Paris, Naples, Pompeii, and Rome

Ok, on to my last few adventures in Europe. I met up with Kenny in Paris, and then we made a trip to Naples, where we visited the ruins of Pompeii. Whe then spent a few days in the wonderful city of Rome. I was surprised by how much I ended up liking Paris and Rome, as I don’t typically like everything about big busy cities! Paris was amazing, and we had some really great food and saw some amazing buildings. We started with an afternoon walking around and taking in the city…

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Classic Eiffel Tower photo-op

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Saw this nice little tidbit in the Catacombs

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Notre Dame

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We then spent a few hours (not nearly enough!) at the Louvre.

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Pyramid of the Louvre

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The woman herself!
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Roman mosaic floor
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Kore! I studied this in my Greek/Roman sculpture class
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Iznik tile panels
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Diana of Versailles
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Kenny in front of the Metro!

We spent the better part of a day at Versailles, which was a short train ride away.

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On the way to Versailles
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Versailles Orangerie
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Kenny and I took a row-boat out in the gardens

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Kenny at the Palace!

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Hall of Mirrors

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The Battles Library

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Leto’s Fountain
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The Ballroom Grove

Our last day we traveled to the Basilique, and my camera died… But I managed to snag a few pictures before our too short time in Paris came to a close!

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Basilique du Sacre-Coeur
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The view from the Basilique

Our next big trip involved a flight to Naples (which I did NOT like) for a day at Pompeii, and then a train to Rome.

The Roman Forum at Pompeii was unreal..

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Off the Forum we saw our first famous casts of the people who died at Pompeii

The baths of the Forum were very well-preserved, it was amazing to see the pigments on the walls.

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Wine shop!

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More creepy casts
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Villa frescos
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Mosaic Fountain

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Old Fountain (these still worked as drinking fountains!)

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Amphitheatre

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Forum (with Vesuvius in the background)

Our next big trip was to Rome, where I was blown away by the ruins and everything wonderful about the city

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We had some amazing lighting for our first glimpse of the Colosseum
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Arc of Constantine
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This is the side where they stripped the marble during the Middle Ages for other building projects

During our first day in Rome we mainly wandered about and picked out areas to revisit later for a longer time. This is the Roman Forum, which we toured later.

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Kenny and I got the Omni Pass, which included free entry into a lot of the places we wanted to see, and also gave us a guaranteed time to go to the Vatican…

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Caryatid
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The Gallery of Maps
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School of Athens by Raphael
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Vatican City
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Me dressed very appropriately (and sweating my face off)

We got to then skip the line and head into the basilica…

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La Pieta by Michelangelo in St. Peter’s Basilica

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We finally went into the Colosseum itself and it was amazing.

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The sheer size of the place was unreal. We then moved on to explore parts of the city we had not yet seen.

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The famous Trajan Column

We actually ended up stumbling upon the Pantheon after getting lost looking for it several times.

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It’s very important to stay hydrated when sight-seeing

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Trevi Fountain

The next day we spent a good deal of time at the ruins of the Roman Forum, which we massive and incredible.

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These holes are an old game carved into the steps of the Basilica Julia

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Basilica Julia

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The Stadium on Palatine Hill

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Circus Maximus

We didn’t make it inside the Pantheon until the next day, before we left, but boy was it worth it.

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Ok, that’s it for those trips! All I have left is Scotland and London and that wraps up my time in Europe!

 

 

 

 

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