Here are a few in-between-Italy-and-Switzerland photos.  First a couple shots of these pretty little purple flowers that have been springing up all around this month.

I found this little snail–the leaf he’s on was a few feet off the ground.  How did he get up there?!

Jason took this photo of me playing around with the macro setting on our little camera.  I used it to take the first flower shot up top.

This is the Mainzer Dom, in Mainz of course.  I shared a couple photos of this cathedral before, here.  Mainz is right across the river from Wiesbaden.

The fifth day of our trip was spent in the lovely city of Florence. We walked up the hill to the best look-out point in Florence–the Piazza Michelangelo. The day was stormy and cloudy, which was a nice break after the heat in Rome. Here is the amazing view we had of the city from the piazza .

I took the photo of Jason, above, at the same time he took this photo of me.

Scooters are everywhere in Italy! Yes I waited for this shot ;).

Here’s the Ponte Vecchio–so neat!

A guy chilling by the Arno River.

After dinner, we went back to the Piazza Michelangelo for a night shot. This one’s my favorite!

And finally, here is the Leaning Tower of Pisa, accentuated by my awesome wide-angle lens. That is it for our adventures in Italy. Come back soon for some photos of lovely Switzerland!

Our second day in Rome was by far our favorite day spent in Italy.  We did a little planning for our day the evening before, and decided to spend the majority of it exploring the inside of the Colosseum and walking through the beautiful Roman Forum.  After that, we walked over to Trevi Fountain where we ate some delicious pizza and pasta for dinner, followed by our daily dose of gelato.  As the sun was setting, we walked over to the Spanish steps (bought an awesome oil painting on canvas on the way) and enjoyed the view.
The first three photos are from the Colosseum, the next five are from the Forum, four after that from Trevi Fountain, and the last photo is of the Spanish Steps.  My favorite is one that Jason took, of the art students drawing inside the Forum–how cool would that be?!?
Well, thanks for looking everyone!  I’ll be putting together one more post of our photos from Florence and Pisa, then we have some awesome shots to share from our most recent trip, to Switzerland. :)  Think cows and mountains and cheese and chocolate, and lots more cows!

Here are some of our favorites from our third and fourth days in Italy, which we spent exploring the great city of Rome! All these photos are from our first day in Rome. We spent the morning walking around, just taking in this unique city, with ruins set against the backdrop of big city life. One of the first things we saw as we started our walkabout was the Colosseum. We didn’t go inside until the following day, but here are a couple shots we took from the outside.

Then we walked along the road by the Imperial Forums, where I took this shot of Trajan’s column. It’s the columny-looking thing in the shot below ;-). The history of emperor Trajan’s Dacian wars is carved in a spiral up the height of the column, which stands around 130 feet tall.

We then walked through some narrow streets to the Pantheon. It’s hard to capture the expanse of the building inside (even with our nifty wide-angle lens), but I really liked how the sunlight was streaming into the opening at the top, so I focused on that.

After a quick lunch and break from the heat, we walked over to the Vatican Museums. This cool ball-art was in one of the courtyards. If you look really close, you can see my and Jason’s reflection on the right side of that shiny space in the middle. The Vatican Museums are quite large, so we just walked around a bit and took it all in. We even got to see the Sistine Chapel, but photos aren’t allowed while in there. Many people were sneaking shots here and there, but I resisted (even though it was REALLY hard!).

We walked down this awesome spiral walkway/staircase on our way out of the museums.

After the museums, we climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. Near the top, the stairway wound around the inside of the dome, and the walls started slanting in, following the shape of the roof line. It was pretty tight and really hot up there, but the view from the top was amazing. Also, all of the “paintings” on the walls are actually mosaics. All the art was done this way, instead of painting, because of its durable nature.

We spent the evening enjoying a break from the harsh sunlight and walked down a few more streets. I love the moment in the shot below. The cute couple on the stairs kissed right as I was snapping the photo.

These umbrella pines are all over Rome, and they fit so well. They are extremely tall, with no branches jutting out until the very top of the tree. Well that is all for day one in Rome! Check back soon for some photos from our second day!