Rossano

Firstly, I must say that Cordie and I have been housing at different places on our trip with Air BnB and here in Rome the place we stayed at was AMAZING to say the least… not necessarily because of the view… or the location (15 min walk to the Colosseum) but because of our host. He, Rossano, was an older man-had everything ready for us… maps, umbrellas, ‘accompanied’ (his verbiage for taking us there in his car free of charge) us to the bus station when we left and was so very friendly. The place was immaculate (extremely clean and felt new) and had many types of ‘security’ locks and options even though we didn’t feel that we needed them.

Day One in Roma

One of my favorite ‘famous historical’ places in the entire world is the Colosseum-we went there on our first day… it was literally POURING and we experience some of the closest & loudest lightening of our lives together.. but trekked on in hopes that it wouldn’t be as busy inside…. we were wrong. We both paid extra for the ‘audio’ tour to enhance our knowledge of the place and were very pleased with our experience.

       

The great thing about a ticket into the Colosseum was it also included entrance into the Roman Forums and Palatine (lots of walking) which were both spectacular and we felt like we obtained more of the Roman history than either of us had imagined.

   

From there we enjoyed a lovely lunch of pasta and a calzone with eggplant in it. :) The place was good but the waiter literally dragged me to a table to ask other ‘english’ speaking people if it was good before we decided to sit down or not.

 

We then headed to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona… we sat and enjoyed both places for a little bit as it was nice to just observe the people around us and reflect on the day we had, had. From there we stopped for gelato… it was fantastic…then we headed back to our place… which seemed like forever but was only 2.5 miles.     

The pictures above are from our walk to the Pantheon, some of the piazza and the Pantheon inside and out.

The night before we had gone to a place for pizza… and as you can see below there was some confusion as to if a ‘plate’ was the same thing as a ‘slice’ of pizza which resulted in a LOT of pizza. (which was in the end great to have leftovers we could eat at home)

Day Two in Rome

We headed to the Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel and the wide variety of museums they have along with the infamous church of St. Peter. We had NO IDEA that on Wednesday mornings people would gather in front of the church to sit and listen to the POPE speak…there were sooo many people. (pictures a couple paragraphs below with St. Peter pics) Since it was raining all you could see were rows and rows of umbrellas. It was a negative in getting into the church but we changed plans and jetted to the museums which were AMAZING and there was not a long line to wait to enter. From the many panels of information and soo many different statues, tapestries, paintings, pieces of old jewelry, the gorgeous ceilings, differently painted walls and floors the museums within the Vatican were spectacular…**Pictures will be added later**

However, seeing the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s work with my own two eyes is something one cannot truly explain! Its funny because once you enter the chapel… you are immediately being ushered out by guards telling you not to speak and to not take any pictures… Thankfully for a ‘smart’ phone I snagged two un-blurry pictures not zoomed in… But they were taken by ME! We stood and observed as long as the guards would let you trying to scan the wonderful ceiling of all the details that were put into the masterpiece. I loved that there were so many men from the Bible on the ceiling and they all seemed so large, so I kept trying to imagine what it would be like trying to paint it as the ceiling is in your face and your neck and arms are extremely tired from standing in that position for so long. Remarkable.

After our lovely time in the Vatican we headed back to Saint Peter’s church and stood in line for 2 hours.   It was worth the wait…I had been there once before and remember just sitting on the floor feeling God’s presence and just weeping… well entering again I felt the same thing…This time there was also a Mass going on at the time with a choir singing in Latin at different times which just made the whole experience even more remarkable and breathtaking.

  

 

We both loved our 2 full days in Rome and being so close to everything felt like it was just enough time to see what we wanted to and be enthralled with the history of a city that still has the remnants of a time long ago and show respect to those pieces. (and of course I am sure appreciating all the tourists that come and spend their money there as well)

gaudi, el gotik y mas

Cordie and I enjoyed 4 nights in the ‘el gotik bario’ area of Barcelona. We rented a studio apartment that was very clean, cool, had a queen size loft in which was close to the ceiling but not close enough that we felt claustrophobic. There was a love seat sofa underneath with two bar stools in the kitchen which made for just enough space for us to both sit comfortably.

 

The location was also perfect as it was in walking distance of the beach, (Cordie’s first time in the Mediterranean Sea)

   

Picasso Museo, the unfinished church by Gaudi (Sagrada Familia-a looong walk) and Caso Batllo. We also went into a museum in which had old Roman ruins underground-and was one of our favorite things we did in Barcelona as it explained the full history of the city and how during the Middle Ages the people had just built their palaces on top of the older structures leaving it hidden until the city decided to ‘create’ a road Via Laietana which still runs through the city today. :) 

 

We both really enjoyed the Parc Guell, which was started by Gaudi with the intention of being a neighborhood in which he ‘designed’ all of the houses…however, that never happened and the park is more of a place to view the city, has more hiking trails than we had planned for and definitely adds quite a bit of flavor to the neighborhood that surrounds it. All of the pictures below are from there.

 

         

Neither of us realized how big Barcelona is (4.2 million people) or how busy it would be with tourists in October… so we made the most of seeing the ‘sites’ quickly then spending time getting lost within the maze of streets to experience all of the culture that surrounded us.

  

Above on the right is one of Gaudi’s famous houses. We also were 2 mins away walking from the only cathedral in the city, we went there our first day and took advantage of going on the roof top to see some of the city even though it was mostly overcast and cloudy.

 

One of my favorite things to do is yes-try different restaurants to experience different foods and make sure you find ‘the best’ BUT I LOVE to find a place for some consistency even if it is for 5 days. Alsur Cafe, which was perpendicular to our little street became that for us. We had at least coffee and brekky there everyday if not followed by a meal later in the day once we found ourselves back. It was located in a quiet courtyard (except they have Sunday Brunch all day and was extremely busy then) with young families passing through and warming decor with a great ‘playlist’ of music which made us want to sit there for hours and just observe our surroundings.

 

There are many more pictures from our time in Barcelona which will be put into the Gallery at a later date! Apologies that not all of the pictures are in order next to my descriptions of how we spent our time in Barcelona. Thank you for reading and hope you have a fantastic day!

We are on our way to Rome now.