I like-a da pizza and di gelato :)

Next stop.....Italy! Oh Italy, there is nowhere quite like you, is there? Florence, Rome, Pisa, Naples......it was beautiful.  The architecture, the streets, the old ruins.  It was unbelievable.  And the FOOD. Oh my goodness, the Italians sure know how to eat.  Plain cheese pizza has never tasted so good.  In fact, it was so  delectable, we didn't even remember to take pictures of it because we were so eager to eat it.

First stop was Pisa.....where we of course followed the crowd and took the same pictures that everyone else does.  But how can you not?  :) 

Push war.....sorry Shelly, but it looks like Doug is winning. :)

Next, we went to Florence.  This is the Duomo- the heart of Florence.  It is to Florence what the Eiffel tower is to Paris.  It is absolutely beautiful. It is so intricate.  

The golden gates of paradise, depicting different events from the Bible.

We had a beautiful view of the sunset from our room deck that night.  Wow- even the colors in the picture are beautiful and imagine them ten times brighter in real life!

Next day- we were on to Rome.  Bryson was giddy with excitement as he neared the place he has always dreamed of going. The Vatican.   This was his first view of St Peters.  He almost ran up ahead of us, but managed to control himself and walk at normal speed.

St. Peters Basilica. We just happened to go on the day that the Pope was there.  We totally got to see the Pope! We're pretty sure he heard we were coming and wanted to make sure he made a special appearance in our honor.  

The Vatican museums are sooooooo big.  There is so much to see.  You could walk around for days- even weeks and still not see everything. It's incredible.  It's also a really good place to be a total nerd as demonstrated in these blackmail worthy pictures below on how weird me and Bryson are.

Bryson totally sneaked a picture of the Sistine chapel ceiling.  Wow. He totally escaped the reactions of the guards which are as follows...... "clap clap. shhhhhhhhh. NO FOTO!"

Told you the Pope was there. :)

Ok, so I lied. We remembered to take a picture of this fast food pizza but it was NOT the same as the restaurant pizza. Still super good though. Their cheap stuff is better than our gourmet. 

the pieta

Inside St Peters. It is also HUGE.  The maximum capacity is 60,000 plus people!

castel sant angelo

The colosseum

I think we totally would have dominated the gladiator wars, don't you think? We are both pretty muscular. 

We celebrated my birthday on the cruise ship that night. :) yay for birthdays! Unfortunately I became a quarter of a century old.  But oh well, at least i got a yummy dessert. :)