Sasha and Pheroze in London: Bella Italia

Flying over the mountains on our way to 2 days in Venice and 3 in Rome...

Venice is sinking....

Day 1: SO excited to have just arrived in Venice and cross our first pedestrian bridge!

We found our hotel right away...not.

So many gorgeous photo ops!

The windows looking towards the inside of our hotel...our outside hotel view is coming up.

Just one of the many churches we poked into as we explored (wandered, lost).

St. Mark's Cathedral

St. Mark's Tower

Kid being accosted by pigeons. Note the "model" posing with pigeons in background also.

Pheroze was the official map guy.

Gelato heaven

You're not supposed to get pizza in Venice except this one place we learned about. It was handmade by a dough tossing expert and tasted fantastic! Ate it on the side of a canal...

Day 2: Exterior view from our hotel...hmmmm what's this little cafe below? It plays disco music by night and serves delicious morning treats by day?

I didn't know what a mouth full of nutella tasted like until I had this nutella filled croissant. Wow! Cappaccino was Italy standard excellent.

Heyyyyy we're in Venice and I just had about 3x my usual morning dosage of caffeine!!!

Snuck inside a side door of St. Mark's before it opened for tourists. The security guard just waved us on through so we had the whole place to ourselves while we listened to a Rick Steves explanatory podcast.

Top of St. Mark's tower - the view was so worth the trip up! That's St. Mark's Cathedral below.

And St. Mark's Square right below.

The winged lion - the symbol of St. Mark. St. Mark. St. Mark. St. Mark (get the picture?)

Gorgeous Gallerie dell-Accademia

Our insiders only gelateria (followed the local moms and kids there)

Ghetto Vecchio (Jewish Quarter) on what continued to be a brilliant, sunny February day. Just had lunch with all the workmen in an all Italian set menu restaurant.

More coffee? Por favore.

A memorial to lives lost in WWII.

On the vaporetto cruising down the Grande Canal- what a blast!

Took the vaporetto to a little colourful island known for its glass making beside Venice called Murano.

Goodbye Venice!

And Hello ROME!

View from our hotel in Rome. Across the street there is our local cafe!

Which was the first place we visited after dropping our stuff off.

The aqueducts led us to our local metro station: San Giovanni.

Hmmm...should we stop at Vittorio (think wedding)....nah

COLOSSEO!

Podcast tour courtesy Rick Steves was phenomonal!

Classic shot

Photoshoots going on in the square outside the Colosseum

Headed right over to Palatine Hill and the Forum. Now sitting on ancient ruins is not the sort of behaviour I normally encourage...but I may have encouraged this one time.

I think I'm pointing to a word I recognize: Colosseo!

This was the original giant copper door to this temple!

Podcasting throughout the forum.

Heading back to the metro just as a few sprinkles started falling.

Running through the Villa Borghese park to catch our reservation at the Borghese Gallery.

Pheroze is laying in the gallery looking up at the ceiling/resting his eyes after an exhausting day!

The best sculpture at this gallery was probably the called the Rape of Persephone where you could see the pressure of the grasp on Persephone's leg which I just pasted from the internet because photography was forbidden!:

Afterwards we took our time wandering back through the Borghese park and couldn't resist this lovely little fountain

And had a laugh at a couple becoming very intimate in this very romantic park setting!

Day 2 started at the Vatican Museum where there were endless photo opportunities from which I have randomly selected several from the way too many I took...

I can't be sure whether this similarity spontaneous or planned!

Haha!! Come on, feel blessed already!

Opulence!

A nice classically warbly looking Van Gogh

So excited to see a painting of Trafalgar Square at the Vatican.

This one was called "Strage bird contemplating doom of man" Strange painting.

There was such an abundance of things to take pictures of throughout our 3 hour visit to this museum we joked about how some tourists probably take pictures of the stairs on the way out....and then we did just for fun :)

And....now for my favorite bakery EVER. Too excited after our excessive order to document the items we purchased before consuming!

St. Peter's

Podcast per usual.

Ginormous alter.

The Pieta. Apparently the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.

This picture was actually of the Swiss guards in the background that Rick Steves referenced - very exciting.

Back at our hotel/cathedral. The hotel used to be old monk's quarters which are still attached to this huge church so you have to walk through its foyer to get to your room.

Spanish steps at sunset - how casual do I look just "hanging out" there. No posing involved whatsoever.

Same with Pheroze haha.

When we were at the top of the steps there was this lady standing on a handrail trying to get a good picture of the view and this stranger approached her and begged her to come down. It was kind of crazy.

Passing Trevi fountain on our way to get the world's best gelato.

I had half pear half honey - deviiiiiiine. Pheroze had cocoa con rum and pistachio.

Making a wish at Trevi

A kiss for good luck ;)

Plop!

Pheroze's turn...

So pretty there at night - this is a panorama mode one that might get big if you click on it.

The pantheon at night. This is Piazza della Rotonda.

Piazza Novona. Back here a couple times for the cash machine :S

Groupon dinner!! We got our glass of beer and champagne at once!

Can't beat a bottle of wine and live music!

As we were briskly walking I caught in my peripheral vision a short piece of fabric flowing off this man's shoulders...could it be?....no?...a short cape....CAPELET?