Viva l'Italia! (Part 3 - Roma & Firenze)

I have to admit, I went to Rome with something of a chip on my shoulder. I'd heard all about Rome, all about the Colosseum, all about the ruins and St. Peter's and everything, but I figured "I've seen a lot of Italy. I've seen cool things. What can Rome show me that I haven't seen already?"

I was an idiot. Because Rome was freaking amazing.

Wait, there are Mormons in Italy?

AND they're building a temple?! #mindblown

Apparently this building was kind of a big deal like 2000 years ago.

Personally, I didn't see what all the fuss was about.

But Rachel did get to walk on some marble where Roman Caesars walked. That was neat.

The Roman Forum. WAY cooler than I expected it to be. Just being there was a really surreal, kind of eerie, anachronistic experience.

Apparently this door still works, lock and key and everything. I don't know what's more impressive: that the lock still works after 2000 years, or that they still have the key...

Temple of Saturn. Kind of puts those Agrigentian Greek temples to shame. Or it would, anyway, if it was more than just this side.

Monument to Vittorio Emmanuele - the first king of Italy.

This Vittorio Emmanuele monument is HUGE.

Turns out ancient Rome had an obsession with obelisks...um, phallic much?

St. Peter's Basilica. We saw a lot of cool things in Italy, but this was probably my favorite. It blew my mind. You might as well give up getting even an inkling of an idea as to how cool this place is right now; these pictures are but a fraction of a fraction. Ineffability in action, my friends.

La pieta', inside St. Peter's.

I literally don't even know what to say about these pictures. Seeing this place was amazing.

View of the apse on our way up to the dome.

We got real familiar with climbing tiny staircases--this is also on the way up to the dome of St. Peter's.

Aaaand we're still on our way up to the dome of St. Peter's.

View from the dome.

Ahem...obelisk.

The Pantheon. (...obelisk.)

Trevi Fountain.

We interrupt this program for a brief photo of Italian shoes suspended in a store completely bathed in blue light. Because that is normal.

The Spanish Steps (and,  yes, an obelisk).

So that was Rome, folks. (And trust me, that wasn't even half of all the obelisks we saw. Obelisk.) From there, we journeyed to the famed crown of Tuscany (okay now I'm just making stuff up): Firenze (Florence).

Another church I remember literally nothing about it. Seriously, guys, there are like a LOT of churches in Italy.

Aaaaaand here's where my obsession with Dante starts to show through. Florence, if you aren't aware, is the birthplace and home of Dante Alighieri, greatest poet to ever grace this earth. I even wrote my Honors Thesis about him.

Florence from the top of the Duomo bell tower.

More claustrophobic staircases.

View from the top of the dome of Florence's Duomo (remember, Duomo = cathedral, dome = dome).

Il Palazzo Vecchio.

View of the Duomo from the Palazzo Vecchio.

Via Dante!

We stayed in the "Dante" room in our hotel and IT WASN'T EVEN PLANNED YOU GUYS.

Dante Dante Dante.

More Dante.

The outside of the Duomo. That's the bell tower on the right.

Il Ponte Vecchio.

La bella Firenze.

If you start seeing Dante Alighieri profiles on the cobblestones, you know you're in Florence.

That's Rome and Florence for you. Next time on "Rachel and Chris Tour Italy," we'll be covering Cinque Terre, Milan, and Venice. Don't touch that dial!

Viva l'Italia! (Part 2 - Calabria and Puglia)

Ok ya'll, I'm back for part two of our phenomenal vacay in Italy that was totes amazballs and fun for everyone. Today I'll be covering the second part of our trip, in the regions of Calabria (the toe of Italy, if you subscribe to the whole Italy-looks-like-a-boot thing) and Puglia (the heel of Italy, see previous parenthetical [and Puglia is not pronounced "POO-glee-ah," but something closer to "Poolya"--I think we americans actually call the region Apulia]). This post still covers cities where I lived/visited when I lived in Italy ten years ago; starting next time, we'll get into unknown territory. So, without further ado, our first city was Reggio di Calabria...*

Il Monumento ai Caduti (Monument to the Fallen), seen from the Lungo Mare (street that runs along the sea).

#nofilter

So Reggio is a city on a big hill, and apparently since I was last in Italy they decided to build a giant set of covered escalators from the beach to the top of the hill. I can't tell you how much sweat this would have saved me when I lived there...walking up Reggio's hill when it is 100 degrees F and a billion percent humidity makes for one sweaty Christopher.

We saw a castle.

This is that castle.

The aforementioned string of escalators in all their glory (they are the five or six tube-y things).

The door to the palazzo I lived in 10 years ago.

Some friends from 10 years ago who own a little shop that sells arancini, panzerotti, and all sorts of deliciousness. Also pictured: my giant gut. I blame Italian food.

From Reggio Calabria we journeyed through the cities of Cosenza (also in Calabria), and then Taranto (in the Puglia region now)...

We took trains.

Something new (wasn't in Cosenza when I was there ten years ago, anyway).

Something old (what we affectionately termed the "Darth Vader Helmet" when I lived in Cosenza).

Something borrowed (Rachel borrowed her sister's backpack for our trip. We took backpacks and it was awesome and made us feel very cool in an REI, granola-y kind of way.).

And something...bold? Blue? I don't even know. This was the view from our balcony at our hotel in Taranto.

Next stop: Brindisi, the gateway to Greece!

Like a boss.

Il Monumento al Marinaio d'Italia (the monument to Italian sailors).

Brindisi in the background.

Stairs to the top of the Monumento al Marinaio.

Brindisi and surrounding harbor, as seen from the top of the Monumento.

Weird angle.

It was cool to walk where I walked ten years ago, see the sights I saw. This fountain = nostalgia.

Brindisi's Duomo (Cathedral/main Church).

And the final stop on our tour of southern Italy was, last but not least (well maybe the least now that I think about it), Bari...

Sometimes I think sittin' on trains
Every stop I get to I'm clocking that game
Everyone's a winner, we're making our fame
Bonafide hustler making my name
(MIA, anyone...?)

Yet another castle. And, surprise, it was awesome.

Cool architectural things?

Castle again. That grass used to be a moat.

Aaaand that's all for now, folks. Stay tuned: next time, we're going to Rome!




* Previous disclaimer applies: I take no responsibility for the artistry or lack thereof of these photos; they were all taken with my iPhone, and all filters are strictly ironic.

Viva l'Italia! (Part 1 - Sicily)

So, yeah. My wife and I just got back from a trip to Italy, and it was INCREDIBLE. It was a long time coming--we'd basically been saving money for this trip since we got married in 2008--and it was worth every bit of the wait and the cashdollars we'd saved.

It was my wife's first time in Italy, but for me it was a return. I spent two years in southern Italy (2004-2005) as a missionary for the LDS Church. That was a powerful experience for me, and I've longed to return since the day I set foot on American soil. So going back was cool in all kinds of ways*, and I'd like to share some highlights with everyone. Now, I've never been a fan of long, drawn-out travelogues, so here's what I'm going to do: give you a bunch of pictures to look at, make brief comments on each of those pictures, and let your imagination do the rest. This first post consists of cities and locations in Sicily, and are all places I lived in and/or visited while I lived in Italy ten years ago. It was wonderful to go back, guys. Seriously. Walking the streets I walked back then, seeing familiar faces, hearing Italians argu-speak during their evening strolls...it was wonderful. The next posts will likely archive our journey as we moved north--and I'll dedicate the third post entirely to food, because we were in Italy and ate so much deliciousness. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the artistry or lack thereof of these photos; they were all taken with my iPhone, and all filters are strictly ironic in nature.)

Our journey began in Palermo, the jewel of the south and the capitol of Sicily...

Teatro Politeama, where we got off the bus from the airport. Our hotel was just around the corner.

Teatro Massimo--you may recognize this if you've seen The Godfather: Part 3.

Palermo's Duomo (Cathedral)--notice the giant advertisement, intended to raise money to help restore the Duomo.

Palermo's train/bus station. When I lived here ten years ago, I lived just around the corner.

We then continued to Erice, a tiny town on top of a mountain near Trapani...

To get to Erice, we took the funivia, or tram--a new addition since I was last there. The city in the background is Trapani.

They've done a lot of work restoring this tower. When I was in Erice ten years ago, it was nothing more than a ruin.

Being awesome.

Sicily, viewed from Erice.

The main keep of the castle in Erice.

Climbing the Duomo's bell tower.

This is legit Italy, people!

From there, our next stop was Agrigento and the Valle dei Templi...

Ruins of an ancient Greek temple.

Rachel lost a contact. So, you, know, naturally I had to help her find it. By lifting this boulder.

This dude was once the facade of a massive column, part of another Greek temple that once stood here. His junk eroded away long ago.

Whoever built this temple gets an award, because look, still standing.

More temples.

We meandered through some narrow stair-streets of Agrigento to find the Duomo. May or may not have gotten lost, but worth it.

And our last stop in Sicily was la bella Ragusa...

Funny how little kids aren't little kids anymore after ten years. Met up with Francesco and Vincenzo and their family while in Ragusa, and it was a blast.

I can't even remember the name of this church. Look, there are a lot of churches in Italy, okay?

Ragusa's surrounding countryside is beautiful. Typical Sicily.

The dome of the Duomo down in Ragusa-Ibla.

Rosanna, Giorgio, Maria, and Vincenzo again (Francesco took the picture). Loved seeing this family!

And there concludes our adventures in Sicily. Stay tuned for next time, where I think I'll be covering the Calabria and Puglia regions...!



* Incidentally, one of the ways it was cool was the fact that I was able to do some research for the Blood Queen series. Dark Immolation, the novel I've been writing for the past couple months, takes place on an island based on Sicily, for one. There are also parallels between the Cantic Church in my books and the Catholic Church, so it was a great experience to go back and visit cathedrals, duomos, and Vatican City. And, in general, Italy just has history. Just being there, feeling the thousands of years of stories that happened beneath my feet, was inspirational. So, as a writer, I got a lot out of it as well. I might do a more detailed post on this later on; we'll see what I can fit in.

I'M BAAAAAAACK

Yeah, I've been gone for a couple weeks. Because we've been here:

That's the Pantheon. In Rome. In Italy. My wife and I just spent 2+ weeks there and it was amaaaaziiiing. I'll tell you all about it in the near future.

I've got a whole bunch of other things to say, too. I still have one or two more posts queued up for my series on The Hero's Journey/The Virgin's Promise/Story Structure. I've got some updates regarding what I'm currently working on and a visit with my agent in NYC. And, if I get around to it, I might offer some thoughts on where the TV series Glee has been going recently.

So, you have all that to look forward to! In the meantime, rest assured that I am not dead.