Reaching Through and Spreading Out: 2006-05-14

Lost

On the platform waiting for the first train after learning of the strike...

Trevi Fountain

It is said that if you throw a coin into the Trevi fountain you will surely return to Rome. I hope that's true - most of us threw one in so our chances are at least better than slim and none!

Next was the Spanish steps, which - in and of themselves, weren't very interesting at all. But, it's one of those things you hear about and therefore want to see... What I really wanted to see was next to them, the Keats / Shelly Museum... but we ran out of time so I just took a picture instead...

On our walk we met a man dressed as a gladiator who was kind enough to allow the kids to pose with him...

On to the horse drawn carriage ride I alluded to in last night's post...

Walking

Before we met up with our real tour guide we had Rich... And we saw lots of things... we just don't know what we were looking at...

This was an enromous building which we found out later was a monument this guy built for himself... one of the emporers or something... most of them, as it turns out, thought they were Gods and wanted to deify themselves. So, they built temples in their own honor and commissioned huge buildings to be erected...

Lost

We started out our day, yesterday, as I said - trying to figure out the Metro... this was on the train platform just after we found out about the metro and bus strike!

When we finally got to the central station in Rome we were starving and there was a McDonald's - we hadn't yet on our travels succombed to American food so we gave it a shot! Speaking of shots, John ordered a coffee and this is what he got....

A Post From Noah

I’m in Rome!! There is much to see here like the Spanish steps, the trevi (trevy) fountain, and the Vatican! Isn’t that awesome? Well I’m not much of a writer but I’ll do my best. Hope to see you soon. My favorite part of Rome was the Forum which is some ruins by the Coloseum! I didn’t go in the Coloseum which sort of stinks but the Forum was cooler. See you next time. By the way my name is Noah son of the one who made this blog (laugh out loud).

Breath Taking Rome!

Pictures? Yeah, right! It's 11:30 at night, we just got home from 14 hours of touring, our feet are killing us, we had too many mishaps and adventures to recount before bed and we took 367 pictures in one day!!! I will be HOURS downloading all those pictures... it's incredible.

We basically did Rome in one day because we had to rest last night - John wasn't feeling well and we were all exhausted and travel weary... So this morning we got up and left here around 8:30 this morning... found out the trains and buses were all on strike today - horrible, potentially vacation ruining news for us - on our one day to tour, most of Rome's public transportation was on strike. So, we took the one outer limits city train into town and figured - hey - we can walk a couple of hours, see some things, have lunch, then meet our tour guide at the Vatican by 1:30...

Not only did we get lost and back track a few times, we ran VERY short on time... we had to cover double the distance we'd already covered in a little over and hour and Caroline had worn the wrong shoes and had a blister. The streets are all convoluted and the map was mostly useless... but I must say, Rich did get us to the Trevi Fountain AND the Spanish Steps... But then we were stuck. It was either walk to the Vatican, or cancel our tour because no buses and no metro and no taxis were available... actually, taxis might have been available, but with 12 people we'd have needed three of them... so we ended up bartering for a price and hiring two horse drawn carriages at an exhorbitant price that whisked us through the city to the Vatican with time to spare... Jessica sat up front next to the driver and took pictures... she was in heaven!

Until we got to our destination and she began having a severe allergic reaction to the horse hair that had been flying in her face the whole ride. She was having trouble breathing and I had to get some antihistamines and inhalers in her... I had a little bit of benadryl with me but not enough. Of course the pharmacy was closed for siesta or whatever they call it - lunch - from 1-4 so I couldn't get any more medicine without coming all the way back to our apartment... another carriage ride?? .............we nearly quit the whole thing and had to bring her to a doctor or something, but finally the medicine kicked in so it was fine again...

Once we met up with our tour guide everything was FANTASTIC, but it's late and I can't tell you about that now and I can't post any pictures until probably tomorrow... Tomorrow we leave Rome for the Tuscany house. I don't know yet what our internet status will be... We are out in the middle of nowhere so it could be nothing... I hope to be able to post many many pictures....

We love you all and our blisters are happy blisters...

Gelato

Ate some yummy gelato tonight... Tomorrow we see the city - as much of it as we can handle, anyway.... a group of 12 roaming the streets might be a little overwhelming - I don't know if Rome can handle us, but we'll do our best!

Roma

Roma - Finally - we spent the entire day traveling and finding our apartment and getting settled - and we haven't eaten except for a muffin this morning at 5:30a.m. at Paris airport. It's now nearly 4 and we're absolutely starved...

It's hot here. Much warmer than we anticipated. I am glad we brought shorts and warm skirts... will need sunblock as well I think...

No pictures yet - haven't really seen anything but the train station and the apartment... low on blood sugar... more later!

Louvre

The Louvre...

The ceiling in the Opera House in the theatre part...

By the staircase inside the Opera House

I call this statue at the bottom "The Muse"... I don't know what her real name is... but that's what she reminded me of...

Paris' Opera House

"Phantom of the Opera"

Opera House...

Amazing...

A room of creativity in the Paris Opera house...

More Sacre Couer

In and around Sacre Coeur...

Wandering Sacre Couer

We wandered the streets around Montmartre (Sacre Couer) and got suckered by some of the street vendors and artists - they really are talented... Zach and Noah got silhouettes cut out of paper of their profiles - took the guy less than five minutes each and they were really very good...