We're back!

We had such a WONDERFUL time in Italy, Greece and Turkey. I am not going to go into crazy amounts of detail on this blog, but will be doing an entire separate blog (of which I will provide the URL at a later date.) If you want a historical description of what you see below, or want to see many more pictures, that will all be on our vacation link soon to come. Here are a few fun pictures to give you a quick summary:

--Day #1 in Rome, loved the small street, small cars and crazy drivers--

--Coliseum (duh)--

--standing in the Coliseum--

--inside, really amazing history--

--Palentine Hill--

--Palentine Hill part 2--

--artsy view--

--huge building they are restoring down town--

We flew into Rome and arrived early morning, we still managed to have a full day. We loved walking around, and eating Gelato.

--Day #2, St. Peter's Square--

--inside the Vatican--

--more Vatican (could have 800 pictures and you could never capture the artistry)--

--Sistine Chapel--

--Sistine Chapel--

--Trevi Fountain--

Day 2 was spent touring the amazing Vatican, St. Peter's Square and Basillica, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

--Day #3, the Pantheon (no it isn't leaning....)--

--Castle de San Angelo--

--view from the top of the castle--

--another great Roman view--

--Piazza Navona--

--Piazza de La Republica--

--Roman Baths--

Day 3 was spent walking around the Pantheon, Pizza Navona and de La Republica, Castle de San Angelo, the capital, Circus Maximus, and the Roman Baths. We packed our stuff and got ready to start our cruise.

Some conclusions about Rome:
(1) people cannot drive, often 6 lanes would merge to one, and mopeds would cut off buses
(2) no one wears tennis shoes or t-shirts. Very snappy dressers
(3) most people are friendly and know enough English to help you through things
(4) it is a beautiful city with such rich hisory
(5) dining is leisurely. You have to ask for the check or you would never leave
(6) the whole city shuts down from 1-4, to go home and eat
(7) EVERYTHING is smaller in Rome, cars can park perpendicular to the curve, full sized beds are considered luxurious, a 200 sq ft hotel room costs $250 a night, and this elevator was what was in our building

--Day #4, we board our ship in Civitavecchia, here is one of the pool decks--

--the casino--

--josh's favorite part of the ship--

--and us entertaining ourselves during the lifeboat drill--

--Day #5, we spent at sea, so I took advantage of the free makeover for formal dinner night. We had tons to do on the ship, and the food was amazing--

--Day #6, Mykonos Greece--

--famous windmills--

--windy streets all through the city--

--ruins of Delos, island that used to be the center of all trade for the Mediterranean--

--Day #7, Rhodes Greece--

--City streets of Rhodes--

--Ruins near Rhodes--

--Day #8, Santorini Greece--

--I couldn't photograph this place enough, simply gorgeous--

--the entire city is on top of the mountain, we hiked down, just amazing--

Day #9 we reached Istanbul Turkey--

--the city has 12 million people, and is the only city on two continents--

--Topkapi Palace--

--Turkish Bizaar--

--The hand made rug we bought from an amazing rug store. This place was 4 stories high, and our rug took 12 months to make!--

--Day #10 we explored Ephesus near Kusadasi Turkey--

--Huge stadium that still has perfect acoustics--

--2 stories of a 3 story library--

--bust of Marcus Aurelius, doesn't he look like Denny!!!--

--it seemed that every place we visited celebrated fertility...I did a double take on this statue--

--before we went back to the ship we visited the site of the house that Mary lived in, these are the supposed wells from which she drank--

--Day #11, we made it to Athens. Here is the stadium that seats 75,000 completed refurbished and covered in marble for the most recent Olympic Games--

--hiking up the Acropolis--

--the Parthenon, they have to restore it because of the pollution--

--the view is incredible--

--we aren't super imposed...we were really there!--

Day #12 we were at sea, and Day #13 we made it to Naples--

--port at Naples--

--We hiked Mt. Vesuvius--

--then we went to Pompeii, you can see how big the mountain used to be--

--the preservation is incredible, and the town is HUGE, you could walk around it for days--

--art on the wall in homes--

--ancient crosswalks, the horses would walk through the gaps in the stones, and the chariot wheels would fit through the gaps as well--

--the city was never ending--

--so many artifacts have been discovered, including plumbing that used lead pipes in the 1st century BC--

--outside of the fortified walls of Pompeii--

The trip was the trip of a lifetime. There are so many stories and details that I didn't want to include because this post would be way too long!!! I am going to create a blog that includes the history, some fun stories the tour guides told us, and our many adventures at each port. So if you are interested, that will be done as soon as I get to it! Thanks so much to Gramma Rue for watching McKenna while we were gone. They had fun playing, going to the zoo, reading stories, going to the park, shopping, having adventures with vicious animals under our deck, and living through a tornado that was close by! We appreciate it!!!!