Italian Tea Time

My favorite time of day!

Palentine Hill

One of the seven hills of ancient Rome. This is wear the rich and famous lived - like the Hollywood Hills of the Roman Empire. If I were a Roman, I would definitely want to live on the Palentine Hill.

 Roman Aquaduct

 View of the Vatican from the Palentine Hill

 View of the Colosseum from the Palentine Hill

 Hippodrome of Domitian

 What used to be a grand fountain

Gardens of the palace in the Third Court

 Another amazing view of the Colosseum

The Roman Forum and Colosseum

My parents came to visit me for Spring Break! They wanted to see all the quintessential Roman buildings - aka we became extreme tourists for a few days! We started with the Roman Forum and Colosseum for our first day. Although I have passed by the forum many times, this was my first guided tour of the area. It was really cool to learn the history behind all of the structures. My favorite part of the tour was seeing Julius Caesar's temple and burial place. People had placed flowers on his grave on the anniversary of his death - the Ides of March. Our tour guide said this was cheesy but I thought it was really special that the people of Rome still honor their history.

 Burial place of Julius Caesar

 Temple turned Church in the middle of the Forum

 My family!

 Mom in the Colosseum

 View of the Palentine Hill from the Colosseum

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, Italy translates to "five cities." For Ben's visit, we decided to head up North on a four hour train to visit the coastal towns. The first day we had SO much rain but it eventually cleared up for us. There was a local train that took you to and from the five cities (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore). Our favorite town ended up being Monterosso because it was at sea level and had a beautiful beach. Unfortunately the walking trail between the cities was closed because of mudslides from the rain but we were able to go on bits and pieces and it was beautiful!

Riomaggiore 

Day

Night

 I wasn't kidding about the rain!

 Corniglia

 Vernazza

 Monterosso (I am up on that rock!)

<3

Photography Project Numero Due

My photography teacher (Paolo) is super picky but I appreciate his point of view. Paolo went through my pictures that I collected for our midterm and made the stink face at most of them. However, he did like four of them so I thought I would share his favorites. In his words, "These other peectures do not give me feelings, these peectures give me feelings."

Holy Cannoli

Pretty self explanatory.

I have never had a cannoli before and now I might need to have one everyday. 

Delisshhh.

Rain rain go away

I love Rome I really do but that rain has got to stop. Apparently I arrived during the rainy season in January and am leaving to go back home in May just in time for the rain to end. Waiting for the sun!