Italia! (part 3)

Saturday we took a day trip to Rome! We had three must sees: the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, and..... the Gucci store. Normally, this would be very out of character for me - designer labels do about as much for me as Ozzy Osborne... ::vom::

But A actually helped design the retail stores for Gucci! So she was actually able to show me what she worked on. So off we went, first stop, the Coliseum!

The weather was absolutely beautiful - hardly a cloud in the sky! The sun was so bright that some of the pictures look white in the background. Of course, you can't see the Coliseum without seeing the Arch of Constantine:

I got some great shots of the Coliseum, some that actually show the blue sky too ;-) I hope to print a bunch and frame them.

See, the sky we saw was blue, but my camera just couldn;'t handle the brightness, so you see white hahaha

Then it was off to the Trevi. Did I mention that it was a holiday weekend in Italy (labor day)? And I had perfect sunny weather in the 70s the whole trip? Ya Rome was a friggin mob scene. I think the Trevi was the worst.. look at all those people!

I managed to stand on a bench to get a shot without people in it. At least we were there at the perfect time of day that the sun was behind us (shining on the fountain). Otherwise it would have all been in shadow.

Around the corner from the fountain is this guy. Both A and I forget what it is!! Not only have we both seen it before, but we were taught about it in college! How sad lol.. All I remember is that if you look close the carvings around it are of people marching up to the top. I wonder who it is at the top they were marching to?

Then it was off to the Gucci store. Totally NMS, all gold and gaudy and blegh. But, the design was beautiful! This is the only pic I managed to take before we got yelled at for taking pictures! Hahaha. But A helped work on the designs for this staircase! So cool..
The Gucci store was on the street leading to the Spanish steps, so of course we went and took pics of those too. Not that you can ever see them, covered with people all day long :-P
I lied, we had one other goal for the day - find the Hard Rock Cafe. I mentioned to A that I have been to one everywhere I have been pretty much, so she suggested we go. I told her, 'no big deal, I have been already.' She insisted though, because she got AMERICAN FOOD. Hahahaha.. she is so ready to move home. She got a burger and said it was one of the best things she has tasted in a long time. I have to admit, as much as I loooooove Italian food, I would miss things like grilling burgers and dogs. The little things we take for granted! Here is a pic of us at the Hard Rock:

After that we walked around a bit more, but out of nowhere, clouds rolled in and it POURED for an hour sraight! You saw the pics, you saw how gorgeous it was, where the hell did that come from? It was so bizarre. So we ducked into stores for the next hour, because of course this was the one day we didn't have an umbrella on us! After that we headed back to Florence.