Italy Part 2 - Rome

Okay, so this post is really hard! I've been wondering how I would describe how amazing Rome is and how much I loved it in one blog post?? Then I realized that I could post all of our photos of this place and it still wouldn't describe how awesome it is. So I will just shut up and begin.

One of my favourite things about Rome is that you never know what is going to be around the next corner, but it's always something ridiculous. Like the Pantheon.

.....or a building like this....

....and of course there is usually a place to sit and have a glass of wine near these places too.*

Which we did....a lot.

Then there are lots of obvious things about Rome that blew my mind. Like the Pantheon.

The other thing that surprised me about Rome was that the things that I thought would totally make me cry (ie: Sistine Chapel) didn't, and then something completely unexpected would have me weeping. Like....

We sought out San Luigi dei Francesi because there are three Caravaggio paintings in there that we wanted to see. The church is fine on the outside...nothing TOO remarkable (in the context of Rome) which is probably why I was so affected when we went inside.

Seriously?

I was brought to tears. (Brad has photos.) It was beautiful and so unexpected! Then after we explored the church, we saw the paintings and they were fantastic.

This is the coffee bar where we had lots of our morning coffees.

We took this photo on our last morning there and the couple at the table next to us was entertaining. The girl was totally into this guy (in the white t-shirt) and all he did was talk about himself and his travels through Italy. He was seriously annoying. I wanted to lean over and tell her she was too good for him. There was also a model shoot - it was....interesting.

The only downfall of Rome are the tourists. After a couple days I felt like I had to get away from people.....we even started referring to tourists as 'Animals'. I'm glad the Vatican was one of the first places we visited. That's where this shot was taken:

People are asking us 'What was the highlight?' and that is impossible to answer because there are so many experiences - culture, art, food, wine, architecture...so I would say the highlight was just being there.

Since I'm not allowed to post any photos of Brad, I'll leave you with this photo**. At least you get the idea!



*We went into Sant'Ignazio and it had me weeping too. It didn't help that mass had just finished and there was organ music still playing. The ceiling though - seriously - google it. It's worth it.
** This was the first time we had iced coffees and they were the best ones we had.