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Nicole McGaugh is the face of Brink Photography found here.
She has been doing photography for some while now, before in Texas and now some here in Italy. Check her out on Facebook and maybe book a shoot with her if you're in the Aviano, Italy area!
To be in an ancient city, like Rome, is nearly heart stopping. This was by far my most favorite place to visit in Italy! The history, architecture, food, people...everything is just surreal! Being at some of the landmarks was a dream come true, seeing them on movies and reading about them in books, and now it all came true!
Showing some love in front of one of the many fountains in Rome.
Stop for gelato!
Cayman and I in the Colosseum, built around 70-80 AD.
The Arch of Constantine, impressive! This was our view from inside the Colosseum looking out to the Roman Forum.
Inside the Pantheon, looking up at the oculus. I learned so much about this in some of my art classes and history, crazy to see if in person!
In front of the Pantheon. This was built in 126 AD and we are standing right in front of it!
Trevi Fountain, famous for throwing in a coin for a sure return to Rome.
Spanish Steps
Sights around the Vatican Museum. We snuck a picture of the Sistine Chapel, which is NOT allowed, and got 'The Creation of Adam' -- LUCKY US! Also, the famous spiral staircase in the bottom right!
Cayman and I in Saint Peter's Square in front of Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City! So much history here!
Wonderful dinner to cap the night. We were heading for an 8+ hour bus ride back to Aviano, so we had to drink!
Rome has SO much to see! We took an ITT trip with the base for less than 100 Euro a person, which included the ride down to Rome and back. I really loved everything about Rome! We braved the metro and got around the city just fine! We got to see all the major sites, except we missed going into the basilica because we were confused with the lines. They seemed so long!! But it was an optical illusion! Cayman and I are not Catholic, but it would have been really neat to see inside.
Cayman and I are lucky. We are so similar in our travel style. We like to see everything and then relax instead of relaxing along the way! Yes, I get tired a lot quicker than he does, but I'm a girl! I can't blame that...but I do love traveling with him and being a silly tourist couple! He makes everything fun... or it might be the other way around, but still! We have a blast together and I love the heck out of him!
After a day of touristing around, we had dinner and stopped off for some late night drinks at this wine bar. Z and I split a bottle of wine and the boys had beers, it was a great end to a great day!
Cayman and I in front of the famous Duomo (cathedral) in Milan.
Milan is recognized as a big fashion hotspot, but looking around it seems like any other Italian city. Full of tourists and immigrants trying to make a living, the only fashionable thing about it is that every large name brand is there, like Chanel, Dior, Versace, etc. We enjoyed our time being tourists, meandering through the streets at all hours of the day (and night).
We stayed at a hostel named 'Down Town Hostel' pretty catchy, right! Here is their Facebook link. We rented one of the bigger rooms, which had a conjoining room, so each couple got their own privacy. Hostels are a great way to go, if you're not a scaredy cat like some! Nothing weird ever happens, except this one time in South Korea...but we won't get into that!
Milan is close enough to Aviano to do in a day trip, but it was nice getting to relax and know that we had a bed to sleep in that night instead of driving hours back home.
It's crazy to see as we cross from Italy over to Slovenia and then into Croatia how much the weather changes. In Aviano, Italy where we live, we hardly get snow that sticks to the ground like Slovenia and Croatia do.
In front of St. Marks Church. The special thing about this church is the tiled roof. The tiles are of the coat of arms of Zagreb and Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. This square also has the Parliament and the 'city hall'.
Inside the Stone Gate. According to legend, a great fire in 1731 destroyed every part of the wooden gate except for the painting of the Virgin and Child. People come here now to pay respects and thank her with flowers and notes.
The Zagreb Cathedral (Roman Catholic, gothic style)
Kuhano Vino, or cooked wine, is our favorite!
The Turkish and Swiss Embassy
After a five hour bus ride back to Aviano, we came home and relaxed! The only bad thing about ITT trips are the bus rides which are very uncomfortable unless you enjoy sitting straight up for hours with people that talk too loud on their phones or babies crying! Just kidding, that doesn't happen ALL the time, but be prepared!
I don't know if you'd call that snow or not... but we got some!!
Sorry for the lame photos, I am too cold and lazy to get dressed and go out there!
Every one seems surprised when we tell them we took a day trip to Pisa and Florence on Saturday.
"That can't be done in a day!!!???" Oh... but it can (if your Americans that don't relax and run from landmark to landmark). Just kidding, we did that in Rome, but Pisa and Florence are both relatively small cities.
So, here are a few shots from our trip!
We only had about two hours in Pisa, so we naturally went straight to the Leaning Tower and got tickets to go to the top. I loved the tiny doorways and tight staircases, they make me feel like a belong here! Standing at the top, you can really feel the grade of the 'lean', it was a little tricky walking around up there!
The city of Pisa is pretty much a normal town with a courtyard area with the church, tower and a baptistry. Those are the only main 'sites' to see in Pisa! I guess that's why we only had two hours allotted there.
After climbing the tower and overlooking the city, we had about half an hour to kill so we got some desserts. I, of course, got gelato and Cayman ordered a cannoli. I don't really care for those, the cream insides just have a weird texture. I'll stick with gelato any day of the week!
Florence (and the machines)
Left is the real Statue of David by Michelangelo (photographs are not allowed, so we had to sneak one) and to the right is the 'fake' Statue of David
We went to the Boboli Gardens and Cayman really wanted to find this sculpture. I was tired and ready to stop hiking through the gardens and then BAM! He found it! Pretty impressive too!!
Il Porcellino, or Italian piglet, is a famous bronze figure that if you rub it's nose, you are ensured a return to Firenze (Florence). I researched and found that this boar was also seen in Hannibal and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pt. 2)!
Atop Giotto's Bell Tower, overlooking Florence.
The Cathedral in Florence is pretty spectacular! Crazy to image how old these churches are, such amazing architecture!
In Italy, they have weird holidays.
The 5th and 6th of January are called Epiphany in Italy. On the night of the 5th, a witch named La Befana comes and fills children's stockings with good or bad gifts depending on their behavior. This is a big part of Christmas celebrations and is a branch off of the 12th day of Christmas when the three Wise Men came with gifts for the baby Jesus.
La Befana was a woman who replied to the wise men as being 'too busy' to come with them to the baby Jesus. She later went to join them but got lost and never found the manger. La Befana now rides her broomstick bringing gifts to children, hoping she will find the baby Jesus.
Cayman and I laughed (I was probably a little intoxicated) about how it would have been crazy if we hadn't researched this holiday and just showed up. A huge fire with a cross like symbol on the top could set off some weird comments... but we understood the holiday and its traditions!
We were told by a friend at the BX about this 'witch burning' tonight... so we went on a search for fires.
We found one! And they had sweets and hot wine, which is absolutely amazing and I think the US should adopt it!
The fires (we went to two different festivals) were giant!
The second one, we met up with friends Ambrose and Zala, had fireworks!
Piro in the making.
These older Italian men set off these fire lanterns. We had seen one earlier and were wondering what it was!
Our first Epiphany holiday in Italy! (Notice my pink cup with more wine in it)
This was a great end to a Saturday night spent with awesome new friends here in Italy!
