and on the 7th day they rested

Day 7 we arrived at Lake Garda. This place is spectacular. The little lake towns have a small town feel to them with friendly people, amazing vistas, and delicious gelato. We decided to stay in the town of Toscalano. Everybody rides bikes there. The cutest little Grandmas would be out on their bikes as well as the business man on his way to work. We booked a stay at this romantic villa on the lake with a private beach. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the lake and villa gardens. It was the perfect spot to relax and unwind from our busy sightseeing adventures.

The private beach

the view from our private beach

I could lay in the sun relaxing all day everyday, but Christian gets fidgety and can't sit still that long. While I continued to relax and take in the lake air Christian went on a walkabout around the cute town. These are some pictures of his travels.

Me smiling at Christian from afar

and the close up of my cheese grin

Our room and balcony with a view of the garden and lake

If we ever come back to Italy (which we will!) we've decided to return here and just rent a villa for a week. It was heaven.

One of our beach lounging days we walked to the market and bought an apple, cheese, and a fresh baguette for a picnic lunch. Simple foods can taste more exquisite than the fanciest restaurants in a picturesque setting like Lake Garda.

I read the new Dan Brown novel Inferno on this trip. Turns out it's the perfect book for a trip to Italy (hint: it takes place in Italy. Fabulous read, I highly recommend it) 

Traveling with Christian is fun! When we went to Thailand he taught me the importance of packing light. We used these same principles on this trip and it makes life so much easier when you can fit everything into a backpack. We didn't have to check luggage, or worry about dragging suitcases through crowded cobbled streets. We could arrive in town and immediately see the sights without having to drop our luggage off first. The added weight of our backpacks also helped us to burn the extra calories consumed through gelato and pasta. The one downside is you can only pack a few outfits so halfway through our trip things started to smell a bit... funky. We took our clothes to the Lavanderia (laundromat) and dropped our clothes off with a lovely lady who had them back to us within a few hours. Christian's shirts were all pressed neatly, my unmentionables were folded up cute, and everything smelled really, really good.

on our way to the lavanderia (notice the pack... this boy packs light!)

posing on the street before our pick up time

the sweet smell of fresh laundry

We wished we could stay here forever. It was beautiful, the gelato was delicious, the walks along the beach meaningful and fulfilling. Alas, Christian was headed a couple of hours up North to Arco and I was headed South and then East to Venezia (Venice). We woke up the morning of our departures feeling rested and ready to start our adventures. Christian was excited to see the new line of La Sportiva products coming out in 2014 and tour the factory where it's all made. I was ecstatic about visiting an entire city built on water, and trying all the flavors of gelato Venice had to offer. We said our goodbyes and crossed to opposite sides of the street. Christian got on his bus and I got on mine. I was so incredibly nervous but excited at the same time.

Rome and nothing but Rome

Our 5th day in Italy was spent in Rome. All day. It was wonderful. We started by picking up our Roma passes. Awesome deal! It included transportation on the metro and buses as well as front of the line entry into two museums and discounted prices for all others. We started off by visiting the Vittorio Emmanuel Monument. Built in a very classical Roman style, covered in white marble, it's a good example of what things would look like in Roman times.

Me on the steps of the monument

statue on the monument

great views from the top

After the monument we walked to the front of the line (thanks Roma pass) and entered the Forum. I was surprised at how beautiful this place was. It was a gorgeous day out and the summer flowers were in bloom. Everywhere we walked seemed like the most picturesque spot I'd ever been. We spent most of the day walking the paths and looking at the fallen columns. It was incredible to think about what this place would have looked like 2000 years ago.

the pillars were so tall

entrance to the capitoline hill

Temple of Castor and Pollux

The house of the Vestal Virgins

Basilica di Massenzio

Pillars

Relaxing in the courtyard

Lovely gardens on the Palentine Hill where we had our picnic lunch

Rock Engravings

posing in my fancy dress

After the Forum we walked over to the Colosseum to find a huge line wrapped around the front. We walked past all those sad chaps and into the empty Roma pass line. We got in straight away. The Colosseum was huge! Colossal!

Behold! The Colosseum

the inside

Gladiator helmet

more of the inside corridors

Me

triumphal arch

The Capitoline Museum

Neptune

high five!

We spent some time pondering the gender of this statue...

still pondering...

This one reminded me of Bret

long hallway of statues

This was my favorite

Monkey sculpture in the Egyptian Antiquities room

It had been a long day and Christian was done!

We took the metro back to our hotel, picking up gelato along the way, and contemplated where we should eat for dinner. We used our smart phone app to try and find a place but after coming across a couple closed restaurants we decided to just eat at the hotel. We knew they had a restaurant inside because we had breakfast there every morning. We were a bit reluctant to have dinner there because we were convinced it would be below average and costly. Our tired feet and growling bellies took us there anyway and we were delighted to find that our assumptions were completely wrong. This turned out to be our favorite dining experience in all of Italy. The food was incredible, the service delightful, and our hotel room just an elevator ride away! We gorged ourselves and then just rolled onto the elevator and went straight to bed. Perfect!

This was our appetizer. It was shrimp and pancetta on a bed of radicchio with a balsamic reduction. The balsamic was so good that we mopped it up with our bread. I remember it was fantastic and that we were so hungry at this point that we inhaled it.

I ordered gnocchi pillows with asparagus and clams in a delightful sauce that I wish I could recreate. I believe there may have been garlic, butter and citrus in it... and wine. definitely wine.

Christian got giant home made noodles baked in a creamy saffron sauce with sun dried tomatoes. Also delightful! I know he must love me because he let me eat several of his delicious noodles.

The 6th day we decided we had done the major tourist spots and we wanted to get away from the main city for a bit and take a walk along the Appia Antica and visit one of the many catacombs. When we started out we had grey skies and a bit of a drizzle. We looked at the map and decided that it wouldn't be too far walk to our destination. 

Christian leading the way along the outer wall of Rome

me dutifully following

We were headed to tour the catacombs of San Callisto. We made it there just in time to see the slight drizzle turn into a down pour. Lucky for us the catacombs are underground out of the rain. We were feeling very fortuitous. Our tour was fascinating. It was neat to see the large rooms formed out of volcanic tuft and the spaces where bodies were buried. It always made me sad to see the tiny spaces where the bones of babies and children had been removed. This catacomb housed the crypt of Saint Cecilia. The bones have been removed but the sculpture is still there. 

After our tour we walked outside to see the down pour had returned to a slight drizzle. We continued walking toward the Appian Antica which was about a mile further. We misjudged the road conditions. Parts of the road were very narrow and it was morning with people heading to work. There were no side walks and several puddles in the street from the morning rains. When we arrived at the Appian way we were soaked. Our pants were drenched from the cars splashing puddle water up on us. We looked like a couple of drowned rats. We found a small convenience store and went in to dry off and get a snack. The man running this place was awesome! He pulled out a grill from behind the counter and cooked us up some sausage sandwiches. He spoke a little english but mostly the wet cold look of us seemed to be all the translation he needed. Those sandwiches hit the spot! We felt great and re-energized. Plus those sandwiches might be the cheapest we spent on lunch our entire vacation. 

The meat selection with the sausages in the upper left corner.

The magical grill (behind the glass) that makes delicious sandwiches on a rainy day.

Happy Christian, using a giant barrel as a table

After our meal we continued down the old Appian way. The Appia Antica is the old Roman highway that leads directly to the center of the city. The cobbles are still the original cobbles that wagons traveled on and there are incredible wagon wheel indentations along the way. It was amazing to be walking on a cobble road constructed in 312 BC

New cobbled road on both sides of the old cobble

Along the way we stopped at the ruins of the thermal bath house Capo di Bove

This bath house was used primarily between the 2nd and 4th century.

The tile floors were very detailed

It was a really pretty walk

with lots of old ruin stuff along the way

wagon wheel indentations

The Appia Antica

After walking down a couple of miles of road we found an intersecting asphalt road with a bus stop and waited for a bus to take us back to the middle of Rome. There were a couple of spots we wanted to see before saying goodbye to this beautiful city. 

Venus temple

close up of the pillars

Zeus temple

Tiber river

the stairs to the walkway along the Tiber

Christian and the Tiber

back up the stairs to the main city area

Circo Massimo - the chariot race track

We went back to the hotel where we gorged on more delicious hotel restaurant food and Julie's pants started to feel really tight. I may have unbuttoned them in this picture.

And on the 7th day... we were on our way to Lake Garda

Goodbye Rome

We will miss you