When in Rome :)

We got into Rome yesterday, but we finally got to see some of the big stuff today. Rome is definitely one of my all time favorite cities. There is so much to see! We started the day by going to see the Roman ruins and Colosseum. Wow..... it's so amazing to see how old Rome really is. I could have spent all day at the ruins it was so interesting and the colosseum is so incredible too. I was not disappointed the least I can say.

Pictures really don't do them justice, but I couldn't help but try and capture the moment. Luckily the sun was hiding for most of the day which was really nice since we were outside all day. We still got tired after the Colosseum and decided to go have our own siesta before we cam back out at night. After a nap we went to go see the Trevi fountain at night. I wasn't expecting for it to be so big and majestic! We went around 10 pm and it was so packed! I really loved it, and yes I did through a coin in :)

Tomorrow we go see the Vatican :)

waiting outside the Colosseum... so hot!

Temple ruins

Saturn temple ruins

more temple ruins

me and Roman ruins (it was really bright)

Roman statue remains

Large roman field of remains

different angle

entry way to St. Peter's church a short stop we made on our way to the ruins it had some famous artwork and chains inside

Moses statue by Michelangelo in St. Peter's church

Me and the colosseum

me and the temple of Saturn

me and a random fish pond in the ruins

the COLOSSEUM

the colosseum different view

the chains St. Peter wore (in St.Peter's church)

Florence

The place we stayed at in Florence was about 50 minutes by bus. The cool thing about that is it was in a tuscany scenery and not touristy at all so we got to really see how the locals live. However, the drive there is a little less then desirable lots of twists and corners on a usually NOT air conditioned bus. But we survived and really it wasn't too bad. We walked all over Florence and got to know the streets pretty well. There were lots of street markets to see. By far the BEST thing that we saw in Florence was Michelangelo's David. I walked around the corner in the Academia and there he was it really took my breath away. It's almost 17 feet tall which kind of gives you a perspective, but really you can't get the true awe inspired feeling unless you see it in person, which I highly recommend :) That was the last thing that we saw in Florence of course we also went to the Uffizi Gallery and it was pretty cool, but you just can't beat the David. Now we're in Rome and have a big day ahead of us tomorrow!

Waiting at the bus station, we did a lot of waiting there

This is a famous bridge in Florence and all it has along it is really fine jewelry.

Fun window shopping.

The famous Duomo of Florence. It's really beautiful on the outside and really peaceful on the inside.

the David so amazing. Suppose to be NO PHOTO but I got one just for all of you guys ;)

Milan

After Venice we stopped at Milan for a night. We didn't get to see much, but this Duomo is beautiful! It's the only picture I was able to upload from this stinky internet, but I think it was my best one anyways. We were looking for a place to eat when these two guys approached us and started trying to persuade us to go to their restaurants. Each one was from a different restaurant, and well one could speak better english and was a little bit more persuasive so we went with his. We were not disappointed, but we did feel a little bad because the other guy didn't seem to win any of these battles. The guy kept filling up the restaurant with more people. After that we walked around and looked in the shops along the streets and it was fun to see how creative they are with their displays. Since this is a fashion district I was not disappointed. Next we headed to Florence.

Venice

We left St. Gilgen and headed for Venice on the 21st. This city is by far my favorite I have seen so far. It so majestic and interesting. Everywhere you look you see scenery worthy of a photo. Really you can't take a bad photo in this city.

The next day we went to La Biennale which is a really famous art show where most of the world participates in and is held in a different country every couple of years. It was really current art and extremely interesting to see. Probably one of my favorites. It's huge too and is all over Venice so we didn't see it all. but we got to see a good portion of it.

Another museum was on the schedule for the next day. The Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice. There was a lot of famous artists in this collection everything from Picasso, Matisse, Kadinskey, Dali, Warhol and so much more!!

Today half of the group went back to Vienna for the remaining time while the rest of us stayed here in Venice, because tomorrow we head to Milan, then Florence, then Rome, and finally Paris! It's Rica's 21st birthday today so we went to the beach which was a complete fail because it got SO windy. It was really cool to say that we got to see it at least and I got some pretty sweet shells from the trip. Then ended it with some relaxation and blogging.

Tomorrow is Milan!

We took the night vaperetto through the grand canal and got some night shots of Venice

We heard from somwhere that they don't use the bottom floor of their houses because as you can see the water goes up to the door on a lot of these houses. so fascinating!

more Venice

there's so many allies and little canals in Venice

USA collection at the La Biennale (they also had an upside down tank with a treadmill on top that a USA gymnast would come out and run on with the tank on and the treadmill.)

Korea's exhibit titles "Self Hate"

Cool wall paper art :)

typical Italy scenery

This was from France and they had these babies running through this warehouse and on one side they had the amount of births in a second and on the other side the amount of deaths. It was titles "Chance"

More....

This majestic unicorn was at Salzburg

We went on this beautiful hike. It was pretty intense, but so worth it for the view! Along the way there were these crosses with the progression of Christ being put on the cross and at the very top was a church.

View from the very top!

St. Gilgen & Salzburg

We left from Prague and headed to St. Gilgen which is like a resort getaway for the Austrians to go to. It's absolutley beautiful and secluded! So that's why I haven't been keeping up on the blog very well. It was really nice to have a chance to rest and take a break from all the sightseeing. It's hard work ;) We took a day trip to Salzburg where a lot of the Sound of Music was filmed. It was really pretty there as well. Here are some photos!

leaves over the dock. This is what I do when I don't have internet at night

St. Gilgen lake

River we passed on the hike

me and the lake

me on the hike next to the lake

river running to the lake

Gorgeous house sitting on the side of the mountain on our way to our hike.

The water is SO pretty! It really is so so aqua blue and I really wanted to capture it in a photo

Pretty green moss in the pretty blue water

Cute bike next to a fence in Salzburg - you really can't take a bad picture in this country!

Prague Day 2

Today is our last day in Prague. Apparently there is a strike going on all the public transportation today so we had to a some extra walking. We started off going to the Alphons Mucha. I didn't know a lot about him before, but now I love him! He is a graphic designer from back in the day before computers. He also did paintings and drawings, but I have so much respect for him. We ate lunch and then started towards another museum that's barely worth mentioning plus the ticket lady was so angry that we didn't have exact change. My favorite part of the day was when we headed to the dancing buildings. They're really famous and cool looking. The building is used for apartments which I think is pretty cool. Tomorrow we head to Salzburg!

designs by mucha I really loved. I've been trying to capture different patterns I see out here I really like maybe for a project later. (good insperation)

A piece of Mucha's

overflowing graveyard (we saw this from the window of the museum)

Dancing building

Prague Day 1

I have arrived in Prague. It is a very interesting city. It's a lot older, dirtier, sketchier, and still so beautiful. We are only here for 2 days and we have already seen so many great sites. There isn't too much to see as far as museums, but the buildings are really fascinating. We started off going to the town center. It seems like their are only tourists in this city. The natives here really don't dress near as nice as the people in Venice do. It was really interesting, but we continued on to St. Vitus cathedral where they have gargoyles on the building at it's very gothic style. You can see from the pictures how pretty it is. We then went to an authentic Czech food dumplings and goulash it was delicious! We shopped around and headed home. I'm still on the hunt for my European pants! Side note the gelato sucks here :(

Stained glass window

tunnel for the subway

River running through Prague

Me in the cathedral

PRAGUE

pretty door

PRAGUE

ceiling of the cathedral

famous cathedral

fancy stairs in our hostel

fancy kitchen

fancy bed