Rome: Colosseum

The Colosseum is probably the most iconic Roman ruin in the entire world. It sits right in the middle of Rome, and one day I walked over to check it out. It is INSANELY busy during the day, so I went around 6 at night and it was basically empty.

The Colosseum sat 50,000 people and was built on the site of the super unpopular Emperor Nero's lake house. After he died, it was built there was a gesture of good will to the Roman people-

And... just for fun... let's play a fun game of "then" and "now"... then...

and "now"-

The Colosseum has been a lot of things (after it was used for gladiators and lions) including a church, a castle, house and workshops... and the reason that half of it was missing is because the blocks were used as building tools for other projects in the area throughout the years. 

Now its a political venue as well. Italy is apparently very against the death penalty, and many anti-death penalty demonstrations take place outside the Colosseum. The Colosseum is illuminated at night, and it is lit up in gold whenever a state or nation abolishes the death penalty, or whenever someone who has received the death penalty gets the penalty reversed. The rest of the time it is lit up in white.

Rome: Panetheon, Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon was built in 126 AD, and is said to be the oldest building that has been continuously in use since its construction. It's not totally sure what it was built for originally, but most historians think it was originally a temple- but it became a Christian Church in 609 when it was gifted to a Pope by a Roman Emperor. Now it is a Catholic Church.

The sign on the front says "Marcu Agrippa, son of Lucious Agrippa, consul three times, built it". Says a lot for something so short looking now, right?

The most impressive part of the Pantheon is the dome, of course-

For hundreds of years, people could not figure out how the dome was built so perfectly- in medieval times rumor had it that it was built by creating a dome of earth, building around it,  then hiding money in the dirt to get people to carry the dirt away. In reality... it was built because Romans were amazing mathematicians. I mean, that dome was built 2,000 years ago, it's still standing. Romans were amazing that's for sure.

There are also some famous people buried in here now, like the artist Raphael and also two kings of Italy.

Next I headed over to the Trevi Fountain, which is like 5 minutes from the Pantheon-

pretty much the most "touristy" place in all of Rome. I've even been there before...

Oh beautiful. Why oh why didn't I dress better? Then these pictures would be much less embarrassing. But they are so awesome, I can't help it. Thanks to my Dad who took these pictures, then scanned them all for all our enjoyment! You're the best, Dad!  :)

Capri: Mount Salaro

In continuing my lazy day, I took a ski lift to the top of Mount Salaro. I actually don't know if you can even climb to the top, the maps of Capri were totally awful and I felt basically lost most of the time. 

So on this dinky little ski lift (constructed in like 1955) I almost threw up. I have nothing against heights, but despite the amazing view I could not get over the fact that I was really close to plunging to my death. Terrifying. 

But almost plunging to my death from a ski lift was worth it-

When I was done admiring the beautiful views, I headed back down on the death lift-

Thankfully I am here to write about it, but seriously it was  terrifying.

Next, I decided to go to the super famous Blue Grotto. I took a bus over and it WAS pretty. But it was about 30 euro to go on a 5 minute boat ride into the famous grotto, so I passed. Also look at all those little boats... you had to wait in them till you could get in the grotto and honestly it seemed a tiny bit unsafe to me-

I was able to walk along the shore though, so it wasn't totally a waste of time-

I was pretty much over the annoying lack of transportation, how everything was overpriced and how many tourists were there, so I walked back down to the port-

And my last view of Capri before I headed back to Naples-

If you are rich enough, I am sure it is paradise! :)

Capri: Church of San Michele

I got up super duper early one morning to go to Capri-about an hour ferry away from Naples. The ferry isn't cheap and the day was supposed to be somewhat overcast... but I decided to go anyway and hope the weather cleared up. 

The ferry ride over was amazing-

And an hour later, I was pulling up into Capri-

It was pretty much as picturesque as I thought it would be. Capri is an island that seems to be one giant hill, but luckily there are lots of ways to get up the hills that don't involve, ya know... walking. My first way up was taking a subway train thing. I was in main Capri town-

After walking around Capri (with stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton) I headed over to AnaCapri, which is a short bus ride over onto the other side of the island. There is a little walk around the town, the first place I got to is called the Red House-

I didn't get to go inside, but it is the house of a southern man who moved to Capri after the Civil War. 

Then I headed to The Church of San Michele. The front of it wasn't that impressive-

...but the inside certainly was-

No, that's not the impressive part. The floor is-

Look at that unicorn!

How cool is that floor? It may be my favorite floor ever :)

Sorrento

Sorrento is a day trip from Naples, about 50 minutes by train (however my trip took over 2 hours though, since the train I was on broke down, we sat on the track for 30 minutes baking in the heat, then waited another 30 minutes for another train to come) OR you can take a 30 minute ferry ride (which I totally did on the way home after the morning train debacle). 

Sorrento is where a lot of people stay when they are staying in that area of Italy, but it was more expensive so I stayed in Naples (and I am glad I did). Sorrento is SUPER TOURISTY.

Basically if you have been to Epcot World at Disney, you know where you tour all the different countries? Well Sorrento is like Disney Italy. It's so perfect, everyone speaks english... I was bored after about 15 minutes.

Perfect much? The town is perfect, too-

and pretty much everything is a gated hotel. So I took these thru the gates stalker-style, you are welcome! :)
I thought the coolest part of the town was this old building, sort of down in the crevice part. It is and church, but you can't go down into it, which sucks-

I walked off the little Sorrento map a little bit and was a lot more impressed with what I found there (although I was kind of scared I would miss my boat back and have to take the train again). I went down this adorable little road-

Here was the beautiful view-

So cute, right?

AND the church in this little area was named Saint Anna!! Apparently Saint Anna was the mother of Mary and is now the patron saint of fishermen.
After wandering around a little bit, I headed back to the main Sorrento area and walked down the gigantic staircase to the port-

Then rode the ferry back to Naples, which was beautiful and well worth the extra money-

I'm  so glad I didn't stay in Sorrento. If I want to stay somewhere so clean, overpriced, full of english speaking people, and perfect looking I will just go to Disney World.