Sweet, Sweet Rome

Girls trip to Rome!! Yay!  The morning Jimmy and Erica left, Gabrielle and I left for Rome for a quick 2 day adventure.  In the Milan Linate airport, they have a full scale model of the Duomo and I included it, just because it is impressive.

Now back to Rome!
We got up at 6am, in Rome by 9:30am and stopped at 10:30pm that night! Whoa!  The first day we hit up all of the 'big' stuff....Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (warning it is under construction so you can't really see it now), etc....
We stayed in a cute B&B near the Vatican:

First stop was the Colosseum (BTW, get the Rome Card! It is awesome and allows you to skip the line and I am so thankful we spent the money...you should have see the line for the Colosseum in late June!). 

Next we ventured over to the forum and saw the sights along the way.

Then we headed to the pantheon and we had a wonderful surprise.  A group of young choir students broke into song in the pantheon and it was beautiful!

We followed Rick Steve's advice and checked out one of the famous gelato places...yum!

We toured the rest of Rome with Rick Steves heart of Rome tour:

Even though the Trevi Fountain is under construction, we turned around and threw our coins in anyway! Maybe the luck still works!

Day 2 we started a 4 hour Vatican Tour at 7:30AM and it was worth it!

Erica and Jimmy - Milan, Isola Bella, Courmayer and Monte Bianco

One of Matt's best friends since they were 2 years old, Jimmy, and his wife Erica came for a visit in June and we had a blast with them.  We went to Milan for a day, went to Isola Bella at night, and over to Courmayer in Aosta Valley.  (Warning! My picture taking has drastically increased, because Jimmy and Erica brought a new camera over for me that I bought.  I finally joined the 'fancy camera' world and splurged on a new Samsung NX300 and it is pretty awesome!). 

Group dinner in Piazza di Popolo in Arona

Jimmy and Erica on top of the Duomo

I just found out this (as many times as I have been downtown!) I didn't know you could put your heel on the bull in the Galleria and spin and it brings you good luck!

On Friday evening we took a boat over to Isola Bella with our friend Tyler for some live music, drinks, and dinner.  It was only 10 Euro for the boat ride and 1 drink and the theme for the night was Jazz Music.  The band had a New Orleans theme and I was really impressed!

Next we took off to Aosta Valley around Courmayeur Mont Blanc (near France).  We rented a 400 year old house for the weekend and it actually had a waterfall that runs underneath! 

waterfall that runs under house

Outside of the house

 Here are some pictures of the views from the house:

One of the items on my Italy 'bucket list' is to take the Mont Blanc Funivie over to Chamonix, France to see Aguile di Midi, however I didn't know that the lift is under construction so you can only go part way!  It was still a wonderful trip with fantastic views.  Next time I will drive to France and take the lift from there so I can see the other side. 

The stop at La Palud

Erica, Jimmy, and Matt on the cable car

Group shot from the top

You can go inside the old control room.  Can you see the floppy disk sticking out of the computer?  Kind of entertaining that a floppy disk was part of the control system. :-)

You can climb 228 steps to the top!

On the way back down we stopped at the Alpine gardens.

The next day we went for a hike and I swear I was walking on the set of the Lord of the Rings!