Venice and Rome

Apologies for the delay - this posting has taken some time to put together. Mia mamma e mia sorella (sister) came to visit me over Thanksgiving weekend, as I mentioned in my "outing to the hospital" posting. This is what living is Europe is all about. Having the opportunity to travel within and between EU countries is especially easy once you're here.

So here is a brief review of my visit to Rome and Venice with mia mamma e mia sorella!


Welcome to Burano - aka the "Lace Island" of Venice. Everywhere you turn you will little Italian ladies sewing (by hand) some of the most beautiful garments I've ever seen...

These Italian women may be little but man are they persistent. A bit much for me - but my mom was in heaven.







Me, sis and mom on the "Island of Glass" - formally known as Murano. I loved this island. The glass was beautiful - nothing like I'd seen before. But man was it COLD!

In this picture we are standing in front of a working lighthouse.










This picture is some of the residential homes on Murano island.

Venice at night! Very pretty city - no matter what time of the year!

Who knew I could get any whiter!!

This is me and my mom on the top of the infamous Rialto bridge in Venice. Very pretty!

Venice

Totally cool. I love Venice.

Me.

In front of the Rialto Bridge

We were in Venice for only 2 days - there is a lot more I need to see so I hope to get back there this summer when its sunny out!!

Now... on to ROME!

The Roman ruins. This is where Rome started. Now most is in ruins, but very cool history here.

The Arch of something.... I'm forgetting right now. A month ago I would have remembered... Sorry.

Either way - very, very cool and pretty. OCD at its finest right here.

The one and only Colosseum where the Roman Gladiators fought animals and humans. Crazy how things worked back then... Glad its not that way anymore.

Dang it... I'm forgetting what these are called too! Have you seen Angel and Demons??? If so - you've seen these. It is where Tom Hanks finds the first "angel" clue. It starts with a P.

OK, now were into the big bucks here. This is the inside of St. Peters - The church of the Pope himself. I had no idea God had so much money. Seriously, this was intense, huge, shiny, unbelievable...

a bit much...

This was the focal point inside St. Peters Church. Very pretty... very.... intense.

Ha! OK this was one of my favorite statues from the Greek section of the Vatican museum.

This is Zeus and one of his stubborn and obviously very upset children. hehe.

One of many AMAZING ceilings inside the Vatican museum.

I mean mio Dio (My God!). Endless halls of ceilings with just as much (if not more) detail as this one - however each of them unique to the Pope who was in power at that time.

Crazy.

The Vatican from afar.

La Bruchetta!

A great and delicious restaurant in Rome. The man in the picture was our server. But more than that, he is a distant family friend. He knows my mom's uncle Lenny. Uncle Lenny's family is from Italy and he visits often. The best service I've had since I've been here.

Me and my mom at the top of the Spanish Steps. I'm not sure why - but this was one of the monuments I was really excited about. The story behind it isn't even all that impressive - nonetheless - one of my favorite spots.

Ah, here we go... I'm sure you all recognize this statue....

The one and only Fertility Goddess.

Need I say more...

On our way to the Vatican.

Creepy Italian Trees.

Whats the deal? AND how do they grow like that?

The famous river in Rome. God help me - if I could only remember the name.

Obviously I'm too tired and cannot be held accountable for my sporadic Alzheimers. I will update these pictures when I remember - sorry again.

I had over 800 pictures from this trip... You can see a lot more on my facebook page - if you're cool and have a facebook account - have a looksy.

I also think it is important to make note that even though "they" say Italy is still "America friendly", I'm here to tell you that really isn't true. Don't get me wrong, most Italians are nice to me - or at least tolerate me, but there was an incident in Venice where we got into an argument with an Italian restaurant owner who was blatantly scamming us. My tolerance for this has become extremely low (as you could imagine) so once I realized it, I tried to reason with him. Before you know it, we are in the middle of an argument with a man who clearly did not like Americans.


As for Milan... Italians in the area I live are starting to realize I'm not leaving. I think they are "coming around" and now the workers at the grocery store and nearby restaurants are starting to be nicer to me... baby steps...


As for my Italian - its getting there. I still take WAY to long to compose a sentence, so finding people who are patient enough to have a broken Italian conversation with me are almost none. Regardless I understand A LOT more than I can speak. My confidence is a little shaky, but the Italians do appreciate it when I try. So I keep trying.

Well, I promise to post again soon - I am really going to try to post every Sunday.

Buon Natale in retardo (Good Christmas "Late")

A presto (saying to means "talk to you soon")

Jamie