Day 3: Rome and Naples (December 26)

We woke up bright and early on the 26th because we still wanted to see the Colosseum and the Roman Forum but we were going to be making our way to Naples that day. So we checked out of our hotel, checked our bags into the baggage check at the train station and hopped on a metro to the Colosseum. When you walk out of the metro station it is right there. It was amazing. We didn't really want to go inside the Colosseum, the line was really long and I was pretty happy just walking around taking pictures, so that's what we did. We saw where Paul and Peter were imprisoned in the New Testament, which was pretty cool because I had just finished a New Testament class at school the semester before. I loved all the history in Rome.

After walking around for awhile we hopped back on the Metro and caught a train to Naples. I have to say, Naples was my least favorite city for reasons beyond the obvious filth. You'll find out why next post. It was really rainy while we were there, but we checked in to our hotel and made our way around the city. It seems like the entire Christmas and New Years holidays were a reason for Italians to close their shops and not work. So while were walked around to see the shops, nothing was open. But Italians love to window shop, so I embraced it. We had some of the best canoli I've ever had in Naples. In fact, we brought a big box back to our hotel the first night and I'm not even embarrassed to say we ate them all.

Day 2: Rome (Christmas Day)

     We settled in to our hotel, the Grand Hotel Tiberio (my favorite hotel of our trip) and had an amazing nights sleep! We slept in, had a nice continental breakfast, and enjoyed our Christmas morning. The weather in Rome was absolutely beautiful. Probably around 65-70 degrees, blue skies, and sunny. While most people in the world were sitting near a Christmas tree unwrapping presents in their pajamas, I unwrapped an entire city. It was the best Christmas present I could imagine.

     Rome was my second favorite city of our trip.  I loved seeing all the art that I've studied for the last 4 years in my art history classes, but I was so much more in love with the little things. Like the colors in the city, the colors were truly amazing. It was like a photography majors dream. On any given building there were 10 colors that you would never imagine putting together and having them compliment each other, but it was so beautiful. And since the buildings are so old, they have been slowly deteriorating and there were so many textures to take in. Everywhere I looked I wanted to take a picture. And I absolutely LOVED the windows and terraces. You'll probably get sick of looking at all the window pictures. I found about 100 apartments that I would die to live in some day.

     Here's a list of the things I unwrapped on my Christmas Day in Rome: the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), the Vatican, the Pantheon, Piazza Novana, St. Angelo's Castle, walked around the Travstevere, and saw La Pietà. It was a busy busy day, but one of my favorites from our trip. What a great Christmas present :) It was so fun to hear Miles speak Italian, although by the end of the trip I was getting pretty frustrated never knowing what was going on. You see, the Italians just assumed that since Miles spoke Italian that I did too, so they would talk to me and I would just smile and laugh, but really I had no clue what was going on. I did learn a bunch of useful phrases throughout our trip and got really excited to come home and learn Italian.

     There are a LOT of pictures from just Christmas Day, I had over 200 and narrowed it down to these 42. I realize that's still a lot. Happy Viewing!