Rome: Mother goose, has the mouse found the cheese? Over.

Ah Roma! Our time in Rome was split in half with the trip to Bologna/Venice sandwiched in between, so I'm gonna be writing about both parts here. In our first 4 days in Rome we got in as much sightseeing as possible, but also spent a good bit of time just wandering around the city and taking it all in.

We visited St. Peter's Basilica, the official church of the Pope

The inside is absolutely stunning and the scale is unbelievable. The entire nave is the length of 2 football fields and the gold lettering around the dome is 6 feet high

The decorations inside the dome are all done with intricate mosaics

The statue of St. Peter - we saw several identical copies in other churches around Rome. Rubbing the toe brings good fortune 

A beautiful view from the top of the dome looking out onto St. Peter's square.

We caught up with Maurizio, who we first met several weeks ago at the bus stop on our way to the farm. He gave us an awesome private tour that included the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Capetoline and Paletine Hills.

Us at the Colosseum. The area above the sloped arches is where the seating was and the upper levels were for the women

Maurizio explains how Roman coffins were converted to water basins during the Middle Ages.

Constantine's arch, which is said to be the inspiration for Paris' Arc de Triomphe

We also explored much of Rome on foot. This view is of one of the bridges that crosses the Tiber river

A tzidakah (charity) box in the old ghetto neighborhood, which is still the center of Rome's (small) Jewish community

This was all during our first visit to Rome. However, after returning to Rome from Venice we had a much more unconventional time.

We couch surfed with Michele, an awesome screenwriter in Rome. Here he is about to pick some lemons from the neighbor's tree.

And then tragedy struck. Ray caught a bad cold, which we will herein refer to as "the plague" and long story short both me and Michele got a little sick as well, and we had to cut our sightseeing short. But, while Ray was sick I did manage to do a few fun things:

The Sistine Chapel! Beautiful, but also filled with noisy tourists and guards who yell at you not to take photos. This was the only one I could sneak in

I took a cooking class! Cutting up some yummy hand made pasta!

When Ray finally started feeling better we made it over to the Pantheon. This structural masterpiece was saved from destruction during the Middle Ages because it was converted from a pagan temple into a church. Note the cross on top of the Egyptian obelisk

And then this happened....

That's right, my crazy boyfriend flew across the world to come see me for 12 hours for a post Valentine's Day surprise. We had a nice dinner and the next day he was back on a plane to return to work.

Apparently everyone (Michele, Maurizio, Ray, both our mothers, my roommates at home) was in on the surprise. I couldn't believe that nobody had spilled the beans! Shortly thereafter we said goodbye to  Rome ourselves and hopped on a plane. Next stop.... España!

FLORENCE - Definitely not in Egypt anymore.

Ray here.  Sadly, I had to say arrivederci to my family in the Rome airport so from now on I'll be posting without them.  It feels strange to think that I won't re-Unite with Dave until I go out to Washington for his graduation in May.  But I'm sure he'll keep us informed with blog posts about kombucha and maybe the rest of his life as well, if we're lucky.  Anyway I left the airport and somehow found a train to Firenze. 

Italy!

Florence’s famous Duomo.

Not surprisingly, I found Italy very different from Egypt.  Most noticeably, everyone here is white.  Since I too am white, this means that no one comes up to me on the street and tries to sell me things.

But there were similarities.  Italy and Egypt both have awesome markets.  

Mercato Centrale. I bought dried kiwi.

And ancient ruins.

Roman Theater at Fiesole.

Exploring ruins in the rain with new friends, Meg from Minnesota (!) and David from Paris.

Proof that I was here and didn’t just steal these photos from the internet.

Love and the Ponte Vecchio

View From the top of the Duomo

View #2, a sliver of sun!

This is the low-season for tourism because it is colder and rainier.  But the tradeoff is there were no lines; sometimes we would have world-famous tourist destinations to ourselves.

One of the best things about Florence was the sites I’d stumble upon by accident

All roads lead to the Duomo...and then to Rome!

The Baptistery of San Giovanni

Apparently, this city is really into its art.  I took some in for good measure.  Check these two contrasting depictions of hell.  Personally I prefer the man-eating monster.

Fresco on the ceiling of the Duomo

Mosaic on the ceiling of the San Giovanni Baptistery

Now that I have checked Florence off my list, I head to Rome to rendezvous with my friend Laurika before heading to the Naples area to work on an organic farm.  Ciao!