Europe!

Europe was AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING! 

Things started out a little bumpy, we got to the airport and found out that our seats had been changed so that we wouldn’t be sitting together on the 10 hour flight in to Paris! Yikes. Not what we wanted to hear. The two people in front of me were so rude to the airline clerks that I felt sorry for them by the time I was able to get up to the desk to see if anything could be done. After a few nice words the clerk looked up at me, WINKED and said “Well, good behavior is rewarded, I’ll see what I can do.” One hour and THREE upgrades later we were happily situated in Business Elect Class - together. :) 

 I LOVE flying. Here’s a of picture of the French country side as we flew into Paris! Beautiful!

Via Nazionale

I am by far one of the sappiest people I know. Waiting to board that plane, I felt like a kid waiting for Christmas. I don't mind admitting that I got a little teary eyed I was so excited!
From Paris we flew into Rome exhausted but excited. We stayed on Via Nazionale at Rome Sweet Rome. It wasn’t fancy, but it was everything we needed. The location was perfect. Within eight blocks of everything we wanted to see, except the Vatican, which was a short subway ride away. There was an amazing bakery around the corner that we had fresh croissants and nutella at every morning. Mmm…

Our first stop, early the next morning was the Vatican and St. Peters Basilica and square. This meant our first go at riding a foreign subway. Sounds easy right? No friend. Imagine going to a big city subway station and discovering that every sign, map and ticket machine are written in braille. Hm.. difficult. But these are the exact moments that I brought along my handsome husband. :) Somehow he always got us where we needed to go.
I wish I had words to describe how amazing the Vatican and Basilica. We spent the entire day taking them all in. Here are just a few pics but they do them no justice.
We have SO many pictures, but because I love you, I won’t make you look at them all. :)

The Sistine Chapel alone was worth the trip to Rome - literally. We spend a good hour in this room just taking in the history, the art and the meanings of this awe inspiring chapel.

silly picture wont rotate...

We took an extra trip to the top of the Basilica Dome. SO MANY STAIRS but the view of Rome was beautiful!  - I’m definitely going to run out of description words about this trip…

the view from outside the dome

Looking down from the inside of the dome

so tired so happy!

I couldn't believe that we were really truly in Rome. I'll bet 20 times that day I turned to Handsome and say "oh my gosh! We're in Rome!"
 We eventually caught the subway back to our little part of town and found a recommend restaurant for dinner. (While we were looking for it we "accidentally" found the Coliseum - crazy.) Matthew had a pizza (nothing like American pizza) and I had a tortellini and cream. You could taste that the noodles made been made just that day - they were so fresh and delicious. I still crave it. Of course a little gelato finished off the night. Phew.. one day down 16 more to go....

Forgive me for not taking time to edit our pictures before posting them. That will come eventually. :)