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! :-))))

Aaahhh "La Dolce Vita"

.....AND A GIRLS WEEKEND IN ROME! Can you say FUN FUN FUN!! I needed to get to the Embassy to take care of my expired US passport so why not turn it into a long weekend???

I'll be going with some girl-friends, one of which is getting married in July, so we'll be doing some SERIOUS shoe-shopping! Stay tuned for LOADS of pictures!

COMING SOON TO A BLOG NEAR YOU!

To ski or not ski!?

That is the question!

We went back up to the mountains last weekend again... wake up call, 6:30 am....

Two and a half hours later..... to ski it was!!! You could see the Sea from up top while you were skiing!

And it even stared to snow again!

Enrico & Tonino being funny!

Meeeee!

Beautiful sunset while we left

Sunday Stroll

This last beautiful Sunday, we went for a stroll to Masua, and old mining town, to see some friends and have a BBQ lunch!

This is what they see from their home...

Good friends & good times! (Julia with P-Chan the cat)

BBQ Masters! Diego & Matt.

Some of the grub!

Just thought it was beautiful!

Only 12 people live in this tiny old and abandoned mining town and there are few buildings to go with it!

What was once the local snack bar.

One of the lived homes.

Gee-gee-the-dog (it's his full name) is missing a front tooth!

Just gotta love this dog! How can you not!

Time has stopped, or actually, we've gone back in time to the 70's again. Just sitting on the curb watching the guys go down-hill on their long-skate boards....

I was able to put some of my (very little) photography skills to work...

I thought this sign on the snack bar was cute!

Some ruins remaining ...

...

...washed-up stuff on the shore... kinda looks like cupcake sprinkles...

interesting uh?

and my night time shot!