Part 1: Italy & Vienna

Before we get into the Italy & Vienna holiday pics I thought I’d include some Oslo winter bbq photos since it was such a unique (and yes, a little crazy) experience for us.

An Oslo winter bbq in the park

One wintery Oslo day Dan and I decided to have a bbq at SognsvannWe grabbed our skis and headed for the train station on the other side of FrognerparkenWalking thru the park, we saw lots of kids sledding and noticed freshly made cross country ski tracksSince this was a 10 minute walk from our apartment we thought 'why not just have a bbq and ski here?'It was a lot less crowded than we'd seen at Sognsvann too!Aww, here's Dan looking rather cute...er...professional on his skis :)This is the same park that has all the stone sculptures made by the one guyMy heels were rubbed raw from my boots so I sat around while Dan went off in search of bandaids for meWhen he returned we got the bbq goingIt was -8 degrees on this day...and we were feeling every bit of it!Apparently it's crazy to have a bbq in the park on a -8 degree day...but boy did the burgers taste good!After food we went for another ski...not realising how painful our hands would be warming back up! Ouch!After 10 mins of 'Oww my hands!' and another half hour of skiing we decided to head back to the warm of our apartmentThe snow really changes the look of a landscapeA building that we passed on our walk home. I love the different textures and materials.And here is the convenient sledding hill 50 metres from our apartmentOoo is that another snow storm coming?Enough winter bbq craziness for one day! Here's Dan standing out the front of our apartment block...where we remained indoors for the rest of winter ;)Oh wait, we did venture out for dinner another night and saw these guys in a large crane cutting down the dangerous icicles that had formed along building rooftops!This past winter Oslo had the highest amount of snow in over 40 years! Woohoo for us! 6 months on and we're now hanging for Summer :)

First stop…Roma!

The view from our plane on our way to Rome. This was about 30 mins into our trip and somewhere over Denmark or SwedenOoo the Alps! This was the best scenery we'd been lucky enough to peek at from little plane windows.I'd booked a hotel that we could walk to from the train station and here it is!We grabbed pizza slices on our way to the hotel, dumped our bags, and then headed our for our first italian espresso!For some reason I really like the photo and how the crane body looks a lot like a spiderOur hotel was on a quiet road that came off a main road. We walked down the main road and came across this enormous monument / building!From up here we had our first glimpse of the Colesseum and Roman forum ruins...here we are madly grinning :)We walked over the monument building and towards the colesseum. The size of these ruins was absolutely amazing!Walking thru the roman forum...We headed up to Palentine HillHow could I not love being here?!We didn't know much about the history but bought tickets anyway and headed into Palantine hillThe view from the top looking back where we'd just come from. The building at the top left was the large monument we first came acrossWoohoo!I'd read about the huge cat population in Rome. I saw an old lady feeding these ones.Still walking around Palatine hillHeading towards the ColesseumWe arrived 1 min too late to go inside the colesseum but it looked great from the outside. The next morning we got up early for a tour we had booked the afternoon previous. This is the line for the Vatican museums and Sistine ChapelOur tour guide was great. Had the authentic accent and everything!Looking out at Vatican City from inside the museumOoo! A bunch of people and I managed to click off a photo before the booming recorded message reminded us there was to be no photo taking in the Sistine ChapelThe one thing we didn't have time to do was go inside St Peter's Cathedral. It looked awesum from the outside.We didn't go inside St Pauls because we had tickets that were valid until 1pm for inside the Colesseum.Our second day in Rome the weather was beautiful and we had a picnic lunch in the forumThen we walked back to the Unknown Soldier monument for an impressive view with our espresso!Looking out towards St PetersYou can get a sense of the scale with this photoItaly!With tired feet and happy grins we continued walking to the Pantheon...which also looked huge and amazingThen onto Trevi Fountain which was a tourist hot spot. We tossed coins into the water to ensure our return to Rome someday :)Trevi FountainThat night we feasted on pasta...meat and vino!

A day in…Pompeii!

The next day we got up early (AGAIN!!) and headed to the train station to get tickets for Pompeii. 3 hrs later and there we were!An old fireplace / ovenWe were in awe wandering around the well preserved cityWe weren't sure if this was a real body or a mouldbut the pose says it allA public water fountain...Dan was trying to even up the left handed sideWe wandered around for hours and loved every moment we were thereHere you can see the worn tracks in the stone made by wagonsHanging out in PompeiiThe modern day PompeiiWe had a couple of hours to kill at the train station and almost all the shops were closed for the afternoon. So we spent the time in this cafe

All aboard for…Pisa!

The next day we boarded a train headed for Pisa. We were spending a night here specifically for photos of us and the leaning tower of Pisa!We were hungry and realised the hotel restaurant was open for another 10 mins so in we rushed for some more pasta and wine...Then we walked the 200 metres from the hotel to the towerIt was the most gorgeous tower we'd ever seen!Surprisingly, it looked exactly like it does in photos :)We spent a while taking in turns holding up the tower and then we booked tickets to climb to the top!Dan tried to make the surrounding buildings lean tooHe didn't appear to have much luck but I'd swear that this building had a slight lean not 10 mins after thisOoo we get to go up there!Here I am at the top fo the tower. We considered ourselves lucky to be able to climb it since it was closed to the public for over a decade while they figured out how to make it safe.This bell tower was added centuries after the tower was started.You can see our hotel in the backgroundThe city of Pisa looked amazing when the sun came outCurious about what the interior of such a pretty tower looks like? Well here it is!I was getting tired of holding this thing up and started trying to push it over instead.Woohoo! Pisa!We'd done what we'd set out to achieve in Pisa (taken a bunch of photos) and looked forward to our next stop.

Continued in ‘Pt 2: Italy & Vienna’…