ITALY!!!

Adobe has a policy that says that for every 5 years that you work there, you get a sabbatical. This year marks Brian's 5th year since joining Omniture (now Adobe), which means that he gets ONE MONTH PAID VACATION! SWEET! So, what did we do for our month off? ITALY!

We went with the Myler clan, and were gone for two weeks. Brian's parents came and stayed with the kids (which I still can't believe they were willing to do for two whole weeks! Thank you, so much!). We flew in to Rome on Friday morning, May 24th. We stayed in Rome for two nights and then boarded a cruise for one week. Got off the cruise on Sunday, June 3rd and headed up to Florence, then Venice on Monday, down to Pompeii on Tuesday, and we were back on a plane home Wednesday morning. It was a LOT to see in the little time we had. If you ever go to Italy, skip the cruise. You could spend two weeks in just Italy. 

There is just SO MUCH to see there!

Day 1: Rome, Colosseum
Waiting for a shuttle from the airport...

 Checking in to the hotel...

 Colosseum!

Trevi Fountain:
  

Spanish Steps:

Day 2, Vatican, and Borghese Gallery

We took a guided tour of the Vatican Museum, which ended with the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Bascilica. I will tell you that the Sistine Chapel was not near the experience I imagined. It was SOOO crowded and noisy. Pictures were prohibited, but people were continually trying to sneak pictures. So, then you had guards who would periodically clap really loud and yell at everyone to be quiet and to stop taking pictures. It was pretty crazy to me.

We got these things to wear around our necks with ear buds so we could hear our guide.

The Vatican Museum has all kinds of art. It does have some sculptures, but the highlight is definitely it's paintings.

Frescoes:

Tapestries modeled after famous paintings:

Mosaics: 

At the very end, we made it to St. Peters Bascilica. THIS was amazing. It is the #1 largest Cathedral in all of Europe. I wish we had spent less time in the Vatican Museum and had more time to spend here. (our guide was very long winded. By the time we made it here we had been in the Museum and the Sistine Chapel for 5 hours already and we were exhausted and starving).

This Cathedral is home to Michelangelo's original Pieta...

(This 2nd one is a copy, but I was able to get a better picture of it)

...And Bernini's Altar Piece...

 

And lots of other cool stuff...

Vatican Guard:

After we sat for a few minutes and ate a little food...

we were off to the Borghese Gallery. Cameras were not allowed inside, so I have not pictures of this, but it was awesome. There were paintings here as well, but the highlight of the Borghese Gallery is the Bernini sculptures. There was one in the center of almost every room,  so we could walk all the way around them, which was wonderful, because his sculptures are normally action shots and were amazing from every angle!

Day 3, Rome Temple Site and Church

We thought a good Sunday activity would be visiting the grounds of the new Rome, Italy Temple! We all piled in to a couple of taxis (all dressed up, since we were going to go straight to church afterwards), gave the drivers the address and off we went. When we arrived, the drivers asked us again if we had the right address, and when we said "yeah, this is it! Can we pull over and take some pictures for a minute and then will you drive us somewhere else?" They looked at us like we were crazy! Because this is what we saw:

A big huge fence around a big huge construction site. Crazy Americans! But Brian was able to climb up on something and get a good panoramic shot of it all:

Then, we were off to Sacrament Meeting! Here is the Rome Meeting house:

And we got translators!