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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Slideshow at My Place! -- Ancient Ruins Edition

Appian Way - ancient road with awesome catacombs.


Vacation photos? Are you people sure you want to see them? Crazies, I say! I keep meaning to set up a Flickr account, so I can just link there. But really, it would be 1,000 cat photos, so I'm not sure anyone would be interested.

I can't remember if I mentioned our itinerary or not, but we spent 5 nights in Rome, went down to Sorrento (Amalfi Coast) for two nights, and spent one more night in Rome. Our first Roman hotel was just a block and a half away from the Colosseum, so we spent a lot of time taking photos there. (I think if you click on the pictures, they'll enlarge nicely.)

The first couple of days we spent going to ancient ruins in Rome. We went to the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Palatine Hills and the Forum, and the Appian Way. While at the Appian Way, we visited the catacombs at St. Sebastian. The tomb of St. Cecilia of Matella is in the depths of the catacombs. It is an incredibly moving monument! Also, the tour was given by a priest, which somehow made it cooler. There are also bikes that you can rent at the Appian Way, but of course, we didn't do that. It would have been a really cool way to tour the ancient road. I thought one of the most amazing things about Rome is that you didn't have to make an effort to see any of the ancient sites. They were just right.there. So cool!

Our biggest reason for going to the Amalfi Coast was touring the ancient city of Pompeii. It is amazing how well preserved it is. The roads are still usable (well, walkable), there are paintings still intact, and one of the homes of a wealthier citizen looks like it could still be lived in. It's really quite stunning. Um yeah... enough babbling; on with the pictures. Please note that The Targo took most of the pictures and he appears on this website entirely without his permission. :)

"What makes you think I'm American?" -- The Targo in front of the Colosseum


Colosseum at sunset

Inside the Colosseum

A view of the Forum from Palatine Hill

At the Forum

The Pantheon -- Can you believe this building is 2,000 years old?

Inside the Pantheon ... according to my sundial, it was about 2:45

Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius looming

"Quick! Take the picture before it erupts!" -- The Targo just outside of Pompeii
with Mount Vesuvius in the background

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I can say is WOW! Now I want to go...hmm do you think it would be the same moving experience with a 5, 3 1/2 & 1 1/2 year old? Probably not. Glad you had a good time. The pictures are awesome.

TSintheC said...

Oooooh, thanks! It kinda makes my hotel room from 1620 seem brand-spanking new in comparsion, doesn't it?

So cool that you two got to do this.

Anonymous said...

Oooh! So cool!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! It is amazing how good those structures look for being so old.

And also, you could have saved so much money and gone to some hill in Palatine instead of going all the way to Italy to see Palatine Hill.

L Sass said...

I love the Colliseum. It's one of those places where I couldn't say anything else other than "WHOA." I mean, the thing is effin huge, effin OLD and effin beautiful. I also love the way it just appears among so many more modern buildings in Rome. SO different from the US.

Anonymous said...

I'd be looking at your 1000 photos! I love 'em. :) Italy is gorgeous, next time I'll get to Pompeii. Looks like you had beautiful weather, too!