A visit to Rome - Part 4

View of Rome

There's a lot to see in Rome so this series ended up longer than I planned! See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.


But look what it says here!

We thought this statue had a lot of personality.


Big door, little door

The entrance to the Piazza del Popolo had this great contrast in door size. For reference, the little door on the right is a normal human-sized door.


Piazza del Popolo

The Piazza del Popolo was symmetrical and expansive, with another Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the fountain.


Fountain in Piazza del Popolo

The whole fountain had a bit more of an Egyptian mood.


Nun in Piazza del Popolo

Nuns were a much more common sight in Rome than anywhere else I've ever been.


Bougainvillea

We retreated up to the Villa Borghese park for the afternoon and saw this pretty bougainvillea on the way.

This brings to a close my retrospective on our holiday in Italy last August. We had a wonderful visit, saw many ancient, and beautiful things, and ate quite a bit of pizza, pasta, and gelato!

You can see all my pictures from Rome in my trip to Italy set.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to Rome - Part 3

Vatican City

This penultimate post in my review of our trip to Italy is about the Vatican museum. We spent about 5 or 6 hours there one afternoon, avoiding the heat. If you only go to one museum in Rome, this is the one to see.


ceiling fresco in the Vatican Museum

The building itself is beautiful. There were Egyptian artifacts and ancient Roman sculptures and Italian masterpieces. Most of the rooms that housed these treasures were lovely in their own right since it's a palace that's been converted into a museum.


ceiling in the map room

The ceiling in the map room was particularly impressive.


a map in the Vatican museum

I expected paper maps when I read the list of things in the museum, but it's actually a room full of fabulous maps painted on the walls!


mosaic floor in the Vatican museum

The floors are also pretty fantastic, with several rooms that had beautiful mosaic tiling.


ceiling fresco in the Vatican museum

You really could have a great visit, just looking up at the ceilings the whole time.


Adam and Eve in the Vatican museum

We took the long route through the museum and were rewarded with some of the most amazing ceiling frescoes.


School of Athens

If you take the "get to the Sistine Chapel quickly" shortcut, then you miss out on a lot. In particular, you'd miss seeing the famous School of Athens fresco by Raphael.


It's not all frescoes in the Vatican museum

And just so you don't think it's all ancient stuff and frescoes, there's modern art too! On the more practical side, the museum also houses a hall full of historical pope conveyances (somehow you can't really call a golden carriage a "pope-mobile") and a room full of Vatican City stamps.

You can see all my pictures from Rome in my trip to Italy set.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to Rome - Part 2

As promised in Rome - Part 1, I have a few of the simpler scenes of Rome to share.


View at Lunch

We tried to avoid the most touristy cafes in Rome and found our way to those a little farther from the hotspots. One day we had lunch in a little side street with a charming view.


chess in Rome

I always like spotting some of the ordinary life going on when I'm in a touristy place. I thought these two gentlemen playing chess under a tree in the afternoon was lovely.


water fountain

These water fountains were everywhere in Rome and they are fabulous. It was nice not to have to feel that we either had to ration our water nor that we had to buy bottled water. The water was freezing cold and we refilled our water bottle A LOT.


corner shrine

I spotted several of these little corner shrines throughout our visit to Italy.


Roman Invader

To contrast with the old, there's also the new. I've been enjoying spotting space invaders throughout our travels in Europe. This one was just outside the Vatican City.


The Best Gelato in the World

No visit to Rome (and certainly not one in August) would be complete without gelato! If you try no other gelato in Italy, you shouldn't miss San Crispino. While all the various gelatos we had were delicious (the lime one in Pisa was another highlight), San Crispino's gelato is outstanding. We later went back and had the raspberry flavour too and it truly tasted exactly like eating a fresh raspberry ... it was incredible.

You can see all my pictures from Rome in my trip to Italy set.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to Rome - Part 1

The Colosseum
The last city in my series of posts on our trip to Italy last August is Rome. See also: Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano. We only spent a few days in Rome, but we saw a lot. I can't really recommend visiting in August... the one thing none of these pictures convey is just how hot it was from about 10:30am to 7:00pm! We mostly spent the afternoons in cool gardens or air-conditioned museums!


The Colosseum

Stepping inside the Colosseum was a bit mind-boggling... particularly to someone from Canada, who's used to things being considered "old" when they've been around for 150 years!


At Palatine Hill

Nearby the Colosseum are more Roman ruins at Palatine Hill, which then joins into the Roman Forum.


At the Roman Forum

Don't be fooled by the photo: while I may look all cool and breezy, I was roasting even in the shade.


The Roman Forum

The Roman Forum is enormous and there's not much in the way of interpretive signs to explain what you're looking at.


Tempio Antonino Faustino

It's impressive, nonetheless.


tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Even in more modern times, the Italians sure know how to build impressive monuments! The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was blindingly white in the sun and gave us both a headache, so we only looked at it briefly.


The Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain is similarly impressive. The fountain sort of melts out of the back of a building into a tiny square. It's enormous, beautiful, loud with rushing water, and very awe-inspiring. I definitely recommend visiting early in the morning before there are massive crowds.


Piazza Navona

Everywhere you go in Rome there are beautiful fountains and ancient Egyptian obelisks and remarkably beautiful architecture.

One does start to get a bit jaded to the grandeur of it all. So in my next post, I'll share a few of the less ostentatious sights in Rome.

You can see all my pictures from Rome in my trip to Italy set.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to San Gimignano

On the ride from Siena to San Gimignano, we were treated to a November-like torrential downpour, and even hail! Luckily, it had already passed through San Gimignano by the time we arrived.


Tuscan Countryside

There were some lovely views of the surrounding countryside from the hilltop medieval town.


square in San Gimignano

San Gimignano is a tiny, well-preserved medieval town. We only had an hour to look around, which felt a bit rushed.


street in San Gimignano

Most of the streets looked something like this... filled with tourists.


street in San Gimignano

But it wasn't very hard to wend your way into little side streets and laneways that were deserted, or nearly so.


view over rooftops

Exploring off the main streets is how I found my way up to a lookout point atop an old wall.


many towers of San Gimignano

Of course, what San Gimignano is famous for is the towers! There are 14 of them. Apparentely, in most other cities, the towers from the same time period have all been destroyed due to wars or just new construction.

You can see all my pictures from San Gimignano in my trip to Italy set.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to Siena

City of Siena

As I mentioned in my highlights of Pisa post, my sweetie was at a conference there. While he was occupied with that, I was lucky enough to get to take a day trip to Siena and San Gimignano.


Medieval Streets

Siena had a very different look and feel to Pisa. The streets are much steeper and lined with natural stone buildings. Despite all the tourists, it still feels so much a medieval town.


Cathedral in Siena

The main thing to see in Siena is the stunning cathedral.


Cathedral detail

The individuality of each decorative element of the exterior is incredible.


Cathedral interior

The interior has a lot of black and white stripes because those are the city's colours.


A Random Bit of Wall

Every inch of the interior is decorated, from walls, to ceilings, to floors, and there were elaborately carved shrines, statues, or other details by all the most famous Italian sculpters.


In the Library

But the most amazingly amazing part of the cathedral is the library, which has stunning (and perfectly preserved) frescoes.


Illuminated Book

As it's a library, there were indeed some fabulously illuminated books, but being surrounded by the jewel-toned frescoes is my most vivid impression from the room.


In the Library

The frescoes on the ceiling were also awe-inspiring. The library was one of the most remarkable places I saw on the entire trip.

As this post is already rather long, I'll save the San Gimignano part of the day trip for the next post. You can see all my pictures from Siena in my trip to Italy set.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A visit to Pisa

I realised that I never got around to writing anything about our holiday in Italy last August. I finally got all the photos uploaded by early January, though, so I thought I'd do a couple posts with some of my favourites. This one is the highlights from our visit to Pisa.


Peek-a-boo

One surprising thing in Pisa is that the leaning tower looks way more leaning in person than any of our pictures could capture.


Roof of the Baptistry in Pisa

Visiting the Piazza dei Miracoli is best in the early morning and at sunset. It's not only cooler (we were there in August), but much less busy than in the middle of the day.


Cathedral Detail

I didn't really know about the other buildings in the Piazza dei Miracoli until we got there, but they're all beautiful.


Old City Wall in Pisa

Even the old city wall is quite picturesque!


Empty Pots

I visited the Orto Botanico (the Botanical Gardens) in the late morning and it was very atmospheric (also inexpensive, cool despite the heat of the day, and almost deserted except for the mosquitoes!) There was a sort of desultory gardener wandering about. I had glimpses of him talking on his mobile phone and occasionally snipping at something with pruning shears.


Old Wheelbarrow

It felt more like I was visiting some ancient and slightly shabby estate grounds. It was very different from the manicured botanical gardens I'm used to. I actually loved the vaguely neglected atmosphere of it and the way it felt so secluded from the city surrounding it.


Warning: Pond

This tiny warning sign made me laugh as the pond was not disguised or hidden in any way.


You were warned about the pond

You were warned about the pond!


Shuttered Windows of Pisa

There really are shutters on all the windows, just like you see in films set in Tuscany.


Worn building in Pisa

There's even buildings with facades that have crumbled in a pretty way.


Along the river Arno

And curving views of Tuscan architecture along the river.

Since my sweetie was at a conference in Pisa, we spent several days there, but it could very reasonably be visited in a single day. You can see all my pictures in my trip to Italy set, but I'll also be posting about some more of the highlights.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.