One of our last days in Rome, I felt like we walked the entire city. Our first stop was the Baths of Caracalla. I swear, you’ve never felt SO small.. Everything in Rome is just HUGE! And for these things to be 2000ish years old and still standing… that really says something.
The picture on the left shows what this place looked like in it’s hay-day.
Then we headed across the bridge to Trastevere. I LOVE this part of Rome.
The history behind St. Cecilia is my favorite out of all the churches we went to. After she was martyred, they built this church on top of her house.. which of course we went into. So incredibly bizarre but incredible to walk through this place that’s just so old and in relatively good condition. 
This was one of the fanciest churches we saw. Of course we were not allowed to take pictures and there was a mass going on. We sat for a while and just awed over this incredibly detailed ceiling, and when we left, I quickly snapped this picture. Sorry to be disrespectful, I just couldn’t help myself!
We had a good laugh over these 3 wheeled trucks. It has one seat, but you better believe we saw two big men riding in it.
I’m sorry I don’t remember the names of these churches, but THIS was the fanciest. I was completely blown away with how ornate and EXPENSIVE everything was. 
The above and below picture are two of my very favorites from the whole trip. For the most part, I tried to keep people out of my pictures, which is SO hard. But these Korean nuns standing there made me so happy. 
And not to be disrespectful. I love Jesus. But this lil’ baby looks like a pimp baby. Amiright???
I was hoping to get a wide shot of the Colosseum at night, but there was construction on a big part of the exterior, so I was happy to get a few closeups anyway.
Walking to the restaurant we wanted to go to, the sky was GORGEOUS and everything was lit up beautifully. Of course, I had to use the ladies room ridiculously bad, but I couldn’t help but to stop every few seconds and snap away. Eventually I had to retire the camera, no matter how many beautiful things I saw. 
These are the pictures that start our time in Florence. We stayed for 4 days, but we didn’t take as many pictures as we did in Rome. Most of the things we did here didn’t allow cameras. Rome and Florence are both incredible in their own very different ways. Florence was a lot more quaint and neighborly, almost. We didn’t have to take trains to get from here and there. And we stayed in the center of the city, and had the most amazing view.. but we’ll get there in a second. First, statues.
So yes, this was our view from our balcony. The Duomo. It doesn’t get any better.. and believe me, the pictures just doesn’t do it justice. This was taken with my 50mm, so you can get the idea. 
So here’s a funny story. Bryan and I decided NOT to climb the stairs to the top of the Duomo. We were so exhausted from the hills and hills in Rome. So we’re waiting in line to get in the church, in the cold, for about an hour. We read that it was free, but we started seeing everyone around us with tickets. After an hour of waiting, Bryan runs to find out if we needed tickets, and indeed comes back with two. But on his way back, he sees people going right in the church from the other side. He looks at the ticket and realizes he just paid for us to climb. We decided to suck it up and do it.. We already invested an hour in the cold!
OKAY, so the stairs. 450ish of them. About 100 of them, VERY steep. Let’s just say that I’m not in the best shape of my life. This was HARD. Every once in a while you get a break and you can let the people behind you pass. (thank God). We got near the top, and it’s basically a ladder for people to crawl down and up on. As we were waiting to go up, we saw a guy, NO LIE, on crutches. Going down a ladder, and facing 450 more steps (mostly spiral). You’ve never felt so bad about yourself until you’ve seen that. Sure, you feel crappy when the old people pass you, but when a guy on crutches can do this, you feel like a wuss.
Alas, the destination.
Pay no attention to the hair. But hey, I made that scarf!
That courtyard area is where our apartment was!
I think I took like a million panoramic pictures on my phone. No matter how many times I’m always disappointed that it never does the scene justice.
Imagine my surprise & excitement when we happened upon a Renaissance parade!!
Come back soon for pictures of our time in Positano!!