The Smiths Do Rome

Oh my word.  This post has been a long time coming!  I ran outta picture storage space on my blog {imagine that} and it took me a while to figure out how to get more.

But I'm back now!

And no on to our pictures from Rome...

After another wonderful train ride {really, we love riding the trains in Italy} we finally made it to Rome!

Arriving in Rome was quite the culture shock for us.  We had spent 4 days in quiet, quaint, Italian cities.  The people were friendly, helpful, and gracious.  

And then we got to Rome.

Don't get me wrong, we loved Rome.  The history and the sights are amazing.  But it is information/museum/art/sculpture overload and the traffic is a nightmare!  The food was okay, but nothing compared to the other cities.

However, the company did put us up in an incredible hotel!!

We wandered around all afternoon and then attended a welcome dinner that night.  It was fun to see and meet all of Chris's friends from work.  

After dinner and dancing, we headed out to see the city at night.  We found the Spanish Steps and this was the ONLY picture I got.

Terrible, I know.  And we never made it back there again.  Oh well.

Window shopping on our evening walk.

The next morning we joined a tour with friends and headed out to see Rome.  

Everyone loves a nice bus ride through crazy Roman traffic, right?!

The Trevi Fountain.  Ahhh, she was amazing!!!

Chris's buddy from work, Andy, and his girlfriend Natalie.  She didn't know yet, but he was planning on proposing to her on this trip!!!  Scroll down and you'll get all the details!

We threw coins in the fountain, because when in Rome.... 

After the Trevi Fountain, we headed to see The Pantheon.

I didn't know anything about the history of this place.  And I didn't think I would be all that into it, but it ended up being one of my most favorite things!

Let me just pause and say this:

Instagram + Italy = Perfection

Next, we stopped to see the "Wedding Cake Building" in Rome.  Smart people would probably refer to it as the National Monument of Victor Emmanuel, but much preferred the "Wedding Cake Building".

Drum Roll Please.....

This is the part where my pictures get completely jacked up.

Everything was going so nicely!

But there are about 50 pictures out of order and I am not about to spend my time copying and pasting them one by one {come on blogger, you really need to fix this issue!}

So just bare with me, we will come back to the Wedding Cake Building soon enough....

Here we are visiting the Eternal City.

The history of this place was insane!!!!

i probably retained .00014% of everything our tour guide said.

But it was just incredible to even be standing there.

Oh, the Colosseum {of Flavian Amphitheater} you are beyond words!

We must've walked 1,000 miles that day.  We were exhausted!  But alas, we had another dinner to attend.  Here we are in the hotel lobby waiting to be taken to the restaurant.

And here we go, skipping around again.

The Vatican Museum.

Breathtaking.

And look at me breaking the law.

Inside the Sistine Chapel.

Beyond words.

Chris was nervous that I was going to be caught with my camera out.

He doesn't understand my stealth-like skills.

Back to the Vatican Museum.

Again, everything in Rome is huge and this place did not disappoint.

You could spend years just looking through all the stuff in the Vatican Museum.

St. Peters Square.

We visited on a Wednesday and as luck would have it, the Pope was addressing the crowd.

Of course, he was a tiny white dot very very far from us, and we couldn't understand a word he said, but it was still neat to be there.

And now we will skip to our last night in Rome.

The company rented the most amazing Villa at the top of a hill overlooking the city.

This night was incredible.  Like something you would see in the movies.  Waiters in tuxedos offering you drinks and appetizers, a string quartet playing music, it was amazing.

Sweet friends

{this was the night he proposed!}

More fun friends.  A trip like this was much better with people you enjoyed hanging out with!

Here we are, waiting for the proposal!

The boys being silly.

Yay!!  The proposal!!!

At dinner, we had opera singers.  Like really really talented opera singers.  Amazing.

Then they asked everyone to come outside.  And yes, we then had a fireworks show.  Wow.

And that was our last night in Italy.

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But wait!  W're not done with pictures yet!  Remember, they're totally out of order!

So here we are, back on our tour of the Trevi Fountain.

And back to the Pantheon.

Yahoo!  The Wedding Cake Building.

On the last full day there, most of our friends chose to travel to Florence.  Since we had already been there, we decided to go back tot he Vatican and climb to the top of St. Peters.  We got some gellato while we waited in line!

The inside of St. Peters was incredible.  I have never seen such detail in a building.  Neither one of us was raised Catholic, so some of the symbolism was lost on us, but we for sure enjoyed the beauty of it all.

Let me just interject here.  The climbing of St. Peters is not for the weak.  The staircase is slanted and very very small.  We were stuck behind a school group tour.  It was a worm day.  oh, and did I mention that the students were in JUNIOR HIGH?!?  And oh yeah, 90% of them were boys.  Have you been around a JHigh boy lately?  They stink!!!

It was all I could do to keep from throwing up.

Chris, clearly, thought this was hysterical, but I was having a rough time!

{and yes, I know I too will have a JHigh boy one day, but Lord help me, if he smells like that we will have to institute some kind of bathing policy in our home!}

Regardless, when we got to the top, the view was almost worth the climb.

The Swiss Guard.  They were intense.

Oh Italy, you have now taken the place as one of my favorite places on planet Earth.  I pray on day I can come back!!