From London to Spain: VIII

Florence & Pisa

In order to get out of my current blogging rut that I've been in since August (eeek), I'm going to make this entry simple and sweet. What's there not to love about the Tuscany region? The food and wine are delightful. The landscape was golden and inviting. The people were friendly, handsome, and charming. The culture was rich and eclectic. Out of all the places we visited on our honeymoon, I would move to Florence in a heartbeat. It has everything. It's a city with a mellow, slow-paced vibe. There is an academic and spiritual air present. It's the home of renaissance. It's located in Italy - one of the best countries in the world. If you haven't been to this region in Italy - it should make it on your top 10 list. Just sayin'.

Instead of boring you all with pictures of Pisa - which you can find any where on the internets, I thought I'd share one of several pictures I took of the many people attempting to capture themselves holding the tower up in their pictures. In the end, I succumbed to "tourist pressure" and did the same. Hey, when in Pisa, right? :)

From London to Spain: VII ROME

Aw, Roma.

This was definitely the spiritual stop on our 14 day cruise. I don't believe it's possible to enter the Vatican City and not sense the holiness and reverence that the city emits. From the intricate details found throughout St. Peter's Basilica, to the grandness found in the form of fountains and the obelisk just outside in St. Peter's Square, to the Sistine Chapel filled with precious Frescoes, sculptures, Raphael's tapestries, and undoubtedly the most famous ceiling the world has ever known - you stand in awe of the beautiful things that were created in honor and celebration of their faith. The moment you step inside St. Peter's Basilica, you are humbled by its grandeur and drawn to sit down and begin praying. There is also something very moving about the antiquity of it all - can't you just imagine years worth of prayers flowing through this place of worship? We ported in Civitavecchia, which is an hour train ride from Rome. Knowing that we had a very short day and a lot to see, we were up and off the boat earlier than normal (8ish). We hopped off the train and went directly to the St. Peter's Square. Since we didn't opt for any of the tours offered by the cruise, we immediately checked in at the visitors center to see if we could find a guide of some sort. After our experience at the Acropolis, we wanted to soak in as much information about the Vatican as we could. To our surprise, there happened to be a free English tour of St. Peter's Basilica starting in fifteen minutes. Excited by our lucky timing, we waited outside for our guide. I have to mention Penelope "Penny," our guide, because she was absolutely amazing. Born in England, she moved to Rome after raising her children to be closer to the epicenter of her faith. She has been living there now for 25 years and gives a free tour twice a week as a part of her ministry. What's better than a free tour? Well, a free tour given by a dear old woman with a British accent who is insanely knowledgeable about all the details that you find throughout the church and the city. The tour was a little longer than I would've liked (2+ hours inside the church) but my husband definitely had a nerd-crush on Penny by the time we left.

~You'll see Adam right away, Penny is the lady on Adam's left with the microphone near her mouth - we all wore portable headsets to hear her narrative throughout the tour~

~Views from the fountains outside the Basilica in St. Peter's Square~

~Beautiful sculptures decorate and keep watch on top the colonnades that surround the square~


~Along the top of the facade are statues of John the Baptist, Christ and Peter (upside down cross) and 10 of the other apostles~

~Looking out at the Square from the Basilica you can see the unique landscape behind the sculptures on top of the colonnades - my pictures don't do it justice - but the contrast in colors between the sky, trees, and statues produced a very interesting depth to the entire panorama~

~Views of the obelisk in the center of the Square from the grand Corinthian columns in front of the Basilica~

~Inside the Basilica you will be amazed and potentially overwhelmed by the vast amount of ornate and symbolic designs and artwork that they have managed to find room for - I think each and every Pope since the original has added something to it. One of my favorite decisions that they made was to keep the windows bare - that's right, the Basilica doesn't have stained glass windows. It gives the Basilica a much needed purity and natural element to a structure that is anything but natural.

~Looking up at the dome: the Basilica is the largest in the world - I believe the dome inside the Basilica is the world's tallest~

~Below this Baroque sculpted bronze canopy (which sits directly beneath the dome) is St. Peter's tomb - The sculpture on the right is St. Peter who is always featured with an upside down cross (which is the way he asked to be crucified, stating that he was not worthy to die in the same way as his Lord~

~Both the picture above and below convey the magnificent effect that the clear windows produce in the Basilica - the sunbeams that shone through the windows produced an incredible effect~



And last, but certainly not least is sculpture that everyone will be crowded around when you visit the Basilica: The Pieta sculpted by Michelangelo. The sculpture depicts Mary holding the body of Jesus after the Crucifixion~

I have so many more pictures from our tour of the Basilica that I could have spent an entire blog entry talking about everything and still wouldn't have done Penny, our tour guide, justice. She taught us a lot and I highly recommend visiting the Vatican on a Thursday at 9:00am - to have her as your guide!

From the Basilica tour we wove our way around the Vatican city walls and the areas where you aren't allowed to enter, to take a quick tour of the Sistine Chapel. This is another place that you could spend hours perusing - there is so much too see and without a tour guide and enough Art history behind me, I could barely identify some of the pieces. Anyhow, you wander through rooms and rooms of beautiful pieces and then finally come to the main chapel where you can finally see the iconic "Creation" painting by Michelangelo where you can see a depiction of the Hand of God giving life to Adam. It's absolutely packed in the room, you aren't supposed to talk, and you aren't allowed to take photos - so I don't have anything to share except for a few pictures that I took en route to the main chapel.

~Here is a glimpse into the sacred, private gardens inside the Vatican where the public is not permitted - if you stand on your toes and peek out the windows inside the Sistine Chapel you will catch a glimpse of the activities on the private grounds~

~These two pieces give you an idea of the colors and style that are used throughout the Sistine Chapel~

After spending hours at the Vatican we decided to head out and explore the rest of the city. Per usual, we opted for local, public transportation and took the subway out to the Trevi Fountain. It's located in the business district and is surrounded by tall buildings so it took us a while to find it. Sometimes there just isn't as much signage as you think there would be for some of these historic monuments.

~Adam told me that you are supposed to throw the coins into the fountain backwards like this to ensure that you will come back to Rome~

The last stop on our very packed day in Rome was at the Colosseum. Unfortunately, the line to tour the Colosseum was a mile long so we decided to explore the outside and peak our head through the gates around the outside. We were sort of disappointed with state of the Colosseum - it's not in the greatest shape and it doesn't look like they are investing a lot in upkeep in care.

~We both kind of hate the solo pictures of ourselves in front of the iconic structures - however, if you're going to take the same pictures that one million other people are taking, you might as well get a couple with you in it for proof that you were there, right?!~

~sneaking peaks through the outside gates gives you a pretty good glimpse inside - the line was just WAY too long and from our experience with sports growing up, we both could picture what the inside looked like~

From London to Spain ~ VI

Capri

We arrived in Naples, Italy after a fun and relaxing day at sea. We had a total of three sea days throughout the duration of our cruise - which we found to be perfect opportunities to just chillax and take it easy. On our days at sea we typically would lay out on the pool deck and read. It wasn't very easy to find the prime lounge chairs because the cruise veterans usually staked a claim on those seats the night before the day at sea. For some reason I did not come prepared with something to read for the trip and I ended up being limited to the cruise library selection, where I chose to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I'll admit, this was a pretty intense selection for the honeymoon - but a spectacular portait of Afghanistan and I enjoyed it a lot more than I did Hosseini's more popular book, "The Kite Runner". Days at sea also included a game of poker - where I typically had to convince Adam to play with me in the tournament (thanks to my little brother I love playing No Limit Hold 'Em tourneys) - and after convincing him to do so, he typically was more successful than I and even came in second in one of the games. During the day at sea they always have food out - you eat A LOT on these days. I would go for nachos and cheese like every couple of hours, wash those down with a delicious bevi, and typically follow that healthy selection with some sort of ice cream. And that my friends, constitutes a typical day at sea for Adam and I.

We had quite a few options for day trips in and around Naples and we settled on taking the ferry over to the island of Capri. From the Naples pier to Capri took us approximately 1 hour. We hadn't done a lot of research prior to our time in Capri and didn't really know what the island would have to offer. Once we got off the ferry we saw several signs for boat tours around the island and thought that would be a fun option.

~Sailing through the Faraglione di Mezzo - Capri's famous rocks~

~I loved the incredible rocks along the island of Capri - we didn't see any rock climbers though...~

~I really wanted to get out and swim around with this group - next time I think we'll hire a private boat to take us around the island for sightseeing and swimming!~

~Admiring my new bling and manicure - hey, come on - it's my honeymoon!~

~Another self-portrait~

~Inside the cave at the very top right corner is a statue of the Madonna~

~Mermaid Rock and the Siren Statue: this is believed to be the spot in mythical times where the sirens seduced seafarers with their song~

One of the photos outside the "tour around the island" boat station that caught be attention was a picture of the the Blue Grotto. Our guide gave us the option to wait in the que to experience the spectacular sea cave. After about an hours wait, and observing some pretty entertaining row boat captains (second to the Italian Gondoliers) we were able to experience the Blue Grotto. Sunlight, passing through an underwater cavity and shining through the seawater, creates a blue reflection that illuminates the cavern and I don't think any of the photos I took captures the beauty.

~Waiting to disembark our boat onto a row boat that takes you into the blue grotto~

~on the left you can see the row boat captain pulling his boat through the small cave entrance. on the right you see the most passionate of the row boat captains - he was very enthusiastic as he ordered the other sailors around~

~ Inside the Blue Grotto~

We were hungry once we finished the tour around the island. With the long stop at the Blue Grotto it took us approximately 3.5 hours to circle the entire island. I know this is going to sound very touristy and cliche - but all I wanted to eat the entire time I was in Italy was Bruschetta! Capri had the tastiest Bruschetta of the entire trip! I had to take a picture:

After an enjoyable lunch we decided to take the Funicular up to the top of the island to enjoy the gorgeous views that Capri is famous for. We didn't really know where to go so we just started wandering around and eventually stumbled upon the Giardini Augusto:

~View from the Funicolare on the way up~

~Gorgeous stone bridge, and my handsome hubby~

~The quintessential Capri picture~

Lastly, our trip would not be complete without a sample of the local lemon granita. This was definitely my second favorite drink on the honeymoon, the first being as you may recall Sangria in Venice. I'm not sure what it was exactly - perhaps Capri grows far better lemons than the rest of Italy - perhaps it was the location, or the day, or the view - but I fell in love with their lemon granita and I would venture back just for one, small sip! For those of you who may be traveling to Capri in the not-to-distant future, try the lemon granita next to the Giardini Augusto

Il Finito.