Italy

Italy tour February 17 - 24, 2014

Agelworld this year was in Turin, Italy, or as we in America pronounce it, Torino.  I flew out and met Jeff there.  It was my first time to Turin.  The 2006 Winter Olympics were held there.  The venue for Agelworld was in the Olympic ice hockey arena.  The city itself was beautiful - as is ALL of Europe.  My best friend Allison Johnson and her husband Mark flew out and met us there too.  Alli is a photographer and Agel always hires her to shoot the convention.  So this year instead of flying her to SLC for the convention, they flew her to Italy!  She was so excited and I was sooo excited to have her there!  On our days off, we toured around the city.  We walked our butts off sightseeing.

We went into a couple neat old cathedrals. 

Piazza San Carlo

This is the largest and probably the most beautiful square in Turin.  It has an esquestrian statue right in the heart of the square.  It houses two of the main churches in the city.  It has been used for parades and as market places.  There are also some well known and loved Italian coffees and cafes here.

One of my favorite things about Europe is the buildings and the cobblestone streets.

On our walk around the city, we came across these street performers.  Surely they were somehow sitting on a metal frame of some kind but it sure did look cool!

Duomo di San Giovanni (Turin Cathedral)

This is the major church of Turin, dedicated to John the Baptist.  Built in the 15th century, it is the only surviving renissance building.  It's major claim to fame is the world renowned Shroud of Turin.  The Holy Shroud is housed in the Turin Cathedral but it's only put on display about every 10 years.  The Shourd is an old linen shroud that has the face of a curcified man on it.  Many believe the face is that of Christ and that this shroud was used to wrap his crucified body in.  The image was not woven into the tapestry but appeared there on its own.   

Inside the cathedral.....

Royal Palace of Turin

This is the palace of the royal House of Savoy.  This grand "house" is one of the oldest in the region.  The main body of the house was originally built in the 16th century.  Every time there was a celebration or a new family member took over the seat of power, they would add on an extension.

Mole Antonelliana 

This is the tallest building in the city.  It was built between 1798 and 1888 as a place of prayer for the Jewish community.  Now it is used as a National Cinema Museum.  It houses restruants, shopping and coffee houses.

The view outside my hotel room window was spectatular.  I could look to the left and see the chruch tower, which would ring twice a day - OR - I could look to the right and see the Swiss Alps.

Then we flew down to Rome and spent a couple days there.  We took Mark & Alli to see the Spanish Steps.  Here we are at the top of the steps looking down.  Notice in the middle of the picture in between the buildings - look at how many people there are.  It's amazing to me just how people there are around, just walking everywhere!

We went to the Trevi Fountain and threw our coin in backwards and made a wish to come back again one day.  I figured that the wish worked last time I was there!  I may as well try it again!

I can't remember what the name of this building was but there were a ton of people from Ukraine there protesting trying to have their country become a part of Euproe rather than a part of Russia.

We went to the Colosseum.

At the base of these ruins you can see a grassy area with some dirt down the middle of it.  This is not far from the Colosseum.  They used to do charriott races here.

I love the streets!
 I love the buildings, their light fixtures, their doors, the plants, the cobble stone streets, all of it!!!

  

The Pantheon
This building is so amazing.  It was built between 27 & 25 BC!  That's 25 to 27 years BEFORE Christ was even born on the earth!  Buildings like this are unreal at me.  I wonder how they even carved the stone and hoisted it up.  It was struck by lightening and caught fire and was rebuilt in 80 AD.

We were walking along one night and saw this man making pizzas in the window.  We just had to get some pictures of him.

We also had to get us some gelato everyday!  This gelato place was just a few blocks away from our hotel.  It was so cute with the mint green VW bus and they also had a mint green Vespa scooter out front during the day.

We loved watching the worker make crepes.

  
It was a great trip and I loved being able to spend it with Mark and Allison.