When in Rome...

First off-- yes, I know this is the cheesiest title ever. Maybe I should call it Roman Holiday. My creative juices are not running at the moment, but I do want to apologize for the delay in posting! Like I said, the Olympics have taken over my evenings, along with other stuff. I've been put to shame by my fellow bloggers. Your prolific posts have spurred me on!

Zach played his first soccer game today, one of his first in quite a while, and I went to watch. The light was good, and I think i was nominated as team photographer! They won 7-0. Look for pics in the next few posts. :-)

I left off last in Rome after a day in Pompeii. The following day, July 21, Zach and I had one goal in mind before my brothers got in town: LAUNDRY. We left Hotel Smeraldo(Doesn't that sound like it belongs in the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame?) and set out to look for a laundromat. Out hotel was located near Old Rome, and was a tangled bunch of charming side roads and alleys. Navigating was... interesting. :-)

While Zach examined the map our hotel gave us, I surveyed the scene and took some pics.
This car is way smaller than a Smart Car and really cute!

I'm not exactly sure what this building was, but it's beautiful. It was near our hotel.Another beautiful building during our morning excursion. We did manage to find a laundromat, had some lunch and made it back to the hotel in time to take a taxi to meet my brothers at the airport. The metro system in Rome was not conducive for most of our travel during our time there, so we were glad to take a taxi. We took Jonathan and David back to the hotel to drop their stuff off and took them on a night tour around Rome. Thank you, Rick Steves guidebook for the idea! Our first stop was Campo di Fiori. Zach and I had walked through there that morning and it was an open market. As evening was descending, it turned into this teenage hangout where Italy's cool crowd loitered.

Next, we walked into Piazza Navona, which was this huge area with an obelisk in the middle and artists selling their wares all around. Kind of like Montmarte, only much larger and of course, Italian. Piazza means plaza... not pizza! I think most intersections of roads have a piazza in the middle I felt like calling it pizza at first. Four Rivers Fountain, shown here, was also in the piazza. Each of the spouts represented a major river on the major continents when it was carved. Pretty cool huh?The piazza was so pretty! Rick Steves recommended a gelateria called Tre Scalini. Apparently, they had world-class chocolate desserts, so I just had to try! I had the tartufo--which means "death by chocolate"-- and it was phenomenal.

Our next stop was the Pantheon! SO Roman. I was really excited to see this piece of ancient history. My brother David took this photo. Just pretend all the other tourists aren't there. :-)

After visiting the Pantheon, Zach and I looked for the restaurant we'd picked out for Jonathan and David's first evening in Italy. After some backtracking, we finally found miscellanea. Cheers to Italy!

Next on our tour was Trevi Fountain. Not only was it a tourist spot, but it was also a place where actual Romans hung out. The energy was contagious and we had fun! David and I at Trevi Fountain!

This is some of the sculptures on Trevi Fountain.This is a monument to a man Zach said was also featured in the movie Gladiator. 
Finally we arrived at the Spanish Steps! This is a famous spot in Rome. All these people are Romans and tourists. This is just a random night and all these people were hanging out! This fountain behind us is shaped like a boat.
On our way back to the hotel, we came across Piazza Vernazza. I think this is a monument to Vittorio Emmanuelle-- who we later discovered was the first king of France, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! Pretty much at least one street and one monument in every Italian town we came across was dedicated to him.And nowww... I present something really cool Zach recognized right by our hotel. Largo Argentina is a "hospice for cats" in ruins... right in the middle of Rome! There are hundreds of cats hanging out there. I think it would be fun to be a cat and live in these ruins. 

We made a friend!

So concludes our night tour. I had to split up my Rome photos, so stay tuned for part II!

Don't judge me for sweating

You'll understand my title later on. :-) For now, let's talk about the Olympics! I can't get enough of it right now and it's interfering with my blogging. But that's OK. Who else is excited?

Michael Phelps and USA's men's 400m relay team is! :-) 

This weekend I went to Hamilton, Texas, with Zach's family and extended family on his mom's side. We had a great time in this 7500 sq. foot ranch house built in the 1930s and 800+ acres of land. We spent our time swimming, laying out, eating, playing ping pong, socializing and watching the Olympics. It was really fun!

We found 2 Paint Horses on the property, and, having a camera on hand and a now-second nature shutter finger set to take photos of Paints... here you go. :-)

The ranch also had a windmill which I thought made for a good photo as well.

Here is the pool!

OK I guess it's about time to talk about Europe! The morning of July 20 is actually when Zach and I took some of the photos of Sorrento. We spent the morning there and headed back out towards our final destination: Rome. 

In case you were wondering how we carried our belongings, I present the Aggie Turtle. That's what I named my pack! It holds a TON of stuff. I also had a regular backpack that I got at Sky Ranch. That's it! All my life for 3 weeks had to fit in those two bags. Are you shocked? Me too. :-) Also, this is our last look at our wonderful hotel in Sorrento.

 Welcome to the photo that inspired my title. Our second day in Italy was HOT. The train from Sorrento to Pompeii to Naples was slow and not air-conditioned. The train liked to take leisurely stops in each of the cities on the way, allowing everyone to get a little warmer. Zach and I took bets on whether or not we'd sweat through our shorts(and capris). We did... but there's nothing you can do about the hear in this part of the country, so don't judge me for sweating. :-) Pompeii is an incredible city of ruins. A random tour guide found us and gave us a 2 hour tour, and it was totally worth it! It would be easy to get lost in the huge expanse of ruins. Above you'll see Mt. Vesuvius and another mountain(I've forgotten the name). They were once one mountain in the first century AD, until the only Volcano on this continent erupted, raining 8 feet of ash down on Pompeii over an 18 hour period, burying the city. I can't imagine being an Italian around 79 AD and not knowing what a volcano is or what was happening. So crazy!

Water still flowed in Pompeii, and Zach sampled it for himself! It was still very warm out. :-)

This little guy was a decoration within the Roman-style baths.

Zach took this photo! I think it's cool how the flowers still grow(or were planted) among the ruins. Either way, it livens up the dust and rock.

Once we arrived in Naples and got on a nice, cool train, we found our train was very full, so the only two seats open together were in the hallway... which of course had no AC. We also couldn't sleep because people walked back and forth so we had to stand up from our foldout seats every time. It was super fun. :-)

 Look how excited I am about our seats.

 Pointing out my spot. It was just one of those things that you had to laugh!

Finally we arrived in Rome!! Our hotel was nice, clean and cool. We cleaned up and set out to find some Roman food. We were overjoyed to find a nice place nearby with pastas and pizzas to suit our fancy. :-)

Sorry this post is a bit short, I guarantee some days later on will be much, much longer!