Our Fantastic Trip, Part Four: Rome

Oh Rome, where do I begin? I'm glad I threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain because I will definitely have to go back.

Well, let's just start at the beginning.

Aldo picked us up and was our tour guide this day. I really liked Aldo. He was so sincere about his love for Rome and wanting us to be able to see as much as possible. He also took us to the place where I had the best pizza of our whole trip, so he gets extra points for that.


When we first drove into the city I was amazed by the old walls (some parts are rebuilt) surrounding the ancient parts of the city. This was our introduction to all the fascinating things that we were about to see.

Our first stop was this view of the Colosseum. It is in amazingly good shape, though parts of it have had to be rebuilt also.

We didn't pay the 14 euros each to go in, but I was fascinated by what you could see underground when we peeked in (we went as far as we could through the "out" gate). The old floor is gone now, so you have a great view of all the animal (and probably human) cages and passageways.

Here is the Arch of Constantine, which is right next to the Colosseum.

On the hill behind Hal in this next photo is the original Caesar's Palace. This picture doesn't do it justice at all. It is huge. For some reason when we were planning this trip and I was thinking of places to see in Rome, I didn't even think of Caesar's Palace so it was a fun surprise to get to see it too. I was also surprised because the Circus Maximus, where all the chariot races were run, was right here. The track goes around the grassy area you can see in the picture. I thought it would be more developed here even though they did have bleachers that were later taken out.

Here is a view of the Forum. Hal and I are just sick that we didn't insist on taking time to actually walk around in it instead of just taking pictures from above.

Here is Sophia Loren's apartment building. She owns the penthouse and the outdoor space. Hal keeps saying that we spent more time looking at it than anything else that day. (It was near the area where the good bathroom was so that's why we were there in the first place.)

Here is the back side of the rotunda of the Pantheon.

Now here's the front with the portico.

I really enjoyed it here. I believe it is the oldest church that has been in continual use since being built. (I'll have to double check that.) Actually the present building was re-built by Hadrian around 120 a.d.

I was trying to attempt an artistic shot here. I was getting annoyed by all the "gladiators" and other characters who wanted 5 euros to have a photo taken with them so I was trying to pick one up by his hat.

Isn't the inside beautiful?

The painter Raphael was entombed inside here.

For all you Angels and Demons fans, here is a shot of the oculus, which is also the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. It is the only source of light for the building and when it rains, they just let it pour into the building. The water drains through holes in the floor, which I wish I'd known enough about it to look for them while I was there.

Here we are next at the Trevi Fountain, tossing in our coins. According to Aldo, if you throw in one coin, you will return to Rome someday. Three coins will get you a wish. We were cheap and threw in one coin each. I'm too embarrassed to tell you which coin it was. (I figured if I were to make a wish it would be to return to Rome anyway so one coin was enough.)

I had to make Hal re-enact his throw because I wasn't quick enough with the camera.

Next we headed to the Piazza Navona, which is the home of Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers. (Again, an Angels and Demons site. We weren't trying to hit them all, they just happen to be a lot of the most famous places in Rome.) Here's the fountain with the Egyptian obelisk:

Here's a long shot of the whole piazza. I was really glad we weren't there in the middle of summer when everything would have been 100 times more crowded. Late fall was a perfect time to go. Not as many people and the weather was still nice, too.

Next, on to the Vatican. Initially, I wasn't as interested in this, though I did kind of want to see the Sistene Chapel. I am so glad we went. I really loved all the things we saw as we rushed through all the corridors in the Vatican museums to get to the Sistene Chapel.

Here we took a brief stop in the courtyard. We've debated back and forth as to if the statue of a head to the right of Hal's shoulder is an important one, or just a generic head. Please let us know if you know anything about this.

A lot of the photos I took in the Vatican museums turned out suspiciously blurry. I'm not sure if I accidentally put the camera on a strange setting or if there was some kind of divine intervention.

No photos could be taken in the Sistene Chapel itself, but to give you an idea of the coloring, it is approximately the same idea as the main colors used here, mostly the blues around the edges:

In the Sistene Chapel you were supposed to be quiet, but every once in a while a guard would have to yell "Silence!", kind of breaking the mood of the place. Also, the ceiling was a lot taller that Hal and I expected it to be; it was a tall and long, skinny room. There was something else off about the room and it wasn't until later that I figured out that it was because there were no pews in it. It was all big and open, I'm sure to fit all the people in because it was packed, even when we were there. So to me, it really didn't look like a chapel, just a big open room.

Next we went to St. Peter's Square. The building on the right is where the Pope's apartments are and Aldo pointed out the window where he gives his addresses from. Also, the building on the left is where the white smoke comes from when a new Pope is elected.

Our last stop was this statue. For the life of me, I can't remember what it is of. I'll have to find out from Hal and correct this later. It's getting late and I want to get this posted tonight. If anyone else knows, let me know!

It's pretty though, isn't it? The trees to the side of the statue are Umbrella trees and are Italy's national tree. I can't remember what they are called in Italian. (Edited: The statue is of Garibaldi, commemmorating his battle in defense of the Roman Republic - I believe it was against the French - in around 1849 I think. I'll double check this and fix in a day or two when I get a minute.)

By the end of the tour, Aldo seemed like one of the family.

I had to restrain myself from singing any Aldo Nova songs under my breath all day. I didn't think anyone else but Hal would get it, and even that's questionable. (I kept thinking "Life is just a fantasy. Can you live this fantasy life?" and "It's too late, I've walked out the door. It's too late to tell me you're sorry.....Oh you liar, liar, liar." or my personal favorite, "So long, well it's sad to say but you're only foolin' yourself. So long, I'm glad you're happy that way but you're only foolin' yourself." Yes, I had that tape in jr. high.)

Here is our last view of Rome before it was time to stuff ourselves back into the van and head back to the ship.

Next stop: Pisa and Florence

Our Fantastic Trip, Part Three: Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast

This was a great day. We docked in Naples, but didn't really spend any time there. Alberto was our tour guide and driver for the day and he was pretty smooth. He told us if we didn't remember his name, we could just call him "James Bond". Later we found out he was also "the King of Sorrento". He was pretty fun and charming, even though some of his information was a bit questionable.

I was really looking forward to visiting Pompeii because I had been fascinated with it ever since Morgan was little and we read a book about it. I didn't know what to expect so it was really interesting.

This is what it looked like entering the city, because it actually is a whole city. We only saw a small part of it in the two hours we were there.

One of the first places we went to was the basilica, in this case meaning the center of the court system. It was in surprisingly good shape.

Next up was Diana's temple, where I swiped a rock (okay, two) for Ally's collection. She was Artemis (or Diana) for Halloween.

This is the forum, where they would have the markets and it was also sort of a social center. The whole square used to be paved with the white marble squares you see here.

We entered the arch of the forum into the streets of Pompeii. This is what most of the streets looked like. Each little place would be either a house or a business.

The wide path in the middle is where animals and chariots would go down the street. People would walk on the sides. The big stones you see (look toward the back of the road, you can click on this photo to enlarge it) sticking up every once in a while in the street are for the people to walk on to cross the street so they wouldn't get their sandals wet. Water and sewage would regularly flow down the middle of the streets. Also, every once in a while, they would have little white rocks embedded into the pathways that would glow in the dark to light up the path.

This was Crassius's house. He's the guy in history who used to charge people a lot of money to put out fires for them. He always demanded payment up front. That's where the term "crass" originated. It was the nicest house in Pompeii, so he must have put out a lot of fires. (Note: I just went online to check my facts here and couldn't find anything to back up what I just wrote, so it may or may not be true.) There were four dining rooms in this house, one for each season, with nice mosaics on the floors.

We also visited a brothel, but I guess I didn't think it was worth taking any photos. (Actually, maybe they weren't allowed.)

This is our group with our tour guide for Pompeii, Joseph Giuseppe (I don't know his last name) - the one in the hat. We just called him Giuseppe. He was quite the character. He told us he was a Sicilian, which I took to mean that there is a big difference between a Sicilian and a regular Italian.

After Pompeii, Alberto, or "James Bond", drove us to an overlook that I think was supposed to be a scenic view. It must have been a little foggy because I don't think we saw much of anything.

Next we drove up and down a very crazy little road that was full of switchbacks. I actually got feeling pretty carsick, which rarely happens, by the time we got to Positano. Here is the view we got to see just before we headed down. Not bad, huh?

Here is a closer view of some of the residences.

Positano is the city where the movie Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed.

We took a little walk down some of the little winding streets where they had some shops.

Next, to my dismay - since I was still feeling a little green around the gills, Alberto drove us back along the same little winding road to get to Sorrento, which is another charming little town. Sorrento is famous for its lemons and also a drink called limoncello. Unfortunately, Hal and I couldn't sample the limoncello because it is alcoholic, so I had to be content with buying a lemon flavored candy bar at the liquor store.

Here is a shot Hal took of Sorrento.

Just getting ready to board the ferry back to our cruise ship.

Now it was time to say goodbye to Alberto, whom we had grown quite fond of. He kissed all the ladies on both cheeks, probably hoping for a bigger tip.

I had less fond feelings of him once we figured out he told us to sit on the wrong side of the ferry. He told us, in fact he really emphasized, that the best view is on the left, where we could see the island of Capri (which we never did see). Not so, the best view all the way home was on the right side of the ferry, where you could enjoy the whole Amalfi coast. I think he was in cahoots with the ferry operator, so they would have enough people on each side to balance out the ferry. Oh well.

Even that couldn't dampen my spirits because the next day we got to go to Rome!

Our Fantastic Trip, Part Two: Malta

Monday was a day at sea, but we were able to meet the people we were going to be touring Italy with.

I was so relieved and pleasantly surprised by how much I really liked all of them. (You never know what you're going to get when you sign up for things with people you've only corresponded with through the Internet.)

First we met Jim and Sabrina, the couple we had originally made the arrangements with. They are engaged and from West Palm Beach, Florida and Canada, respectively. They were great and I immediately knew we would get along well. I enjoyed talking to Sabrina, as she was a retired school teacher (though she doesn't look old enough to be retired) and was very interesting. Hal and Jim seemed to hit it off too, which was nice. Jim had a quick wit, which we happen to appreciate.

Next came Vicki and David. They were also celebrating their 20th anniversary so it was fun to travel with them. They were a very fun couple too, and Vicki reminded me a lot of my mom's next door neighbor and also one of my favorite aunts, so I felt like I already knew and liked her. David was very entertaining and funny too, I got a kick out of him.

Here we are in Jim and Sabrina's (sweet) suite.

(Sabrina, David, Vicki and Jim. More on our travels together later.)

Malta:

The view as we pulled into Malta was truly breathtaking. Probably the most spectacular sight we saw on our whole trip. There was scenery like this to the right and left of us (and at one point in front of us too, so we were literally surrounded by this beautiful sight). I'm glad we went up to the front of the ship so we were able to experience it.

One thing that surprised me was how all the buildings were all the same color, not like what you usually picture when you think of Mediterranean coastal views, which added to the unique feel and look of Malta.

Valletta, the city where we were docked, was built in the 1500s, though much of Malta is much older. At that time it was ruled by the Knights of Malta and many of the steps were only about two inches high to accommodate the knights in their armor. Check out the steps in these two photos.

Another thing that fascinated me was all the really old, original (at least they looked original) doors everywhere. I'm not sure if you can see it well here, but the second photo might have the best examples.

Most of the city center was built up on cliffs like this.

This next shot is the view from up in the old garden area where the knights used to exercise.

I also loved all the old cobblestones that were everywhere we went throughout most of our whole trip.

Next stop: Pompeii and Amalfi Coast, Italy

Our Fantastic Trip, Part One: Barcelona

Hal and I went on a most excellent adventure. It's what I like to call the "we put up with each other for 20 years, so we both deserve something pretty spectacular" trip.

I have to say, it was probably the best vacation I've ever been on, despite the fact that I felt lousy more than half of the time.


After avoiding the swine flu for weeks, I was feeling pretty proud of myself until a woman sneezed directly on me at the airport. Sure enough, I started getting symptoms of a nasty cold a few days later. That, paired with jet lag was a pretty tough combination to deal with.


We flew into Barcelona the first day and got to go on a little mini-tour. Caesar was our guide and he was a pretty handsome Spaniard.

Here is the view from the top of the hill where they held most of the Olympic events in Barcelona in 1992.

This is the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain.

We saw lots of Gaudi's work in Barcelona. This is Gaudi's famous La Sagrada Familia, which is still unfinished and under construction.

One thing that struck me throughout this trip is that every single city had its own look. I took a lot of scenery pictures so it was fun to compare.

Here is Barcelona.

After the tour we went over to the dock to board our cruise ship.

Next up: Malta.