Alright, Brandon took the reigns on the last few posts…my
turn! I’m going to split the next few
weeks into a few different posts so it isn’t so long, but it is still pretty
lengthy, sorry in advance! I had to sift through almost 900 pictures for this post so I hope you enjoy all of the pictures! :)
We were SUPER excited these past few weeks to have my twin
brother Greg and his wife Kristin visit!
Kristin’s parents watched our nephew Cade while they were gone and they
spent 10 days with us. We had a jam
packed itinerary for their time with us and we hit the road the day after they
got here.
They arrived on Sunday, June 30th around
noon. We picked them up and made the
hour or so drive back to our house. They
were pretty tired and took a few hour nap, then we took them to one of our
favorite local restaurants and micro breweries in Kaiserslautern for beer and
some yummy schnitzel.
We decided to play Monday by ear depending on how tired they
were from their travels. They were
troopers and said they were good to go, so we drove about an hour and 20 min to
Trier, Germany. Trier is the oldest town
in Germany and was founded in or before 16 B.C.
There are some neat Roman ruins around the city and a really cute
downtown area. The biggest attraction
there are a few cathedrals as well as what they call the Porta Nigra (latin for
the black gate) which is one of the surviving Roman gates to the city. This gate was built between 186 and 200
A.D. It was pretty cool!
Porta Nigra - Old Roman Gate
View from one side of the Porta Nigra
Inside one of the cathedrals
In the garden downtown
Downtown Trier
Outside of Porta Nigra
Inside Porta Nigra
Two of the cathedrals downtown
We drove home, made dinner and packed to get up bright
(well, dark actually) and early for our flight to Rome on Tuesday morning. Our flight left around 6:00, so we got up and
were on the road at about 3:30 AM. As of
Tuesday morning….we were on our way to Italy! YAY!!
We arrived in Rome around 8:00 AM and got on our bus to our
apartment. We had to take a bus from the
airport to the main train station downtown to get on the subway and find our
apartment. This was a little bit of an
adventure, but we found it with little problem.
We got settled in, dropped of our stuff and hit the road walking toward
the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and walked
around Palatine Hill and used an audio tour to guide us around the Roman Forum.
Palatine Hill is one of the most ancient areas of Rome and
overlooks the location of Circus Maximus.
According to the legend of how Rome was established, the cave where
Romulus and Remus were found was located in Palatine Hill. Recent excavations show that people have
lived on Palatine Hill since around 1000 B.C.
The ruins of Palatine Hill were pretty cool and they are constantly
uncovering more ruins as well as restoring some of the ruins that are already
uncovered.
Overlooking the Vatican from Palatine Hill
Ruins at Palatine Hill
Palatine Hill overlooking the cite of Circus Maximus
We then walked from Palatine hill to the Roman Forum (they
are basically connected). The Forum is
the ancient city center of Rome. This
was the center of Roman public life and the remains of buildings here are the
government and public buildings of the city.
It was really neat to see what is left of the buildings here and to
imagine what this area looked like so many years ago. We even got to see the site where Julius
Caesar’s body was burned after his assassination.
The Roman Forum
Arch of Augustus
Arch of Augustus
Arch of Augustus
Site where Julius Caesar's body was burned
After hours of walking in above 90-degree weather, we
wandered around a bit and found some yummy gelato to relax a bit. After our break
and snack, we headed to our tour of the Colosseum. We had a guided tour of the Colosseum and
were able to wander around after the tour to get some more great pictures. I don’t really know what else to say about
seeing the Colosseum other than it was breathtaking. So cool to see in person and imagine all of
the events that happened there! Some of my favorite facts about the Colosseum
were that it actually was covered and had a retractable roof (they are not 100%
sure how this worked, but they know it existed), attending events at the
Colosseum was free and the structure used to be a perfect circle (it is now
more of an oval). It also wasn’t
originally called the Colosseum, this name was given to it after a statue from
outside of the arena of Nero (named after the Colossus of Rhodes). The original name of the Colosseum was the
Flavian amphitheater.
After our tour we took a taxi to the Trastevere neighborhood
to look around and find a place for dinner.
We found an awesome restaurant and had some pasta and wine. Everyone made fun of me for my reaction to
the food here, but it was literally some of the best pasta I have ever had! So
yummy!!
The next day (Wednesday) we visited the Vatican first thing
in the morning. It was beyond beautiful
to see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters.
It was really cool to look around and be standing in St. Peters square
where we were watching the announcement of the new pope not that long ago. It was neat to see all of the history in the
Vatican museums as well as take an audio tour of the Sistine Chapel and St.
Peters. We learned a lot about this
famous city and it’s importance to the Catholic church and to all churches in
general.
Inside the Vatican Museum
Inside some of the apartments in the Vatican
Outside of St. Peters Basilica
Inside St. Peters Basilica
Inside St. Peters Basilica
Inside St. Peters Basilica
St. Peters Square
After the Vatican we went back to our apartment to take a
little nap (the heat just zapped us all).
We got up a few hours later and took a walk through the Heart of Rome to
see some different churches as well as the Pantheon. We found a few other great little places to
stop and have dinner as well as see many of the famous fountains of Rome both
in the daylight and at night.
The Pantheon
The ceiling of the Pantheon
The Pantheon
Trevi Fountain
The Spanish Steps
The Pantheon
Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain
Overall, we had a wonderful time in Rome and crammed a lot
into a few days! We got up early
Thursday morning to catch our flight back to Kaiserslautern.
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