Pompeii, Italy

Better late than never right? 

Here is an album of our day trip to Pompeii, Italy with some captions to explain some of the pictures - enjoy!

Remember, click on the image to view the entire album! 

Day 8 - Pompeii

Rome

Today was our longest and craziest day of the trip!  From the Colosseum to the Roman Forum to the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, to a delicious dinner across from the Colosseum and a tour of Rome at night...we were all amazed, awed, and exhausted! 

I'll add captions soon, but for now - enjoy the pictures!  :-)

Please click on the image below to view the album:

Day 7 - Rome

Mystical and Inspiring Assisi

Assisi was a truly magical, inspiring, and mystical place.  The town was beautiful and quaint, full of winding alleys, with flower boxes brightening each nook and cranny.  Our tour of St. Francis's Basilica was led by a friar from Philadelphia and was truly inspiring for each of us in its own way.  The lower church, which was designed to be a humble, contemplative sanctuary was just that - if not so much more and we all breathlessly stood at the altar where St. Francis's bones rest fifteen feet beneath us and admired the dark, mysterious, but spiritual paintings of the Romanesque vaulted church.  The upper church, whose altar also aligned with St. Francis's resting place was true to Gothic architecture - more open, bright, and full of hope and optimism.  We learned more about St. Francis's life as Michael, our friar, explained the meanings behind the early Renaissance frescoes that were just beginning to incorporate elements of dimension and perspective.  And then there was the view - which was astounding as we left the Basilica refreshed and inspired in our own ways to suddenly look out over green pastures and sleepy blue mountains, each personally vowing to be better to each other and to take better care of all of God's creatures. 

Click on the image below to view the full album: 

Day 6 - Assisi

We ended our day with our arrival in Rome - we ate at a yummy restaurant, settled into our hotel, and checked out the neighboring town before all heading to bed before our crazy, crazy Rome day!

Our free day in Florence

Stopping for a nice long lunch!

What luck!  The rain stopped and the skies cleared just as we finished lunch - to the duomo to climb the cupola immediately!  Now to just make the 493 steps!!!

As we climbed and climbed we got glimpses of the city that looked like this through the window grates

And then!  Magic!  We found ourselves at the base of the dome, suddenly thrown into the paintings of the dramatic last judgement

Colleen making her way up through the dome

Brooke's signal for "tired" and "must catch breath"

Ms. Novak's signal for...I am claustrophobic and am going to kill Mrs. Hals for talking me into this....

Almost there!  Making the really tricky ascent up the curves of the dome

Triumph!  Enjoying our views of the Campanile Giotto and the city of Florence

Erin, Kate, and Gina enjoying the view

Brooke and Colleen

Stefan, Ben, Ryan, and Paul

Group photo!

Your trusty MCC chaperones

heading back down, the way we came

More views of the unbelievable dome

View of the duomo from the campanile...because climbing 500 steps wasn't enough...we had to climb another 417!

Ben

Ryan

Paul

Stefan

Anthony

Riding the carousel in one of the squares

Palazzo Vecchio

Enjoying dinner

Heading out for our big day in Rome!!

Okay!  So we are about to disembark on one of our biggest, most exciting and busiest days of the trip!  Today is the Vatican, Colosseum, Sistine Chapel, Roman Forum, and more!!!

We have internet for the rest of the trip - so I will catch up very soon.  I also had to finally cave and purchase some extra storage space on my google account for pictures, so that will help too! 

Yesterday we had an awesome day at Assisi - it was absolutely amazing!  More about that soon!

If you look at the previous post you will find several pictures from Day 1 in Florence.  I will post our free day in Florence and Assisi tonight!

Ciao!  :)

Snapshots from Day 1 in Florence

Enjoying a lunch in the piazza at Santa Croce

Santa Croce

Watching the boy run from the scary wolf marionette

The awe-inspiring Santa Maria del Fiore

Ghiberti's Gate of Paradise

Ben lighting a candle in the Santa Maria del Fiore

a view of the Duomo, Campanile Giotto and the Baptistry

The Hals enjoying the views of Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio - the only bridge to the city that wasn't destroyed during WW II and served as an escape route for the city

the replica of Michelangelo's David in the Piazza del Signorio

Donatello's statue of the murder of medusa

Florence! March 27, 2011

1. Today was my birthday!

2. We woke up, had a private pow-wow in which I outright praised the kids for their awesome behavior so far (they really have been wonderful – on time, not the stereo-typical “loud Americans,” courteous, patient, I’ve been so proud!), loaded our gear on the bus, grabbed breakfast, and hit the road

3. Europe did daylights savings today…so…needless to say we napped on the bus on the way to Florence

4. We enjoyed lunch in the piazza of Santa Croce - we finally found enough time to have a nice sit down pasta filled meal – yum!

5. After that we saw a quick leather works demonstration – not as cool as the glass factory but we did learn how to see if something was real leather or not – we’ll teach you when you get home! (but you may now be disappointed about something you own – I was very pleased to discover that my leather jacket really is real)!

6. In our free time I enjoyed AMAZING gelato at a shop called Vivolu – it renowned as the best gelato in Europe…

7. We enjoyed a walking tour of Florence – and all jaws dropped as we rounded a corner and found ourselves staring at the truly amazing and humbling Duomo, the Santa Maria del Fiore…it was even more magnificent than I had remembered! We also enjoyed view from and of the Ponte Vecchio and in the Piazza del Signorio as well.

8. We managed to squeeze in a visit to the Uffizi - the world’s largest Renaissance art gallery – our favorite? The Boticelli gallery – it was truly awesome!

9. After that we headed to our new hotel – which the students really like, enjoyed a nice dinner, and spent the evening finding delicious gelato and hanging out before finally crashing. They also surprised me at dinner – I had fifty people sing happy birthday to me and was given a plate of little cakes with candles! So sweet!

Today (the free day) was also a complete success –the Sienna group and the Florence group all had an AWESOME time! but more about all of that later!) We didn’t have internet at this hotel – we found an internet café for the students tonight. We will have to see what we have in Rome.