Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter

We didn't do much this Easter. The weather was reaaaallly bad! :-( boo hoo.
My Mom had us over for lunch at her house, along with Enrico's Mom & Sister Simona. It was nice to be together!



Nonna Maria
Enrico found this funny swim cap in his Winnie-the-Pooh chocolate easter egg!
Simona & Marinella
Enrico & The Dog
Charlie-Bruno

Friday, April 22, 2011

RIO BABY!

In 3D that is!

And and afternoon of girly-girl things with Carlotta!






Monday, April 18, 2011

Adding on....

So we've started work on the small addition we've bought next to our apartment. We're adding an extra guest room/study/eventual kids room. (hahaha)

But first, I thought I'd share some pix of Stinky. He loves hiding in bags and boxes! I thought these were cute!
I wonder if he thinks that I can't see him????
Back to the construction..... Soooo, the big hole in the ceiling is for a BIG VELUX roof window which should allow us to see out onto the gulf, so that should be a spectacular view!

The tiny door on the right is an entry to a storage space (it'll be great as a secret hide-out for kids) and to the right of that is a tiny window for air and light.
I don't know if you can see the marks on the wall, but there's a door drawn on it! That's where they'll be connecting our apartment to this room!
This door will be removed and walled in, so that we'll have a nice clean wall to put the desk, or a couch with pull out bed at.
(door open)
(door closed so you can get a feel of the length of the wall)
The open door is the front door to our house, while the door on the left is the door to the space we are adding. Again, that door will be removed and a wall will result.
This is what is on the other side of that wall where the door is going to be, corresponding to about where the chair and bottle holder is, so it will connect right into our dining room!

As soon as work makes any more progress I'll add more pictures!
Fun uh?

(NOT.)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam (A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome)

Wake-up 5:00 am to take first flight @ 7:00 to Rome and see this SPECTACULAR sight from the plane.....
After my trip to the Embassy to renew my passport which, by the way, only took 15 minutes, I met up with Stefy for lunch.





Stefy & I in a store trying on funny stuff!
Then, off to dinner with the other girls, Claudia & Laura to eat spaghetti!

Claudia
Next Day Trevi Fountain!

Claudia, Stefy & Laura
Caludia, Stefy & Me

The Pantheon, a building in Rome, commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.

Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a tomb. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Carracci, the composer Arcangelo Corelli, and the architect Baldassare Peruzzi.

Also buried there are two kings of Italy: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Umberto's Queen, Margherita.
Although Italy has been a republic since 1946, volunteer members of Italian monarchist organisations maintain a vigil over the royal tombs in the Pantheon. This has aroused protests from time to time from republicans, but the Catholic authorities allow the practice to continue, although the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage is in charge of the security and maintenance.

The Pantheon today is used as a church. Masses are celebrated there, in particular on important Catholic days of obligation and weddings.


Corinthian Capitals

The Pantheon Dome's coffered ceiling also known as a lacunar ceiling:

Piazza Navona
Built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena). It is believed that over time the name changed to 'in agone' to 'navone' and eventually to 'navona'.

One of the statues in Neptune's Fountain in Piazza Navona.
Claudia

A cute little shop!
And cute Restaurants! I wish I could have tried them all!
Tired Girls!
Stefy In Piazza di Spagna
Spanish Steps from Piazza di Spagna
Taking a rest with cocktails & champagne
an old barber shop!


Cool painting
Last Night in Rome, our yummy vegetarian dinner, and it was REALLY GOOD!


...... The rest of the time was spent shopping.... no time to take pictures there! :-))))