Rome Activities

So now Rome.

Rome is a very unique city. It is a city full of history. Every corner you turn, there is a random ancient pillar or wall. Once again, other than the heat, it was a very nice trip.

We saw many different buildings and many ancient sites.

Here are some of our experiences while in Rome:

One of the first places we visited was Vatican City. It is very unique because although it is tiny in size and population, it is considered an independent state. It is the international capital of the Catholic religion. It was actually very interesting to see all the priests and nuns who visit Vatican city....I mean.......I know they are normal people too, but you never imagine seeing priests, dressed in their black robes, wearing cameras around their necks and being tourists.

A 1st century bronze sculpture in the Vatican City courtyard

Tapestry in the Vatican City Museum

A fancy cake shovel

 Also within Vatican City is Saint Peter's Basilica. All of the previous Popes are buried there:

Me in front of Saint Peter's Basilica

 We also visited the Pantheon. It is an ancient religious temple for the old roman gods.

The front of the Pantheon

 

We also visited:

The Trevi Fountain

The Piazza di Spagna

The obelisk of the Piazza del Popolo

Trajan's Market

We also visited other sites like the Villa Borghese and the Castel Sant Angelo, but we didn't take many pictures. However, we did take a lot of pictures of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. It is so much bigger than I imagined. Very impressive. Take a notice on how tiny the people are in the photos. So many fights and killings occured in this ancient stadium:

The Colosseum outside walls

Inside of the Colosseum

Us ^_^

Night view of the Colosseum

And the Roman Forum:

The Roman Forums

In the Roman Forum

View of the Colosseum from the grounds of the forum

It was a very hot trip, but it was very interesting to see so many different sites with such rich history. Its hard to imagine everything that happened in those areas.

And of course:

Yummy Gelato!

Venice Activities

We are now back in Paris and rested. We did practically nothing for two days since we came back. We're actually enjoying the cooler weather of Paris after the sweltering heat of Venice and Rome!

Today, lets recap Venice part of our trip. As you know, Venice is a surrounded by water. There are absolutely no cars on the island. I don't think I even saw bicycles. So the two forms of transportation is either by the vaporitto (the "bus" system) or by feet. We decided not to take any gondola rides (as romantic as they seem to be) because we didn't think it was worth it. Half the time you're in a crowd of gondolas.....where the drivers are yelling to each other.....and the other half you're under the blazing sun....and gondolas have no shade. It might have been nice right around sunset......when everyone is eating and the sun is not hot anymore, but we didn't.

The first day in Venice we explored the city:

View of the Grand Canal

Ate gelato:

Yum!

walked:

One of the many small canals and bridges

And explored:

The Doge Palace from Grand Canal

And walked:

Another canal

The next day we continued to explore the city. We went to visit the inside of the Doge Palace, we visited the Guggenheim Museum, we took the vaparitto, and we went up the Sainte Marc Campanile.

In front of the San Marco Basilica

Courtyard in the Doge Palace

At the Guggenheim

The Rialto Bridge from the Grand Canal

View of the city

The top of the Sainte Marc Campanile

We also took a tour of the "secret" areas of the Doge Palace, but they did not allow pictures. Neither did the San Marco Basilica. A lot of places actually did not allow pictures. bummer.

We also visited the opera house. The name of the opera house is translated to "The Phoenix". Which is very interesting because it was originally built in 1792 and has gone through two fires since since. They have always rebuilt it and tried to keep it the same. Of course changes were made throughout the years of different leaders and architects. There were no pictures allowed in here as well, but we snuck a couple with our phones ^_^

The ceiling of the theatre. It is actually flat, but the design gives the illusion that the ceiling is dome shaped.

The sides the theatre.

Our last night in Venice we ate at a restaurant right next to the Rialto by the Grand Canal. The food was.....not great, but the view was very nice. It made it worth it.

View from our table

Venetian food is mostly about seafood. We didn't eat any (wayy to expensive) but we did see a lot of fish and other sea creatures around. Like this lobster!

Look at the size of it's claw!!

Venice is also very popular for their glasswork and their venetian masks. They're very pretty, but we didn't get one because we have absolutely no use for it =P But I took a lot of pictures ^_^

That pretty much sums up our trip to Venice. Overall it was a good trip. It was a good experience to see new things and learn about different cultures. However, I'm sure we would have enjoyed it a lot more if it wasn't so hot and so tourists centered.

Another Week

So another week in Paris. But not too much going on.

I went to Opii this week.......as a foreigner in France with a visa I had to go to get an x ray of my lungs and see the doctor to make sure I'm not carrying any diseases and stuff. Germain was able to get the morning off for that......thank goodness because I would have been so lost! The doctor spoke English, but the people in front didn't.

Needless to say......French class......still struggling. Its just so different. After 25+ years of pronouncing words a certain way......it's not easy to just stop sounding them out the way you're use to!

Last night we went out for dinner. We had a groupon for a Japanese sushi dinner for cheap! It was good. not the BEST sushi I've ever had, but 22 euros for two people......soup and salad included......was pretty good. And yes......eating rice was very good.

(Don't worry mom and dad......we just bought a rice cooker! ^_^)

It was a nice day out so was walked around. We passed by the Paris Beaches......Yes beaches. In the middle of the country......Paris has Beaches......Wanna see??

The Paris Beach next to the Seine River

Lol......these are the beaches of Paris. They created this little elevated sandy area...they even imported palm trees to make it seem more beachy. Very funny......Maybe because I grew up in Miami =P

The sun was setting over the river......very pretty.......

Paris sunset

Then we made our way over to St Michel. I like that area. It's very touristy, but there's lots of little shops and restaurants. Several of them were roasting pigs!

Roast pork!

We had gelato for dessert. It was very good. But I guess it should be expected...France is next to Italy. I had chocolate nutella and strawberry gelato. Germain took vanilla and the seasonal special......cantaloupe.

yummy!

There are many neat shops in St. Michel. We passed by this HUGE used books store. HUGE. there were books for 20 cents! And most interesting of all......they had a HUGE section of mangas!! Too bad they're all in French......=P But just the day before......Germain bought me a manga from the bookstore for full price. He hopes it will help me learn French since I like mangas =P

Another cute store....

Bento boxes

They're all bento boxes! Even the legos one. Cute.

On our walk home we passed by a park. It actually seems very nice at night. Its all dark, but they installed lighting to light up sculptures and fountains.

This weekend is a long weekend! So three days to explore. No classes, no internship. Hopefully I'll have more pictures for you! ^_^

~Pui