Rome, Italy (part 1)

Roman ruins

Colosseum...over 5 million people visit it a year! If I ever get a chance to go back to Rome, I definitely want to go inside!!!

Found out from our tour guide that unlike the movie Gladiator, real gladiators did not fight to the death. They were admired like some of our football players today. If you wanted a gladiator to fight to the death, you had to pay that gladiators owner a lot of money for his future loss.

Fontana di Trevi

Our guide told us if you throw 1 coin in the fountain you will return to Rome, 2 coins and you will find love and 3 coins and you will get divorced...ha ha...I think she made up the 3 coins. All the coins in the fountain are collected and given to charity. There are lots of police around to make sure you don't even put a finger tip in the water!! Talk about strict!!

Really cool statue...I can't imagine how long it took to carve all of that

You can tell that the building on the right is much older than the other two buildings in this picture because of how small and how few windows there are.

Pantheon

The dome of the Pantheon is one piece!! Unbelievable!! There is also a hole in the top where rain and light comes through.

A single rose laid by someones grave inside the Pantheon

The columns on the front of the Pantheon are 1 piece as well. Somehow they were able to transfer these and get the standing without them being in sections...they had so much knowledge back then and sadly it died with them.

Sorrento, Italy

Those lemons were the size of my head!!! No special effects here...they are really that big!

Fruit stand...take a look at the tomatoes and how they are all indented compared to our mostly dent free from ones from the grocery store.

View from the bus on the way to Sorrento

Beautiful houses built right on the side of a cliff

Fresh fish! Reminded me of Seattle

We had about two hours to kill in Sorrento before lunch so my parents and I sat by the water and admired the views.

I'm pretty sure this was an apartment, but what caught my interest was everything hanging...so pretty!!

Random melted clock in Sorrento

The farm where he had lunch. We got to see them make fresh mozzarella and then we got eat it a few minutes later. It looked so good that I was happy to take my dairy pill to be able to try it...ha ha...let's just say the food in Italy was pretty good, but it's not a great diet for someone who can't eat cheese or a lot of marinara sauce...ha ha...I have problems

The smallest island in the world...Bikini Island!! ha ha

Pompeii, Italy

 The amphitheater in Pompeii originally called a Spectacula

View from the top of the amphitheater...the large rows on the bottom were for the VIPs

Streets/Ruins of Pompeii...All of these were little shops that were buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

Stepping stones used to cross the street so they wouldn't have to step in their own waste. While that may sound gross, it was actually a pretty advanced sewage system at the time. All the waste would flow into the streets and would be flushed out by fountains that continually over flowed.

Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Pompeii

Yes that is a real human. When the cloud of ash exploded, it buried everyone alive under ash and mud and created molds of each individual. We were told that this man's skull is cracked because when he breathed in the hot ash it exploded his brain therefore cracking his skull.

All the "treasures" that have been excavated 

Another side of the city of Pompeii

Barcelona, Spain - Gaudi Tour part 2

After La Sagrada Familia we went to Park Guell which also housed many of Gaudi's designs like this snake like bench that also felt amazing to sit on.

These two houses looked like ginger bread houses straight out of the story of Hansel and Gretel. It would have been really interesting to know how Gaudi thought of all this stuff way back then

Another one of his designs.

Since we were in Barcelona on a Sunday we were able to witness live music and dancing after a church service.

The guide told us that if you walk through this door you are supposed to place you hand on the gold hand for good luck.

According to our guide...after Christopher Columbus discovered America, he came back to Spain and climbed these steps to tell people of his discovery.

For lunch we went to a local restaurant and tried some authentic pallea...yummy

View from our balcony...this hotel definitely stuck out from the rest of the scenery

There were lots of sail boats out this day, but I kept taking pictures of these two. Plus the color of the water is just so mesmerizing.

Barcelona, Spain - Gaudi Tour part 1

Christopher Columbus statue...these weird colored photos were taken from inside the bus with very tinted windows

Random building with eye balls...the eye balls were added just last year

One of the homes Antoni Gaudi designed...it's called the dragon house because of the roof

Image of Antoni Gaudi painted on the side of building pointing to his famous church

La Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi. The church has been under construction for over 100 years. They are planning to have it finished in 2026/the 100th anniversary of his death. There was so much to see inside and outside the church that the pictures don't do it justice.

The side we walked in to was all about the sea/land and life. This is a sea turtle holding up a column. The next column has a land turtle on the bottom.

All the light inside the church comes from all the windows. The only artificial light in the church is on the columns.

The columns turn into tree towards the top

The front doors...please excuse that man's hand

This side of the church we walked out of is all about the death of Jesus. Pretty dark stuff.

Palma, Majorca (Spain) part 2

Plaza de Toros...unplanned stop, but the gate was open so our tour guide asked the bus driver to stop so we could look around

Really cool hallway

Inside the arena

On the bull fighting floor!!! And yes I acted like a bull and charged my brother...ha ha

Entrance to the arena floor

name of the arena

Had to take a pic of the beautiful sea!

Our next stop...the church of Palma

There was a street festival going on and quite possibly a belly dancing competition

Finally made it up to the church

And wouldn't you know we saw our second wedding of the day...no I didn't crash it but I did stick my camera in the doorway and zoomed in :)