New York City/Italy

The subway ride was more culture than I thought it would be. It was very interesting....and kind of scary actually. This was one of the nicer trains that we took.

The Manhattan Temple. We arrived on a Sunday morning, but we weren't dressed to go in and tour the building. They also have church services in the same building.

Time Square

Battery Park (the Statue of Liberty is very small in the background)

About a year ago we started planning our trip to Italy/Greece with the Lombardi's. In May we finally were able to go. We had so much fun and we were able to see so much in a 2 week span. We flew into Rome and stayed for 2 1/2 days there, then took a train to Florence for 2 1/2 days, we then took another train and headed over to Venice for a night and then in the morning we caught our cruise ship that took us to Split Croatia, Corfu, Athens, Mykonos and Katakolon (Mt. Olympus). We then spent another night in Venice then spent one very long day traveling back home. But to start off our trip we decided to plan our flight so that we could have a very long layover in NYC to explore the city for a few hours. We went to Battery Park, Central Park, Time Square, Manhattan Temple, Ground Zero, Museum of Natural History (which we didn't have time to go through).

Central Park- New York City

I don't remember what this square was called, but it was really pretty.

We arrived around 7am to Rome. We took a cab to our hotel, but we couldn't check in yet, so we immediately started our 2 1/2 day walking marathon. Rome was easily the coolest place we visited on our 2 week trip. There is so much to see and we had so little time. I think we were able to fit in all the major attractions there, but we weren't able to put in a lot of quality time at any of them except the Vatican. On our 1st day we went to a cathedral, ate lunch, went to the Quirinale where the president of Italy lives, went and took a shower and a nap. We then went to dinner, went to the Trevi fountain, The Spanish steps and a few other beautiful sites of Rome. On day 2 we went to the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Vatican. On day 3 we went to the Palazzo Venezia and hung out there for a bit, then to the Pantheon, and over to the Tre Fontane. We then rushed back to the hotel to get our luggage. We barely made our train to Florence. I'm sure we were a sight to see running through the streets of Rome with all of our luggage. We were all a sweaty mess when we arrived at the train.

The Spanish Steps

The Trevi Fountain, it was amazing, especially at night when it was all lit up.

Palazzo Venezia

One of the many bath houses in Rome

Outside of the Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

Palatine Hill at the Forum in Rome.

The Forum in Rome, it was amazing. We didn't have a ton of time to explore the Forum because we had a appointment to tour the Vatican.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica, it was really beautiful inside.

Outside St. Peter's Basilica

Palazzo Venezia

The Arno River in Florence
We arrived in Florence around 4:00 p.m. We went and checked in to our hotel rooms, which was quite close to the train station. The hotel room in Florence in my opinion was much nicer than the one in Rome. The first night we went out to dinner with some friends from the states that just happened to be in Florence at the same time. We all agreed that the restaurant we went to was the best meal of our trip. We had fried chicken, bruschetta, crostini, salami and wild strawberries with sugar and lemon. On the 2nd day in Florence we went to the Museo della Academie to see Michaelangelo's famous David sculpture. We then headed over to a Leonardo da Vinci display of some of his machines. We then went to the street fairs and shopped a bit. We also went to the Il Duomo cathedral, and then we went to the Piazza Vecchio to see some sculptures. The next day we went to the Boboli Gardens and the adjoining Bendarini Gardens. We ate lunch and then went back to the hotel to get our luggage so we could catch our train to Venice. Our pictures stop here because we lost our camera the last day of our trip. The Lombardi's have been so kind to make a CD of the pictures from Venice, Split Croatia, and Greece. That part of the trip will be a later post.

Florence

The passage to get up to the top of the dome

The view of Florence from the top of Il Duomo

The domed ceiling of Il Duomo
(there is some crazy stuff up there)

View from the Boboli Gardens in Florence.