On May 29th, 2010 Calogero and I left Salt Lake and began our 36 hour journey Europe. (
I am of course including our long layovers in New York and Venice in this total)
I can't even tell you how excited I was for this trip we have been talking about it for like two years and finally started planning it and setting dates at the beginning of this year. So here is a little break down of our itinerary.
Day 1 - 2: Travel
Day 3- 6: Sicily, Italy
This is where Calogero's Parents are from and the majority of their family still lives here. It was great to meet everyone his family is so nice and welcoming, but they are for sure crazy Italians to the core! Also no one spoke any English so when it came time to meet up with Shane and Ashlee in Rome I was so excited to have someone to talk to that Calogero didn't have to translate.
Day 7 - 8: Rome, Italy
I LOVED Rome! It was so beautiful and full of incredible history. I was constantly in amazement that I was standing in or looking at structures that were build in B.C., and that they were still in great shape. I would definitely go back to Rome.
Day 9 - 16: Mediterranean Cruise
I will post about this later this week. You are already going to be on picture overload, sorry.
Do you think we packed enough! Oh my gosh never again please take it from us if you ever go to Europe (
and you have to go in your life it is amazing) please backpack. Do not bring suitcases the cobblestone roads aren't suitcase friendly and they are just plain inconvenient. Backpack!
Beautiful Church in Palermo, Sicily.
Inside the Capital Building of Palermo. An amazing room filled with with the story of Jesus in Gold Tiles. The intricacy was incredible.
The courtyard of the Capital Building in Palermo.
This is the church of Santa Rosalia in Sicily. This Church is built into the mountain so the walls and ceilings of the church are all part of the mountain.
The Catacombs in Sicily. I was so excited to see this National Geographic did a story on them last year and I was just amazed. There are people who died in 1800's who still have their hair, fingernails, and skin it is crazy because they are not in boxes they are all out in the open air, incredible. Calogero kept calling me creepy because I took like a billion pictures down there.
Calogero's Dads side of the family has this cute little country house in San Guiseppe (
this is where his parents Guiseppe and Vita grew up) We spent the day there eating, sleeping, and visiting relatives. It was nice to get up into the mountains and out of the heat for a day.
The picture of the country side is the view from the upstairs window.
Mondello Beach was our first beach day for the trip. This place is incredibly beautiful and everyone told me it was not even one of their good beaches. The water is so clean and clear you can see to the bottom at night. We spent the day there laying n the sun, playing in the beautiful water and getting 20 minute massages from a very sweet Philippine lady for 5 Euro total. Best 5 Euro i spent all trip.
There is a Restaurant on the beach called Calogero's I loved it his name is so common there no one accidentally called the guy Pedro, oh Americans.
Onto beautiful Rome and my English speaking best friends, Shane and Ashlee!
We got there around 2 grabbed some yummy pizza (
the official food of the trip along with Johnny Rockets) and headed out for some sight-seeing. The first and only place we saw on day one was the Colosseum. Incredible how huge and beautiful it is I can only imagine what it looked like in 80 A.D. We spent hours here just wandering around and enjoying learning about all that went on there.
Day 2 in Rome we started the day off with the Roman Forum.
Just some Photos I took around Rome.
Funny Story! So we are at the Trevi Fountain and Ash tells me I need to throw coins over my shoulder into the fountain and I will return to Rome one day. So we grab some coins head down to the fountain tell the boys to take a picture for us. One, Two, Three we both throw our coins into the air. Ashlee's land perfectly into the fountain while mine go up into the air and right down her shirt! How I have no clue but the boys continued to snap action shots of us trying to retrieve the coins while all laughing uncontrollably. So extra good luck for me! Sorry Ash... So here are
some action shots for ya.
Pictures do not do the Pantheon justice it is massive and to detailed. I loved the Trevi Fountain I could have sat there for hours it is so big and beautiful. It's funny when we were looking for all of these places other than the Colosseum you walk down all of these small streets and alley ways and you totally think you're lost because it is so quiet. Then you turn a corner and your in a huge piazza with thousands of people I loved it.
The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel were very cool; they do not let you take pictures of the Sistine Chapel so you will just have to take my word for it, it is beautiful. Michelangelo truly outdid himself. The picture below is my favorite hallway in the Vatican Museum it was long and gorgeous from the ceiling to the floor. There are 1700 rooms in the Vatican and I am pretty sure we saw the majority of them we were dead by the time we finished our tour.
So we saw and toured pretty much everything in the day and on our last night there after a yummy dinner we decided to walk to everything again at night. We heard they light everything so we had to check it out.
I loved Sicily and Rome I can't wait to go back! Stay tuned for week two sorry for the picture overload!
Merry Christmas from my WONDERFUL Family to yours! 
