Friday, November 26, 2010

Honeymoon: Roaming Rome

After I made the big move from, we spent a week in Rome for our honeymoon. We enjoyed visiting the Vatican and all the sights throughout Rome despite a small volcano eruption in Iceland that affected most of the airports in Europe during our stay. Fortunately, we did not experience any delays in our return flight home.

Here are some picture highlights from our visit to Rome.

Our hotel was only a few blocks from the Termini in central Rome. On our first day we walked around nearby places and mapped out the rest of our visit to Rome using the maps and brochures we picked up along the way.

There was a small museum beside our hotel and we stopped to walk the open grounds to take pictures.


We thought the statue needed a new head...
...but neither of our heads looked just right.

On our second day in Rome, we purchased tickets for the open double-decker tour bus to see the sights around Rome. One of the first places we decided to visit was Vatican City.


The tour also offered an audio tour...
...in various languages.
When we first arrived in Vatican City...
...we purchased postcards to mail home to our family and friends.

One of the first things we did in Vatican City was to climb to the top of St. Peter's Basilica. There were two ways to the top of the cupola. The first way was to take an elevator to the roof and then climb the 320 steps to the very top. The other way was to climb the steps all the way to the roof and then another 320 steps to the very top. Kris of course chose to climb all the way without the help of the elevator.


On the roof of St. Peter's Basilica
I was thankful...
...there was a fence all the way around so you could not fall from the roof.

When we were on the roof, I thought we were done. I did not want to think we had to climb higher but Kris was eager to continue climbing. The remaining 320 stairs were narrow and slanted as you got closer to the top of the cupola.


You can see the terror in my face when we made it to the very top.
Kris was able to take a picture of all of Rome from the very top.
It was a big accomplishment for both of us...
...to have made it to the very top of the cupola.

We saw various other sights from while riding on the tour bus.


Castel Sant'Angelo used as the Pope's fortress
The Colosseum
Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II)

One of the sights we took a closer look at was The Colosseum. We took a guided tour of to see all the intricate details and hear more about the history.


The view of the underground...

...from both sides of the Colosseum.
We learned so much about the Colosseum...
...and bought souvenirs for the kids.

The guided tour for the Colosseum included an optional guided tour of Palantine Hill across from the Colosseum. It was interesting to hear the story of Romulus and Remus and how each new emperor built their palace on this hill.


Another couple was kind enough to take our picture from the top of the hill.
You could see a nice view of the Colosseum from the top of the Palantine Hill.
This is my favorite picture from the honeymoon.

We took a quick walk over to the Spanish Steps from the Palantine Hill and climbed all 138 steps to the very top before heading back to our hotel.



Spanish Steps

One of my favorite sights to see was the Trevi Fountain. We had to walk far to finally make it there but what a sight it was to finally see it. We saw a couple taking their wedding pictures while we were there.


Trevi Fountain
Sharing a special moment at Trevi Fountain
We made sure to make a wish...
...in hopes to return someday.

One of the last places we visited was the Vatican Museum. A local Italian name Pablo gave us a very informative tour of the museum that led us to the very end -- the Sistine Chapel.


We found a tour guide who helped cut our long wait in line to get into the museum.

We enjoyed our one week stay in Rome and wish we had more time to take a closer look at some more of the sights. We hope to make it back again someday to see more of Rome and other parts of Italy. For now, we will always have our honeymoon as a reminder of our time spent in Rome.

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