Home

Long day, but made it back about 10:30 p.m. CST.  Felt like 5:30 a.m. Rome time.  We had a great trip and enjoyed seeing every bit of it!

I saw this quote on a backpack of a student going through the Forum in Rome and thought it was a good one to end with.

“The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page.”
― Augustine of Hippo

Thanks to all of you who made the journey with us.  

Rome

We made reservations to go to the Bourgesse Gallery. The metro was up and running so we did not
have to walk quite as far today. The gallery was a huge home with pictures on one level and sculptures on another. We walked through the park and near one of the original city walls. When we finished viewing the gallery about 11:00 we went back to the hotel to check out. We had reserved a shuttle to the airport and from that shuttle, took the airport shuttle to our hotel at the airport. Tomorrow we will be flying all day, should make it home about 9:30 p.m. Amarillo time. 

More Rome

Yesterday we used the metro to get around until late evening when it just got so packed that I would rather walk than be smashed like a sardine. Today we got to the station to go to the Colosseum and the trains for "A" line were shut down, due to we have no idea what. So we had to walk a ways to get to the old ruins. Once there we saw this. Amazing that something so old can have such similarities to our present day stadiums. 

Right next door of course was the city and Palentine Hill.

We spent the whole morning in the ruins and then went to the Ghetto where the Jews settled. Not as many tourists there, we went in a lunch deli and couldn't figure out why they wouldn't take our order. Then Bryan saw that you had to take a number and wait till they called you. Well duh, it was easy after that, really good food too. I had a pasta salad and Bryan had a French fry and peppers dish. 

Not to far away is the Pantheon and a church Santa Maria something.  

It was a very long walk back today with the metro still shut down.  

Rome

On the cruise the last day we had breakfast with a couple from Alabama and we were talking about coming to Rome. They gave us the name of a really good guide through the Vatican, so we booked him the next day. We met Rich at a restaurant across the street from the Vatican Musuem. The lines to get in we're huge, but Rich just zoomed us right in the door. It was great having your own personal guide and he was from the states, just moved to Italy to be a guide. He showed us some of the art prior to entering an area on his iPad, and talked about its significants and point in history. So that when you got to the Sistine Chapel for example, you knew how it was arranged and the stories told through the art before you walked in. We both thought it was much smaller than we expected, and quite crowded. You can't take pictures in the chapel, though many rude folks did. St. Peter's was beautiful, the pictures created with the stone tile were magnificent. 

Florence and Rome

Had a wonderful breakfast in our historical hotel. This is a picture of our bed.  We don't have much time today, so we went to the Uffizi Musuem this morning. It was a very large Musuem, lots of people.  We walked from there to the Gardens outside the Pitti Palace. They were very pretty and not so crowded. The pictures below are from the garden looking out on the city, we took a lot of pictures with the good camera, but not the iPad today. We went inside the Pitti Palace and toured the apartments that the Medici family used and then saw a display of jewels from the Damiaci (sp) company, it is their 90 year celebration. They apparently supply jewels to a lot of Hollywood. Sarah might be interested to know that they had several rose gold pieces, see the bracelet below. We caught a little lunch in the piazza and had to pick up our luggage and get to the train station. We took a high speed train to Rome, 1st class, that is the only way to go in Italy. 

This is a 5 carot in the middle, it was gorgeous. 

Vernazza to Florence

This morning we again had a nice breakfast on the patio close to our room. Our waiter was a great guy who had lived in Vernazza all of his life. Funny thing we learned was not to go sit down at a table with a table cloth if you just want a drink, they will immediately take away your table cloth. (Even if it is a bar.) We rented our room from the people that owned this little shop.

There was a wedding today and we just missed the bride walking down to the church, we had to go get on the train. 

The cities we went through today were not as scenic.  We had one train delay in Sarzana.  The mix of people also changed as we moved closer to the city, let's just say that the aroma was not the best. 

We arrived in Florence at 3:30 and walked to our hotel, only about 20 minutes. We wanted to get started with the museums as soon as we arrived because we just have one night here. So we found the tourist center just a couple of blocks from our hotel bought the Frienze card so that we could quickly get into the museums without waiting in line. 

We then headed to the Accademia to see the David. There was a big line and we just walked right in, no wait at all. Bryan and I both thought he was much larger than we expected, especially his hands. 

After that museum we walked to the Duomo, it is just huge. We just missed the English mass. We will have to go inside tomorrow. It is the third longest naive in the world. 

From there is the start of the renaissance walk, as we made our way to the Piazza della Signora. There was a orchestra warming up to play from Spain, so we decided it was time to eat and found a table at a little restaurant next to the Piazza. We ate and stayed for most of the concert. 

Across from the Piazza is the Palazzo Vecceio, it mainly was built for the Medici family and is now a town hall and museum. These are pictures from the families rooms. There is a 13,000 sq.ft. great hall where they were setting up chairs and flowers and I asked the docent if it was for a big wedding. She said, "No, it is for the G8 conference on Tuesday."  Guess the museum will be closed for that one. 

From one of the balconies.