Italy 2010
A few months ago our friend Jason said to us, "We're going to Italy in June. Are you guys coming?" And so it began....
We planned and emailed and called and planned and finally we had a plan! We met in Rome, spent the night and took a 3 hour train ride up to Milan the following morning.
Jenny, Jason and Adam in the Milan train station after our 3 hour journey from Rome.
The unbelievably beautiful Milan train station. I would love to have spent more time just exploring it and taking in it's magnificence!
Our plan was to see Muse in concert in Milan, spend the next day exploring the city and then begin the rest of our tour of Italy after that.
After making our way to the stadium, we found our seats and marveled at the size of the stadium while trying to cool off with some Italian beer!
San Siro stadium normally holds 85,000 people!!! I cannot begin to tell you how disgusting our seats were. They were completely caked and coated in dirt/grime/spilled beer/spit/other scary, disgusting things. We were so reluctant to sit down, but gave in once we saw a girl with white pants sit without even batting an eye. We watched the two opening acts, Friendly Fires and Kasabian before Muse came on.
It was really incredible to watch the stadium fill up. It was unnerving to imagine how many people were there. We checked the news sites later and found there were 62,000 attendees!! Wild!
The craziest part about it was when the band was playing, the concert goers were standing up, dancing, clapping their hands and singing along, but the concrete stands were swaying with the movement!!! It was a very scary feeling.
I loved the concert, from the beginning to the end. It was incredible and loud and moving in so many ways. It was a far cry from when Adam and I saw them in Calgary in March and there were 9,000 people, but I have to say the magnitude of the performance was almost the same. Besides a few more special effects, the energy equaled that of the show in Calgary.
I love this little video clip for the person in front of me who was clapping!! Such fun. Oh, and another note on the seats, it was impossible to relax in the seats. We had to sit straight up for fear of kneeing the person in the row below in the back!!
This is a clip of the song Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1. It is a beautiful classical piece composed by the band and during this clip you might see the large, silver UFO floating above the crowd and coming to the front of the stage. From inside the UFO an acrobatic dancer descended and wowed the crowd before the UFO floated away...
The next day, we rented bicycles in Milan and toured around the city seeing everything from bike level! They have a wonderful bike rental system where you can rent the bike using a machine and a code you get off their internet site, use it for a limited amount of time and return it at any station around the city. We rode, explored, parked the bikes, shopped and picked up new bikes all over the city! There is Adam on his bike, with Jenny and Jason in the background.
Beautiful Milan...
I love this picture in that you can see the magnificent Duomo in the background (center of photo).
So many overhead wires...
The Duomo. Adam and I spent an hour or so exploring the inside and outside of this incredible cathedral. Every piece of it is so intricately carved and detailed.
People in the square below the Duomo!!
The view from up on the roof of the Duomo. Notice the carvings on the towers?
The rooftop of the cathedral. I thought it was pretty cool to be able to walk all over the cathedrals roof!
After exploring, we wandered into the Galleries where expensive shops abounded! Imagine such a beautiful mall in Canada, with grand arches leading the shoppers inside?
Adam and Jason riding around the streets of Milan with shopping in their baskets! Don't they look thrilled!!
Jenny relaxing after shopping...
Jason relaxing after waiting for Jenny and I while we shopped.....Big Beer in Italy!!
After our time in Milan, we rented a car and drove to the Cinque Terre region, along the west coast of Italy. We lucked into finding the most magnificent place to stay before we left home. We never imagined this place would be as incredible as it was. How could we?! After checking in with the owner/manager of the place and being offered a snack or a cappuccino, we were lead, with our suitcases, along a narrow, cobble-stoned path our digs for the next few nights. This is just a small glimpse of our room...with 5 huge windows looking right down the mountainside to the vast Mediterranean ocean. There was no line between the sky and the ocean....it was all melded into one beautiful sight for our eyes.
The view from our windows. We were given a tour of the place and shown to the cappuccino machines, the outdoor solarium with outdoor shower and the lounge chairs on which we could wile away our afternoon taking in the glory of where we were.
I have included a slideshow of the rest of our photos. If you click on the first photo, you'll see descriptions of each of the following shots. I'll give you a brief explanation of the remainder of our trip. While in Cinque Terre, we took a boat from La Spezia to the 5 towns included in the Cinque Terre UNESCO World Heritage Site and explored each of them.
From there, we made our way to Florence and shopped like crazy!! We then drove to the Amalfi Coast and stayed three nights in Amalfi, spending time on the beach and renting our own boat and exploring the coast as well as the beautiful Island of Capri.
After our stay in Amalfi, Adam and I drove to Pompeii for a few hours visit and then up to Rome, where we finished our trip with immersing ourselves in the city and all the incredible sights to see there!! Jason and Jenny stayed in Amalfi for a few more days before heading home.
Hope you enjoy the photos!!!
We planned and emailed and called and planned and finally we had a plan! We met in Rome, spent the night and took a 3 hour train ride up to Milan the following morning.
Jenny, Jason and Adam in the Milan train station after our 3 hour journey from Rome.
The unbelievably beautiful Milan train station. I would love to have spent more time just exploring it and taking in it's magnificence!
Our plan was to see Muse in concert in Milan, spend the next day exploring the city and then begin the rest of our tour of Italy after that.
After making our way to the stadium, we found our seats and marveled at the size of the stadium while trying to cool off with some Italian beer!
San Siro stadium normally holds 85,000 people!!! I cannot begin to tell you how disgusting our seats were. They were completely caked and coated in dirt/grime/spilled beer/spit/other scary, disgusting things. We were so reluctant to sit down, but gave in once we saw a girl with white pants sit without even batting an eye. We watched the two opening acts, Friendly Fires and Kasabian before Muse came on.
It was really incredible to watch the stadium fill up. It was unnerving to imagine how many people were there. We checked the news sites later and found there were 62,000 attendees!! Wild!
The craziest part about it was when the band was playing, the concert goers were standing up, dancing, clapping their hands and singing along, but the concrete stands were swaying with the movement!!! It was a very scary feeling.
I loved the concert, from the beginning to the end. It was incredible and loud and moving in so many ways. It was a far cry from when Adam and I saw them in Calgary in March and there were 9,000 people, but I have to say the magnitude of the performance was almost the same. Besides a few more special effects, the energy equaled that of the show in Calgary.I love this little video clip for the person in front of me who was clapping!! Such fun. Oh, and another note on the seats, it was impossible to relax in the seats. We had to sit straight up for fear of kneeing the person in the row below in the back!!
This is a clip of the song Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1. It is a beautiful classical piece composed by the band and during this clip you might see the large, silver UFO floating above the crowd and coming to the front of the stage. From inside the UFO an acrobatic dancer descended and wowed the crowd before the UFO floated away...
The next day, we rented bicycles in Milan and toured around the city seeing everything from bike level! They have a wonderful bike rental system where you can rent the bike using a machine and a code you get off their internet site, use it for a limited amount of time and return it at any station around the city. We rode, explored, parked the bikes, shopped and picked up new bikes all over the city! There is Adam on his bike, with Jenny and Jason in the background.
Beautiful Milan...
I love this picture in that you can see the magnificent Duomo in the background (center of photo).
So many overhead wires...
The Duomo. Adam and I spent an hour or so exploring the inside and outside of this incredible cathedral. Every piece of it is so intricately carved and detailed.
People in the square below the Duomo!!
The view from up on the roof of the Duomo. Notice the carvings on the towers?
The rooftop of the cathedral. I thought it was pretty cool to be able to walk all over the cathedrals roof!
After exploring, we wandered into the Galleries where expensive shops abounded! Imagine such a beautiful mall in Canada, with grand arches leading the shoppers inside?
Adam and Jason riding around the streets of Milan with shopping in their baskets! Don't they look thrilled!!
Jenny relaxing after shopping...
Jason relaxing after waiting for Jenny and I while we shopped.....Big Beer in Italy!!
After our time in Milan, we rented a car and drove to the Cinque Terre region, along the west coast of Italy. We lucked into finding the most magnificent place to stay before we left home. We never imagined this place would be as incredible as it was. How could we?! After checking in with the owner/manager of the place and being offered a snack or a cappuccino, we were lead, with our suitcases, along a narrow, cobble-stoned path our digs for the next few nights. This is just a small glimpse of our room...with 5 huge windows looking right down the mountainside to the vast Mediterranean ocean. There was no line between the sky and the ocean....it was all melded into one beautiful sight for our eyes.
The view from our windows. We were given a tour of the place and shown to the cappuccino machines, the outdoor solarium with outdoor shower and the lounge chairs on which we could wile away our afternoon taking in the glory of where we were.
I have included a slideshow of the rest of our photos. If you click on the first photo, you'll see descriptions of each of the following shots. I'll give you a brief explanation of the remainder of our trip. While in Cinque Terre, we took a boat from La Spezia to the 5 towns included in the Cinque Terre UNESCO World Heritage Site and explored each of them.
From there, we made our way to Florence and shopped like crazy!! We then drove to the Amalfi Coast and stayed three nights in Amalfi, spending time on the beach and renting our own boat and exploring the coast as well as the beautiful Island of Capri.
After our stay in Amalfi, Adam and I drove to Pompeii for a few hours visit and then up to Rome, where we finished our trip with immersing ourselves in the city and all the incredible sights to see there!! Jason and Jenny stayed in Amalfi for a few more days before heading home.
Hope you enjoy the photos!!!
Comments
The photos are amazing... you are a fantastic at taking pics!
Words & photos cannot describe the beauty one sees when touring Europe... you actually have to go and experience it for yourself...
don't you agree?!
Glad you could get away and enjoy time together!
xo
mj
-suzieQ
I am so happy you could do it and that it turned out so well. Good planning Jenni, maybe that is another talent you havel, you could plan trips for people, for a number of countries you now have hands on experience of!!
Mummy