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Venice ... I meet my Penpal - Part Two

The police of Venice.

One of the many canals.

Harbour view near St Mark's Square.

How skinny are you?

This is a sight all through Italy.....

Love this fruit and vegi barge.

Can't believe how calm the water is.

Now this boat has style.

Yes, churches in all the piazza's of Venice too.

Pisa is not the only place with a leaning tower.

This is the room we had. I was surprised when I wend to feel the wall paper to discover it was cloth. That is cording that runs up the corner and along the ceiling edge. Not really my taste but it so suits being in Venice.

Our final sunset in Venice taken from the Rialto Bridge by our daughter.

Ok...here I am, the one with the buckle. I figure you have been kind enough to follow our journey I would say hello to you. I hope my friend (penpal) doesn't mind. I just love this shot with the gondola in the background. I am so glad we had the chance to meet up. Someday it would be nice to catch up with her in her home in Finland.

Thanks for flying over and spending all the time with us. We all really enjoyed it. Still think that your English was brilliant. Our son keeps commenting on that fact to everyone.

:-)

Kippis!

Forgot to add.....I loved Venice. I am not a shopper but I loved all their little shops and I think I could be easily swayed if I lived their to get in to the fashion of things. Leather everywhere, glass, masks, books. So wonderful.

Venice....where I met my Penpal Part One

We were met off the train from Milan to Venice by my lovely friend/penpal and her hubby. They had flown in that day at lunch time. We arrived in the evening. We have been writing to each other since high school. So slightly more than 30 years. :-0

It was amazing to finally get the chance to meet each other and each other's family. We got on well and it was like we had known each other a long time...which we have.

Well the above photo is one of the first shops I saw in Venice.......a book shop. Heaven. There were so many book shops....the few that I did see with presses seemed to at Siesta time so never got to see the binder.

Christmas decs....aren't they so pretty.

A fantastic shot taken by my penpals husband. There are mask shops everywhere. We would have loved to buy lots but the price of some did keep us at bay also trying to carry them home factored into it too. Our daughter did buy one without so much detail and carried it all the way home....it made it in one piece.

Some very different masks we spied.

Yes, glass everywhere. Absolutely stunning. Amazing artists. We did find a small shop with a glassblower working. So we bought all our glass momentos from there.

More stunning glass work.

These types of clocks were for sale everywhere too....aren't they amazing.

Friends hubby took this photo... I had to share.

Firstly the pizza's look so yummy and are huge....plus like the way the coke ad is in the centre.

This is the Rioalto Bridge completed in 1591. The original bridge was made of wood and a full time maintenance job so they reconstructed it in stone.

This is where we spent our three nights in Venice

Hotel Rialto. Very nice...old, but nice. We were lucky and on the second floor. Our poor friends must have looked very healthy and fit as they were right up the top which meant lots of flights of stairs.

These yellow street signs are what we followed everywhere.

A canal and a gondala. We are in Venice. :-)

St Mark's Square. The things that look like stacks of tables are actually the platforms they put out when they are have a high tide or flooded. No didn't see any flooding while we were there.

These are all the gondola's a long the front of St Mark's Square.

Rome - St Stephen's Day or Boxing Day Part Two

Theatre of Marcellus.

Completed in 11BC could hold 11000 spectators.

Sorry can't remember what this place was called...but it was just as awesome as everywhere else.

This is the 'Roman Fourm' the central place of Rome. A marketplace, a place for speeches ect.

Now this I had to see....Trevi Fountain......we have a jigsaw with this image on which I had been telling the kids. No of course they couldn't remember it....I finally dug it out today. The picture on the jigsaw is darker and browner that this. Yes, we each through our penny in. :-)

Spanish Steps. I am sure you have seen these in a few movies.

They are called the Spanish Steps as the Spanish paid for them.....quite simple hey.

A street that we would have love to venture into but didn't have the time. Just as well as we wouldn't be able to afford anything any of these shops. Prada, Versace...etc...

The Pantheon.

Commissioned as a temple to all gods of Ancient Rome.

Construction finished in 126AD

The dome atop the Pantheon.

Apparently the diameter of the dome equals the distance from the floor to the top of the dome. Yes, if you had two of these domes they would form a perfect circle or ball. Nothing covers the dome so rain, hail and shine comes on through. Luckily they have a lovely marble floor below and apparently not much comes through.

Yes, we made it to the Vatican. St Peter's Square with St Peter's Basillica in the background.

Now this is a beautiful Nativity scene.

Residence of the Pope.

To finish our day in Rome we were taken to a wonderful lookout.

What an amazing view.

This is what our daughter saw from the lookout. :-)

I saw these trees all over Italy....apparently called Umbrella Firs.

Rome - St Stephen's Day or Boxing Day Part One

We arrived at Civitavecchia and caught our own private bus for our tour of Rome. Yes, our travel agent had organised this for the seven of us before we left Cairns. Now this is the way to do a tour.....it was nice to have front row to listen to our guide, if we didn't want to see something we could skip that and move on to the next sight. Best bit even though we were only a group of seven we were still a tour group and managed to jump a lot of the larger groups at places like the Colosseum.

Dominico the bus driver picked us up with 'I don't speak much English' which is okay because we did not 'Speak much Italian'. We enjoyed the view.....especially this sign that said Roma. This only took us at the most 40mins.

Dominico, took us along some streets that seemed like back lanes...we were wondering where we were going. Then all of a sudden we were in the middle of Rome with all these wonderful icons around us. Unbelievable. With his limited English Dominico did point out certain sights. Like this Pyramid of Cestius which was built in 18BC - 12BC as a tomb for Caisu Cestius, a magistrate and member of one of the four great religious corporations at Rome.

Next sight....unbelievably was the Colosseum.

After the quick sights we stopped off and picked up Elisbeth our tour guide for the day. She loved the history and was keen to share it with us but knew when to stop sharing and let us look around ourselves. First stop was the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli where St Peters chains are kept. This church was first built in the 5th century.

St Peters' Chains.

A magnificent work of art. The bottom section was done by known other than Michelangelo called Moses which dates back to 1515. The top section was done by his students. It is hard to see in this photo. But the detail in the bottom section is so much more details with the muscles and clothing than the top section. You can certainly tell the master.

The Arch of Constantine. Erected somewhere between 312 or 315 and is 21metres high.

Love all the reds in this photo.

We are here on foot to see the Colosseum.

Can you believe this only took them 10 years to construct.....you have to remember this is just a skeleton and everything was covered in marble. Marble columns, marble seating etc. They even had a roofing construction in case it did get too hot and sunny. This was called a velarium and it apparently took about 1000 men to move it into place. Find out more info about the Colosseum here.

Isn't he so cute. Yes, there were Roman soldiers all around the Colosseum ready to take a photo with you for a fee.

Inside the Colosseum. The wooden floor structure you can see is a reconstruction of what would have existed when it was first built. This structure should cover the entire floor area covering up those tunnels and pits where the lions, bears, gladiators etc stayed before been lifted up with pulley systems to fight.