positano

  
You might get the sense that I didn't hate Positano. That would be an accurate sense.

città del vaticano

  
The best bit of planning we did for visiting the Vatican: booking our tickets online in advance. We could have probably done without the tour -- most of the Vatican Museums was just sort of interesting for me, but the Sistine Chapel was flat-out stunning -- but definitely, definitely book in advance. The people who were waiting to buy tickets were standing in the longest line I have ever seen in my life, longer than the line to see the David in Florence or anything I've seen at Disney -- easily half a mile long, if not longer. I don't have any pictures of the Sistine Chapel because you are actually not supposed to take any pictures in there (flash would damage the delicate priceless art, which is understandable, though cameras don't require flash in daylight, even somewhat dim daylight; whatever). Our tour guide got very upset with Ann for taking pictures. But it is so beautiful; so easy to want to risk getting hollered at if it means you get to take a piece of it home with you. The Pietà: also gorgeous. It's hard to give a sense of scale for St. Peter's Basilica, but it's huge, like remove a few columns and you could fit a football field inside it, huge. And stunning.

rome III: eats

  
What I ate in Rome or, more accurately, what I ate and liked in Rome. Not pictured: a really unfortunate pizza/pasta lunch near the Pantheon, and the pair of pizzas that I just did not love near the Vatican (so we drank a bottle of white wine apiece instead). Definitely pictured: two of the three times we went to Bir & Fud, the hours for which are nigh impossible to find online (they ARE open Sundays, don't be fooled!), which was the source of my favorite pizza of Italy, the eggplant and mushroom and fresh mozzarella delight you see here twice. The final time we went to Bir & Fud was our last night in Italy, after we'd already stuffed our faces on free appetizers at a delightful little place on Piazza Campo Dè Fiori (see: two rounds of Aperol spritz, above!) -- wonderful, wonderful free appetizers -- and neither of us could make much of a dent in our pizza, so I took it home with me. On a plane. The best part was, nobody so much as batted an eye at my carry-on pizza until I got back to Frankfurt, and then everybody wanted a slice. Sorry, no, this pizza is mine. I brought it all the way from Rome! (I did share with Stephen, though, because he was not allowed to come along on my and Ann's friendcation. Tiny consolation prize.)

rome II: the streets

     
My favorite part about being in Rome: the fact that everywhere we went, there was something gorgeous or ridiculous or both. One of the first nights we were there, we stumbled upon the Forum, and did not realize that was what we had found (fact: we called it the "Mini-Forum" until it became clear the next day that it was the real deal). A couple posts down the line I'll show you the church we walked by a solid three times before peering in -- one of the highlights of the trip. I loved wandering through the streets and seeing the way the city is built on top of all of the older versions of itself, completely modern buildings juxtaposed with the old. The subway system is not that extensive -- it seems that every time they try to add a new station, they have to pause because they've run into more ruins that need to be excavated by archaelogists, which charms me (since I don't actually live there and almost never had a particular time I had to be anywhere!) -- but it's surprising how walkable central Rome is. And the couple of times it rained/we needed to get to the train station, we cabbed it. No shame.

rome I: words

     
Since I've been back from my Italian vacation with Ann for almost exactly a month, I'm finally getting around to going through my photos. So, right on time.

Rome had a lot of good signs, though I am sorry to report that I did not go to all of the bars whose signs I photographed. (Some! Not all.) More Italian fun to follow!