4 HOURS on about 3 HOURS SLEEP! Oh man, was that ever hard! We walked to the Spanish Steps, got to the Borghese Gardens, and then started falling sleep on a bench. We were both so tired that we didn't really take much in those first few hours. On top of that, we were wearing jeans and t-shirts, felt grimy from the flight, and it was about 40 degrees out. Hot, we were, but 'hot stuff' we were not.

Anyways, 3 hours and 45 minutes later we were able to get into our room and take a much needed shower and 2 hour nap. After the nap, we were refreshed enough to go out to seek dinner. But were we confident enough in our 'tourists that don't speak the language' skills? Turns out that yes, lack of sleep and extreme hunger will cross many levels of translation and we found a nice little restaurant that serves, you guessed it, pizza and pasta! And Wine!! That was our first drunken night in Rome. Tip? Learn to ask for the Vino Bianco de la casa. Cheap stuff, but does the job, and we never got a Rome hangover because they don't put in preservatives.

After our meal, we stumbled towards the Trevi Fountain and had a gelato. Yum, soft-serve at it's best. The Trevi Fountain was gorgeous, as everyone said it was, and totally crowded! Still, it's a great masterpiece and would recommend to anyone stumbling around the city drunk at night to go see it. Lovely and romantic (it looks good during the sober day as well :)

We stumbled back to our hotel after seeing the gorgeous fountain and fell sleep...waking up briefly at about 3:30am, but easily falling back asleep again. Jet-lag didn't seem to bother us this time...I think we were really ready to explore, 6 hours ahead or not!

Day 2? Old Rome!!! We walked to the Colosseum only to see a huge line up (inside the building)!

Word of advice, if you buy a ticket to the Colosseum, it's a joint ticket with Palatine Hill at the Roman Forum, so why not head there first and beat the crowd? That's exactly what we did. There were about 5 people in line at the Roman Forum, so we got our tickets and started to explore.

It's amazing how these ruins are situated in such a bustling city. All around you you hear the zoom of cars, the vroom of vespas, and the multi-language hum of the tourists...and yet there are these ruins sitting there quietly, hundreds of years old. So much history compared to Canada...

After 3 hours of exploring in the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, we decided to get some street meat, and then make our way to the Colosseum. It was about 1.5 hours wait if you didn't already have a ticket, so we were mentally patting ourselves on the back for being so smart. The Colosseum is another amazing structure that used to house gladiator events, even 'boat fights' when filled with water. Totally ahead of their time, those Romans. Below, you see a picture of the Colosseum....note that the walls on the floor were actually under the real floor, so they were more like tunnels. Awesome. Back at our hotel at about 4:30pm, we again took a nap, and then went out to dinner, got tipsy, stumbled to the Trevi Fountain and then had gelato...do we see a pattern here?

Day 3? Vatican City! We took a rather winding way towards the Ponte San' Angelo (it compares to Karluv Most in Prague!!!). And I write 'winding' because we took so many tiny little streets that we thought we were lost half the time. However, J's navigation skills are quite good so when we broke free of the alleyways and buildings, the bridge was right in front of us!

Unfortunately, the Castel San'Angelo was closed as it was Monday, so we walked towards St. Peter's Square instead.

We already knew about the dress code to get into Churches in Rome, but we didn't know it was that strict. We saw the line up of people in St. Peter's Square waiting to get into the basilica and we saw the sign with the diagrams. Apparently you couldn't go in without covering your upper arms and legs. I was wearing shorts because did I mention it was about 40 degrees out? Yowza. We decided to sit off to the side in the shade and watch to see if certain 'underdressed' people got turned away. After a while we didn't see many people coming back so we went to ask the security guard if we were dressed ok. He took one look at my shorts and said 'no'...so we went to see the Sistine Chapel and Museum instead!

The line up to this took about an hour, but once inside we saw amazing things like extremely old religious paintings, wall hangings, and gorgeous ceilings!

Again, we arrived back at the hotel at about 4pm, took a nap, went to dinner, got drunk, went to the Trevi Fountain, and had gelato (at least we were consistent, but keep an eye out because pretty soon we mix things up).

Day 4 was a sort of extra day in Rome. We had followed the 2-3 day plan from Trafalger Tours and had the last day to tie up loose ends. So, I put on a knee-length skirt and had a sweater in hand, J put on pants and a nice shirt, and we made the trek back to St. Peter's Basilica. It was worth the discomfort. We even went up the 500 or so stairs up the dome to see the wonderful view of the square.

Going up and down the dome, you actually saw the walls closing in on you! They were angled just like the dome. There is an elevator you can take that will get you about 300 stairs up, but you'd still have to walk another 200. Therefore, we paid the lower fee and just walked (another word of advice, the line up is shorter if you just take the stairs since everyone wants to take the elevator).

We walked around most of the day, got back to the hotel around 3:30pm, napped, and then (wait for it), decided to just have a huge gelato for dinner! It was, afterall, our honeymoon. Was it ever good. My favourite flavour? Tiramisu and Nocciola or Hazelnut. J's? Pistachio. I must have gone through one entire bottle of Lactaid just in Rome. Cool.

The things I've mentioned aren't the only sights we saw. There was also the Tritone Fountain, the Four Fountains, The Santa Maria Maggiore Church, and the Pantheon, along with the previously mentioned Spanish Steps and the Borghese Gardens. Another great sight was the Campo Di Fiore market....where I bought a nice linen scarf....only to learn it was made in China! One of the best ideas we had was to do a simple Google search of "3 days in Rome" and we came up with a simple enough itinerary. Oh, and not knowing the language was the least of our worries. Just expect to do a lot of walking, so pack comfortable shoes.

So it's true. You can eat all the pizza, pasta, gelato you want, drink all the wine you want, and so long as you walk at least 8 hours a day, you won't gain a thing. Not that hard a diet to follow, right???

Day 5 was spent making our way to the train station and catching the Inter-city to Naples.....next up? Pompeii.