The Final Chapter: New York

We were really sad to be at the end of our trip and leave Italy. We had such a fantastic time there!

We really hate flying so having to go back to the states was not very fun. Security in all of the airports (even the ones in Europe) was really heavy due to the Chicago incident on Christmas. We were glad we had plenty of time to get through security. Our flight ended up not being too bad and we got to New York around 7:00 in the evening. We headed straight to our hotel and went to bed. It was about 2 a.m. in Italy and that is what time our bodies were on.

We got to spend all of the next day in New York! It wasn't near as scary as it had been when we first were there, Italy changed that for me! Though we did see a guy pull down his pants to got to the bathroom right off of Times Square. Haha. We went to the Sony Wonder Technology Lab. It was free, so that was awesome! We got to go and learn about different kinds of technology, it was really cool, Jon had a blast!

After that we went on a photo tour in Central Park. The guide gave us photography tips and told us things about Central Park. It was really fun! We learned that the entire park was man made, including the lake. It was very interesting! From there we walked over to Times Square so we could see if we could get some last minute, half price tickets to a Broadway show. We wanted to see Wicked but we pretty much knew that we wouldn't be able to get tickets, and sure enough, we couldn't. So we got tickets to see Phantom of the Opera! We walked around for a bit and saw some of the cool stores in Times Square and then we saw Grand Central Station.

We went to dinner after getting the tickets and got some New York sushi. The restaurant was really cool looking but we were really disappointed in the sushi, good thing we know how to make it! Before the show we went to China town and wandered a little bit. We bought a nice Chinese fan that will hopefully help us when we make sushi rice! We headed back to Times Square to see our show and we saw David Blaine doing magic there to help make money for Haiti! It was awesome!!

Phantom of the Opera! It was absolutely amazing! The actors were so talented and the effects they used were breathtaking!! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!! We really really loved it! Broadway really is all that its cracked up to be!! It was amazing!! And that is how we ended our vacation, it was the perfect ending! We were so happy! The next afternoon we flew back home. It was pretty sad, but we were excited to be home too!

So, after 20 cities, 13 hotels, tons of walking, and a lifetime of memories, we ended our trip! We feel so blessed that we were able to go and do something like this, especially while we are so young and without kids. It was the experience of a lifetime!!

Part VIII: Rome

Rome... ah, Rome, how I adore you!!

Rome was absolutely spectacular!! There are so many amazing things to see and do, the weather was nice, a little rainy, but not cold. Our hotel was right down the street from the train and metro station, even closer than Naples, it was really convenient!! We loved it! It was nice hotel too, free breakfast, it rocked!

We first got to Rome in the evening but that didn't stop us from getting started right away! The first thing we did in Rome was to go and see Piazza del Popolo! It is a great piazza! I loved all the fountains, the big space, and the twin cathedrals on one side! It rocked! We then walked up to a park and it had a great view of the piazza and Rome! It was great! After that we walked over to Piazza Spagna, the Spanish steps, it was really pretty and the fountain at the bottom of the stairs is made to drink out of, it was way cool! One thing I loved about Rome was how close everything was. It looks like things would be far away on the map but they ended up being surprisingly close, it was perfect!!

On day 2 we went to see a bunch of the churches in Rome. They are all so amazing! It is something that is hard to get tired of, they are just so beautiful! We looked at a bunch of markets that day too, shopping in Rome was way fun, sales rock!

One day 3 we went and saw...well, practically everything there is to see in Rome!! It was so fun!! We saw the Colosseum, which is right outside of the entrance of the metro, it was so cool to just walk out of the tunnel and be overwhelmed with something so big!! It was amazing!! We saw part of the Roman forum but decided that we didn't want to pay to get inside, so we just saw part of it from the outside. We saw Vittorio Emanuele which is a huge building dedicated to people who had died in war. It was my favorite building in Rome! It was amazingly beautiful!! We also saw the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Trevi fountain, Piazza Barberini, and a bunch of other things!! It was such an amazing day, I couldn't believe how fantastic everything was! It was really cool to see so many famous things that I have always heard about. They really live up to their reputations!

On day 4... oh day 4, I had been looking forward to this day since the very beginning of our trip! The Vatican!! I was SO excited to see the Vatican and it did not disappoint!! It was so great!! We went inside of St. Peters cathedral, which is the biggest church in the world!! It was AMAZING!!!! So gorgeous! Then we climbed up to the top of it and that was SWEET!!! After that we went to the Vatican museum! We didn't have a ton of time to look through it, but it was still really cool and the sistine chapel was absolutely amazing!!! We also got the best gelato of the whole trip at a shop called The Old Bridge, so delicious!!! We then walked around and saw Castel Sant' Angelo, way cool!!!

Day 5 was really special, it was our 3rd year anniversary from the day that we met, it was really cool. Who knew that 3 years after that day we would be married and in Italy? It was really cool. We went to Tivoli that day but it ended up being pretty sucky... we were there to see some really nice fountains...only the water wasn't working so we didn't get to see them, Jon was so disappointed, it was so sad. The train ride was nice though, and the end of the day got better as we just wandered around Rome and enjoyed ourselves.

Our last day in Rome was an amazing day! Sad because we knew it was our last day. We spent the day going to see all the amazing things we had seen already! It was so cool, we saw a few new things too. Like the mission home and a few churches we hadn't seen yet. We realized at the end of the day that we had seen every place that was in the book Angels and Demons, it was really cool! We got to see some things at night instead of during the day too, like the Trevi Fountain, it was such a nice day, fun and relaxing. Jon got really sad at the end of the day, I felt bad for him. He already misses Italy so much!!

We ended up having to buy a new suitcase too since ours broke, but it was okay. Rome was the best ever!! One of our favorite cities! AMAZING!!

Part VII: Naples

We were really grateful that the boat ride to Naples was easier, it made for a much better first day in Naples! Our hotel was really close to the train and subway station as well, so that was definitely a plus!!

On our first day there we walked down one of the most famous streets there called Spacanapoli! It runs right down the middle of Naples and is filled with tons of little shops selling all sorts of stuff! Since it was still Christmas season there were many shops that had a ton of Nativity sets! They really go all out for their nativity sets and they can get really big and intricate, it was awesome to look at all the pieces! We went to Piazza Dante which Jon remembered well from his mission and also went to a huge office store close by that had lots of nice art supplies, it was cool! Then Jon took me to the stairs of the death... and made me walk up them... The stairs of death lead up to the top of a hill in Naples, we could have taken the Funiculare, but Jon decided to make me walk up all 724 stairs, big stairs, to the top. It was really hard, but really fun too and we had all of the time in the world to do it. It was great!

The next day was January 6th, a holiday in Italy called Befana. It is really hard to travel on Holidays, a lot of things close, or close earlier then usual, and that stinks, but it really ended up being a great day!! We went to Sorrento where they make some amazingly beautiful music boxes. It's such a cute city, I really liked it! Then we went to Pompei! It was really cool because it's not a busy time so there weren't many people there. It was also dark and cloudy which made all the ruins look really creepy! Especially because they have plasters of some of the people that had died, in the position that they had died in, it was creepy... and interesting too. When we got back to Naples we went and saw the galleries, the opera house, and a few other piazzas. It was fun!

Our last day in Naples was one of my favorite days on our trip! We went to a town called Caserta where they have a palace. It was similar to Versailles, I believe it was built around the same time... I liked it SO much better than Versailles though! The inside of it was really beautiful but the outside was even better! There is a huge area of gardens in the back and down the center are a bunch of fountains and a big waterfall at the end!! It was a pretty far walk to get to the waterfall but it was so worth it! All of the fountains were amazing on the way and filled with beautiful statues!! The waterfall at the end was so amazing, man made, but way pretty! We walked down to a big pond and there was a gorgeous swan there! The whole day was so peaceful and beautiful. It felt like were walking in a painting! It was fantastic!! Absolutely stunning! After that we went to Jon's favorite pizza place in Naples! It was so delicious!!! The best pizza I've ever had!!

Naples is a really dirty, scary city, but we did some wonderfully fun things there. Our bag's wheels broke while we were there and ended up having to practically drag our bag on the ground to get it to Rome. We sure had some amazing pizza in Naples though!!! Yum!!