2022 Alpine Countries

Had lots of good food in Italy as well as Rome.

Went to a restaurant where we know the owners, Santa Lucia, just off Piazza Navona.

Our hotel.

Da Tudini, restaurant below our hotel, Via Cavour 52-56. Giancarlo the owner reflection in the window.

Salad for breakfast, why not?

Old trams that ran by our hotel.

We visited the old homestead to make sure everything was good.

Old cars must be in my genes!

Close, only a few letters off.

They were filming Fast & Furious X (X for 10) while we were there, saw this stunt car.

Then took some spy photos, looks like a Charger Hellcat.

We have been to Rome several times before but managed to get to a few places we haven't seen.

The Colosseum is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world today, despite its age. Wikipedia

We have been into the Colosseum before so just did a walkabout this time.

The Forum

Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, this was a couple of blocks from our hotel

The Victor Emmanuel II Monument - click here for more info


Ruins like this are all over Rome.

Trevi Fountain.

The Spanish Steps is a staircase designed in 1723 by Francesco De Sanctis, and funded by a French diplomat Stefano Gueffier. It was built in order to link the Bourbon Spanish Embassy, and the Trinità dei Monti church, both located above — to the Holy See and Spanish Square below.More info here

Spanish Steps - While we were there someone drove a Maserati down the Spanish Steps, he was arrested at the airport.
The police were there and a TV news crews were doing a report

The Pantheon, professional photos and facts here

One of the best Pantheon photos I found

We had never been here before, it was quite amazing, completely intact from ancient times.

National Museum of the Palazzo di Venezia, just around the corner from our hotel

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or simply, the Tower of Pisa, is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. Wikipedia

Slowly, over the years, the structure reached an incline of 5.5 degrees. The most current repairs have the lean to 3.99 degrees.

The famous leaning tower!

Definitely the best grass in Italy, not a dandelion in sight!

Another one of our unexpected bonuses, set a midpoint on the GPS for our trip from Pisa to Rome.

Just kept heading toward the water and walked through the restaurant to this view.

We came across this by accident driving back from Cinque Terre, it was one of the best tours we have ever been on.

They have been carving marble from this area since 100 BC, and they estimate they have only mined 5-6 % of the marble.

Michaelangelo would actually come here and start carving on a piece of marble to make sure it was suitable for his statues.

The most common Italian marble is Carrara, named for the region it comes from. Carrara has a gray field, or background, with a light gray veining. This stone can also tend toward blue-gray, and the patterning is usually soft and feathery.

Calacatta marble is a rarer than carrara and is more white than gray with dramatic veining that results in thick, predominate patterns. It often has brown and gold undertones.

Statuario is the most precious marble varieties found in Italy. It has distinctive veining that can range from gold to gray.

They start by using this chain saw to cut a slot in the bottom.

Then they drill some holes from the top and run diamond encrusted cables attached to a pulley system with lots of water to cut the blocks out of the mountain.

Cutting the marble video

Another good video

Colonnata is an Italian ancient village and a hamlet of the comune of Carrara. It is situated in the Apuan Alps, and is known worldwide for the pork fat delicacy Lardo di Colonnata, and for its marble quarries. Wikipedia

Our final destination was a cave mine