Rome was the final stop on our trip around the world. It certainly did not disappoint. We didn’t waste much time when we arrived–our first morning in Rome we went straight to the Coliseum and ancient ruins.

…aaaand now for a series of pictures I like to call: “Scott and Lyndsay stand in front of old stuff and take their picture.”

This next one isn’t of us…it’s a bird. We were in the middle of downtown Rome, miles from grass and animals…and all of a sudden, here’s a bird. Two feet from my face. On top of the capital building. Looking somewhat majestic. So…I took its picture.

Yay for Rome!

One of Lyndsay’s “must-sees” for the trip was Pompeii. I think it was a product of too much latin class in high school. Regardless of the source, it was non-negotiable: we were going to spend a day exploring the 2500 year old city. Carpe Diem.

Our morning started by finding out that the train employees were striking for the morning. Yes, you heard that right. Train workers decided to strike. But just for the morning. In the States we call that, “randomly taking a half day.” or “A great way to lose your job.”

We really wanted to see Pompeii, though. Lucky for us, there were a couple folks from Finland who really wanted to go also…so we split a cab. We got a cab ride from the jolliest little cab driver in Italy. If you stuff Robin Williams into Danny Devito’s body…you’d have our cab driver. When we got done, we took our picture with him.

Then it was off to Pompeii!

Here’s a 2000 year old fast food restaurant. No lie–those holes in the countertops are where the food was served.

All in all, it was a pretty neat experience.

We got to spend a half day in Positano. It started with a craaaaaazy bus ride, where got views like this:

and this:

Here’s Positano!

The beach was really neat.

And of course, we got some pictures of ourselves.

I recorded a couple of videos along the way. I thought I’d take a day to share them.

Video 1: We visited Featherdale Wildlife Park in Australia. It’s like a petting zoo, but with Australian animals. Lyndsay was feeding the animals there until she was rudely interrupted by an emu who took her food, threw it on the ground, and walked off. I didn’t have my camera running at the right moment, but I caught the end of it.

Video 2: In Venice, we were waiting to board a waterbus…when some of the Carnivale folks came in and joined us. It was an odd moment. The best thing to do–in my mind–was take a video of it.

If you can’t see the videos, click here.

We made it to Florence!

Florence has a lot of art. It’s not that I don’t like art…I just don’t have the capacity to enjoy art. Florence did a great job of reminding me how art-challenged I really was.

They even have art in the streets.

…and they have large statues. Like this one of David… (I had to sneak the picture while the museum employees weren’t looking, so he’s a little blurry)

Another thing that I don’t have the capacity to enjoy is ice cream. In fact, neither does Lyndsay. We were told to eat gelatto in Florence, so we did…even though I knew I would pay for it later. It was really good (and totally worth it).

Something I can appreciate, though, is a good view. And Florence delivered. Check it out:

On our way into Florence, we realized that we could spend a couple hours and swing by the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We decided to go for it. Our train got delayed and we missed seeing it in daylight, but we saw it nonetheless. It was pretty neat.

While in Pisa we stopped for dinner and Lyndsay got some 4 cheese risotto that was AMAZING.

Ahh, Venice. This is one that Lyndsay had been looking forward to since we thought this whole thing up.

…actually, she’s been looking forward to this since she was about 12 years old (I think).

Here’s Venice!

Then Lyndsay’s favorite part: GONDOLA RIDE!!

I got a bazillion pictures of the gondola ride, but I won’t bore you with them.

We saw the usual sights:

We also saw the fish market:

yuuuum.

We accidentally planned our trip during Venice’s “Carnivale”…which is basically their mardi gras. Everyone dresses up in masks and walks all over Venice. We had a good time walking around the square looking at folks dressed like this:

In fact, Lyndsay even got into the fun (just for a picture):

We made it to Italy! Our first stop was in Milan. Milan really isn’t much as a ‘tourist’ town. In fact, we would have skipped it altogether if our plane ticket there wasn’t so cheap.

There’s not a lot to see and ‘do’ in Milan. Basically you look at a couple sites…then you look at them again at night when they’re all lit up.

Example A: Duomo

(Day)

(Night)

Example B: Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele

(Day)

(Night)

See?

There was also a museum for Leonardo Da Vinci that was pretty neat. And this gigantic castle.

Yaaaay Milan. On to Venice!

We spent one last half day in the Netherlands before we flew out to Italy. We went out to the local market. Also, Ben (who we were staying with) tried out my camera. He’s been taking a photography class at school, so we had a fun time talking about camera stuff. He took a couple pictures in this group.

Here’s the house we stayed at (it was the second and third floors above a restaurant):

Cheese, anybody?

We had fresh stroopwaffles! They’re like mini waffles with syrup in the middle. So good!

The fish market…

We ate lunch at FEBO, which–as I understand it–is a Dutch fast food staple.

That is basically lo mein, rolled up and fried. The idea sounds like something a chinese restaurant in the woods of mississippi would invent, but the dutch already beat them to it. It was pretty good!

The Netherlands were great. Thanks Wolvertons, we had a great time! Now, on to Italy!

On our third day in the Netherlands, we went to Haarlem. We rode the train, but some people decided to bike there that morning. (People get everywhere by biking in the Netherlands. It’s pretty wild.)

When we got there, the sun came out. It was so crazy/rare, I took a picture of it.

Then we went to the St. Bavokirk - A really huge historic church in Haarlem.

The organ inside the church has been played by Mozart and Handel. It’s huge.

Then we went to a museum in the house of Corrie Ten Boom. When I was growing up I read her book, “The Hiding Place.” It was the story of a family who hid Jews in their house during World War 2. It was an amazing story.

Today you can actually tour the house and see the hiding place yourself! It was pretty amazing to step right into the place you read a book about.

People got in and out through the bottom shelf of the bookshelf. It was a trap door.

That night we went to dinner with the whole Wolverton family. We snapped this picture on our way in. From the left: Tagg, Susan, Olivia (in front), Anna, Lyndsay, Graeme, Me, and Ben.