Italy - Rome

 We made it to Rome! Rome was also full of history. I was surprised at how much was left or I guess how little. What was left is really cool. We really had most of our time to sight see with only a few business visits so I got to see almost everything I wanted to. One of our business visits was pretty cool though - we got to go visit the American Embassy to the Holy See which includes the Vatican and got to meet the American Ambassador. Here are some of the sights.

Colosseum at night

Inside of the Colosseum (the tops of those blocks in the middle is where the floor was and below was where the animals would be stored)

The Pantheon

Roman Ruins

Roman Forum 

On our way in we got to drive by the Rome temple site. So cool that there is a temple there!

The Spanish steps - the sides of these steps are covered in flowers.

Michelangelo's "Pieta". This is an absolutely touching sculpture of Mary holding Christ in her arms after he was taken off the cross. Besides the touching nature - it is in such contrast to the David, but beautiful in its own way. It is neat to see both ends of the spectrum of Michelangelo's work.

St. Peter's Basilica - this building is absolutely massive and gorgeous! Our director told us that the Salt Lake Temple would fit in this building 3 times. Also as part of our tour we went to the Vatican Museums and got to see the Sistine Chapel. Another one of Michelangelo's great works that he didn't even want to do, but did and it is truly magnificent - one of the most stunning things I have seen.

We climbed to the top of St. Peter's Dome and this is the view over the Vatican from the top.

Throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain.

The beach in Rome.  On one of our last days we realized we were going to be able to see what we wanted and so we took the day to go to the beach. It was so relaxing not to have to run and run and run. It resulted in a terrible sunburn that peeled for weeks, but was so worth it.

Group at the beach.

This is the whole group that went with our bus and bus driver Patrick. I made some wonderful friends and had the experience of a lifetime. After some long flights I finally made it back to the states and look back with fondness.

Italy - Florence

Our second to last stop in Italy was Florence. Florence was probably my favorite city. One of my roommates (shout out to Somers) recommended that I read a book called the Agony and the Ecstasy which is a biography of Michelangelo. This book was so good and got me so excited to go to Florence where he did most of his work. On top of it our hotel was right downtown and everything was within a 10-minute walk. All of that on top of good food makes for a wonderful stay.

The Boboli Gardens - a lot of things were dead perhaps because it was the summer, but it was still cool. We ended realized that we had not even seen the whole garden after we left, but a reason to go back I guess.

Ponte Vecchio - the main bridge during the day

Same bridge as above, but in the evening. So beautiful!

Ghiberti's doors - this was the main work of his lifetime and are the doors on the baptistry

Gelato! We had tons and tons of this while we were in Italy! So good!

Il Duomo - this cathedral stood without a dome for 50 years until Brunelleschi designed one for the top. This is beautiful with the green and white marble. We attended mass in here which was a unique experience. It was an interesting comparison to when we came back and held sacrament meeting. 

This is Michelangelo's tomb in Santa Croce. He and many other famous people are buried there.

We climbed to a piazza that overlooked the city. This is a view of the river at sunset.

 This is one of my favorite pictures I took the whole trip. It is the night skyline of Florence. Absolutely breathtaking.

One of my absolute favorite things in Florence was going to see the David. After reading the Michelangelo book I was excited to see as much of his work as possible. We went to the Uffizi and saw a few of his paintings (overall the Uffizi was smaller than I anticipated - especially compared to the Louvre) and then we went to see the David which is absolutely stunning and masterful in how Michelangelo crafted it. Florence is so full of beauty and history. 

Another wonderful thing about Florence is the markets - they are famous for their leather markets. They had so many things to choose from in addition to the leather: scarfs, clothing, etc. It was an experience in bartering, but I got some great things!

On to the last stop on the trip - Rome!

Italy - Venice, Parma, Sienna

Italy was our next stop. It was absolutely wonderful. One of the first major changes was the weather. It had been pretty mild most of our trip, but now it was extremely hot and humid. Venice was our first rude awakening to this. Our bus had to park off the island we had to haul our luggage across the island, over multiple bridges with lots of stairs before we finally got to our hotel which had no elevator. Bless the gentleman of our group! Venice was worth it though! We had some wonderful food and then we got some money from the program to take a gondola ride. It was pretty cool - exactly what you see in the movies!

                                        

(countryside in Parma)

We were only in Venice for a day before we moved on and visited Parma. The main reason we were here was for our business visits to a Parmesan cheese factory and a prosciutto (Parma ham) factory. These are two things that are only made in that region of the world and it was cool to see the process they used. We also got to do a cheese tasting after which was delicious. 

(Parma ham in the first stages)

(Curing room for cheese - sometimes over 2 years!)

After Parma we headed for a quick stop in Sienna for a cooking lesson. Fresh ingredients + Italian charm = some wonderful food!

(View from the balcony outside where we ate)

(Bruschetta - first course)

(Chopping garlic for the pasta sauce)

(Main course - garlic & rosemary potatoes, chicken stuffed with a pepper-cream)

(Pesto-Marinara sauce over home-made noodles)

(Tiramasu)

This was some of the best food of the whole trip! We got the recipes, but their recipes are far less detailed, I'll have to try them sometime. Then we were on our way to Florence!

Austria

So we visited Austria in two chunks. The first time we went was a surprise from our bus driver. During our stay in Munich, he told us he had to take us to the most beautiful place on earth. He took us up into the Austrian alps to a place called Auchensee-Tirol. It truly is one of the most breathtaking vistas I have ever seen. I am so glad we got this surprise!

(Quintessential when I think of Austria)

(The two pictures above are at the lake at Auchensee-Tirol)

After we left Germany we got to spend a day in Salzburg. This is a quaint Austrian town that we mostly spent the day walking around and exploring. On our walk through town we saw some sights where the Sound of Music was filmed, Mozart's birthplace, and had some good chocolate.

For this picture we had seen some stairs and decided to explore where they went. Some of the group went ahead and after they didn't come back for a while the rest of us followed. It was a bit of a hike (at least more than I had planned on), but it took us to this view overlooking all of Salzburg. Definitely worth it!

Now it is on to Italy!

Germany

With school starting and everything getting going again I have failed at updating this blog. I figured I should finish up my Europe trip before moving on.  I'm pretty sure most everyone who wants to hear about my trip has, this also works as a sort of journal for me.

Our first stop in Germany was in Cologne. We got there rather late in the day so there was really  just time for dinner. We did have time to walk through and see the Cologne Cathedral (below). It looks black because of all the dirt and grime, but they are slowly restoring it to the original white.

Our next stop was Heidelberg. Again we arrived late in the day so we had a little bit of time to explore and get some dinner. There are a couple famous things in Heidelberg like the student prison and the castle pictured below. I went with a group and we ended up just grabbing dinner and taking in the quaint little town ending up down by the river. That night we had an adventure as the fire alarm went off in our hotel around 11:30pm. There ended up not being a fire (thank goodness!),  but it was an adventure to get everyone out of the hotel.

Our last stop in Germany was in Munich. The way our time ended up working out made it difficult to go out and do things, but we did get to see some great things. One place we spent some time was in the English Gardens. They are huge gardens with beautiful views and are nice to just walk around and enjoy.

(English Gardens at sunset)

This one is a little bit out of order, but on our way out of Germany and into Austria we got to take a boat tour of the Rhine Valley. It was beautiful!

One of our first stops in Munich was at the concentration camp Dachau. I had been looking forward to this, but wasn't quite sure what to expect. After going through the camp, the overwhelming feeling was just one of emotional exhaustion. It is difficult to think that human nature could go so far in the wrong direction.

(Entrance to Dachau)

(Guards watch and the outside fence)

(Crematorium)

(Where the barracks used to be - there is only two left at the very top of the camp)

Another place we spent a lot of time at in Munich was called Marianplatz. It is the main square in Munich full of food, shopping, and some beautiful architecture.

One of the business visits we had in Munich was BMW. This was one of my favorite business visits. It was cool to see how they make a BMW and looking at their showroom was pretty sweet. The car I am sitting in below retails for roughly $80,000. Only in my dreams!

We had some pretty good food in Germany. I tried the bratwurst, huge pretzels, and my favorite was the doner kebaps (which apparently are Turkish, but were so good!).  Then we headed off to Austria.