Rome – Colosseum Tour

Hi friends, welcome back to my Italy series! After touring the Forum and Palatine Hill, it was time for the main event, the Colosseum tour. The Colosseum’s real name is the Flavian Amphitheater and it was built in AD 80. It reaches 160 feet high, one-third miles around, and only about one-third of the original…

Rome – Forum & Palatine Hill Tour

Hi friends, welcome back to my Italy series! After visiting the Capitoline Museum, we joined an enjoyable three-hour tour of the Underground Colosseum and Forum with the tour company Italy with Family. There were about twelve of us in the group and our guide was very knowledgeable and engaging. We started in the Forum and…

Rome – Capitoline Museum & Victor Emmanuel Monument

Hi friends, welcome back to my Italy series! On our second full day in Rome, we had an unanticipated free morning because our Colosseum tour got rescheduled for the afternoon. Some people would use this extra time to sleep in and maybe enjoy a relaxing breakfast, but not me.  We decided to spend our morning…

Rome – Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, & the Pantheon

Hi friends, welcome back to my Italy series! After visiting the Borghese Gallery, Jon and I had some time to kill before our next excursion so we took a scenic route back. We started by walking down all 138 of the beautiful Spanish Steps. Sadly we had just missed all the flowers that adorn the…

Florence – Palazzo Vecchio & Tuscan Wine Tour

Hi friends, welcome back to the final post of our time in Florence. It was downpouring at this point, but we had some time to kill before our wine tour so we headed to Piazza della Signoria to see Palazzo Vecchio. This fortress looking building was the town hall in renaissance times. In 1540, Duke…

Florence – Duomo Museum, Bell Tower & Baptistry

Hi friends, welcome back to my Italy series! After climbing the dome, Jon and I spent about an hour at the Opera del Duomo Museum. The museum underwent an extensive renovation in 2015 and the exhibits are spread across three floors and twenty-eight rooms. Admission was included with our dome climb tickets and we loved…