Back home

Well, I'm back home now and going back to real life. I had an amazing time in Italy and I do miss it, but being home does feel nice! I saw some amazing buildings, nature, and food! I feel like I learned a lot about traveling and arcitecture in general. Now, its time to stop draining my bank account and start filling it back up. It was worth every penny though. Thanks for following my blog everyone! Arrivederci!!!!!!

Last goodbye of Rome and Italy!

Here I am finally getting a picture in front of the Pantheon even though it was right next to my hotel for over a week!

Here I've got my Italy shades on with a dude creepin in the background.

Paestum

In Paestum, there were some extremely old ancient Greek temples.

Here is a cool view looking at all three of the temples at once. The third one is far in the distance.

Pompeii

Here I am as we enter the ruins of Pompeii. This place has all been uncovered after being dumped on by 6 meters of ash.

When the ash suddenly covered the town, people were instantly trapped by the ash. The ash hardened over time, creating molds where the people were when they died. They poured plaster into these molds to recreate what people looked like in their final moments long ago in Pompeii.

Here is a nice view of Pompeii with the mountains in the background.

Here is my professor, Dr. Ece Erdogmus. She is from UNO and was awesome on the trip! Definitely one of my favorite professors of all time!

San Jiminano

Here is a very nice small town called San Jiminano. It had little shops all over and nice hotels. It sits on top of a mountain with other mountains in the distance.

Here I am on top of a tower with a nice view of the town behind me.

Here is the nice old guy who helped me pick out some wine for the folks back home!

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Here is a view of the leaning tower of Pisa next to the cathedral of Pisa. Notice all of the people posing for funny pictures with the leaning tower.

Okay, so I ended up doing a couple of poses with it too! Here I am holding it up...

 Here I am eating it like a sub sandwich! Yum yum yum....

Then, we climbed up the tower. Notice the angle of the pillar compared to the horizon. That was leaning quite a bit!! Climbing up circles of stairs felt very weird like a topsy turvy house.

This is the view of the rest of the Pisa complex with the town in the background. This is from the very top of the tower.

This is a picture looking straight down off of the leaning side of the tower! I was pretty nervous taking this picture because it felt like I could slide right off!

Here is a view of all the Pisa complex as I was going out.

Food compilation up to now!

We found a really good pizza place next to some ancient Roman ruins. 

Here is some awesome lasagna that wasn't too expensive either! 

I had this sandwich made at the farmer's market in Campo de Fiori in Rome. 

On the left is my spaghetti and meat sauce in Florence. On the right is some tasty ravioli that I tried. 

Here is our picnic after visiting the grocery store in Florence. I had a salami sandwich and a whole box of fresh strawberries. 

Here is my eggs, bacon, and cheese spaghetti in Florence that was delicious. 

In Milan, we decided to get some American food in us so I had a spicy bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and fries. 

Here we have Nate cooking up some breakfast in Milan. 

Here is the end result of the cooking! A very nice breakfast.

GOLF TRIP!!!!!!

This is my first sight of when I get to the golf course that was tucked back in the mountains! It is the Montecatini Golf Course about an hour drive from Florence. I wasn't sure what to expect when I booked the tee time, but when I saw this view I was beyond excited!

This is the view off the first tee with Pisa and Montecatini on the horizon. 

This is me next to the second hole green. 

Here is an amazing view with the mountains rising up behind the green. 

Here I am with a view of the clubhouse over my left shoulder. 

This is an awesome shot I took of the blue sky and mountains in the background of a nice approach. 

I got a cool picture of walking to the fairway. It felt so cool to be alone on the amazing golf course with no noise but birds chirping. 

This was a cool house right by the golf course next to some fields.

Here is a view of my tee shot on one of the back 9 holes. It was like teeing off into a tunnel with trees not allowing much margin for error. It was a fun hole! 

 http://youtu.be/b64lXrO0KKo

This is a video of that tee shot. I was going for the left side of the fairway since it was a dogleg left. I just barely caught the tree though! The ball started a little left then was fading right. Just a few feet further right and it would've been perfect!

After that last tee shot, this was my view to the green. 

Here is a picture of me on the 18th hole. A nice old Italian lady named Rosanna took this picture for me. It was a challenge to get over the language barrier trying to explain how to zoom in!

This was one of my favorite days of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The views were amazing with dog legs bending through a tunnel of trees, mountains rising up behind the greens, sand traps all over, water curving around some greens, cliffs falling off the sides of fairways, and views of looking out over the city. On the front 9 I was set up with a father daughter Italian pair, then was all alone on the back 9 to enjoy a very quiet and peaceful sunset over the mountains scattered with Italian villas. It was like walking through a dream. It seemed almost too good to be real. Ahh... what a day...

Off to Florence with some great views

 Here I am in the morning with Florence in the background. I was on top of Michaelanglo's Piazza which has a lot of stairs to get to! The Basilica de Santa Maria de Fiore is over my left shoulder and is known for Brunelleschi's Dome which is the largest church dome in the world.

This is me and the roommate (Keith on left, Kyle on right) in front of the Basilica de Santa Maria de Fiore. This is the view from the top of our hotel!!! Amazing!

This is the sunset over Florence from Michaelangelo's Piazza! Another big set of stair to see this! 

Here I am just as the sun is setting over Florence and the buildings are starting to get lit up. This is still from Michaelangelo's Piazza.

Street Music!

 http://youtu.be/rkrSVvIajwM

This guy was just singing in the middle of a plaza in Rome. He drew quite a crowd including our whole group. He was pretty impressive!

 http://youtu.be/v5Gh-iet13U

These guys were playing in Rome in the Piazza Navona. I was jamming and people were dancing. It was too bad that their amp battery died! I stayed for a long time even though it was a chilly night.

 http://youtu.be/a35YQzq0q-g

This guy was playing cello on the bridge in front of Castello Sant Angelo in Rome. I sat and listened to about four of his pieces. He was playing through Bach's Cello Suites and was killing it! I think he was my favorite musician so far.

I got a picture next to the cellist! I could've listened to that guy for days.

Climbing St. Peter's Basilica!

After climbing many many stairs, I have this much farther to the top! 

This is the view when inside the dome of the Basilica! I don't think I've ever been up this high indoors!

When going up the pathways of the dome, the walls started to tilt, and it got worse than this so that the only way to get through is lean against the wall.

Here is a very narrow staircase that had a rope as a handrail.

After making it to the top finally, this is my first view.

Here is the view of the plaza in front of St. Peter's.

It feels good to be on top and enjoying the view!