Day 3 Vatican City

We had our "Scavi Tour" of the Vatican necropolis scheduled for 10 in the morning, so we got to the Vatican plenty early--having only vague directions as to where we were supposed to go to meet our tour. It did involve talking to several Swiss Guards. They wear tights, but they take their job VERY seriously. They were not pleased that we had arrived so early--we were only supposed to be 10 minutes early. So with 20 minutes to kill, and virtually no lines at that time of morning, we went in to gawk at the Basilica.

We had a great view of the Pieta'--something I've never enjoyed before because it was crowded and I'm on the short side.

The "Scavi Tour" took us underneath the Basilica, which had been built on top of a previous Basilica, which had been built over a Roman burial ground. A very popular burial ground, since it was illegal to bury the dead within the city walls. We saw Roman mausoleums and Early Christian tombs. And we were told how St. Peter had been buried in his own mausoleum in this same necropolis after his crucifixion. And it was above his bones that Constantine built the altar of the original basilica. The altar was added to and built upon, and when the current basilica was built, the altar was built above that altar--under the assumption that it was in fact the final resting place of St. Peter. Then in the late 1940s this necropolis was discovered as they were digging to bury a pope that had passed on. Excavations have continued since then, working towards the center of the basilicas foundations. Directly underneath the altar, they found nothing. But a few feet away, behind a red wall, they have uncovered what many believe is truly the frangmented remains of St. Peter's bones.

It was pretty amazing.

After the tour, since we were in Vatican City, we--some of us reluctantly--decided to go to the Vatican Museums to see the Sistene Chapel. What a line! But it's always that way. And we made it through. We made it through the mazes of rooms filled with statues, paintings, tapestries, and TOURISTS. Okay, admittedly. I was getting a bit clausterphobic.

And we listened to Rick Steves audio tour of the Sistene Chapel--which was very informative.

Then we headed back over to the Colosseum, because we were not going to miss out on it again!

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Room @ B&B Diocleziano		€	60
Scavi Tour x3		€	36
Vatican Museum x2		€	30
Lunch		€	10.5
gelato @ Tartufo x2		€	4
dinner @ Lilli's Tavern		€	24
postcards		€	0.8
stamps		€	8.5

Day 2 Rome

On Bill's list of things he HAD to see in Italy were Pompeii, Aqueducts and Pizza. So I found an "Acqueduct Park" while searching on the internet, and we decided to follow the directions I had copied down to get there. It took us outside of the uber-bustling center of Rome. Which was a big relief--even only after one day!

This was the next to last stop on the Metro, and we had enjoyed our time that, while we were riding the Metro back to Rome, we decided to get off at a stop marked "Colline Albiani--Via Appia Antica." We never did see the Via Appia Antica, but we had a very nice pizza lunch.

We took our Rick Steves audio tours with us on the iPod and and enjoyed an audio tour of the Pantheon.

And in the piazza, we stopped for Bill's very first gelato in Italy: lemon, raspberry & mandarin orange. Yum!

We strolled over to the Trevi Fountain.

 After which, we were determined to visit the Colosseum while we had our audio guides with us. But there seemed to be some sort of Metro strike. We got back to the Termini station to switch to the line that would take us to the Colosseum, but the platforms were insanely crowded and the trains were simply whizzing past all of the waiting people. So, we were trying to figure out what to do and ran into another young couple from Ireland having the same frustration. They suggested we split a cab--so we did. And the four of us walked completely around the Colosseum looking for the entrance before realizing that it had closed for the night. But we got some nice shots from the outside.

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Room @ B&B Diocleziano		€	60
lunch special @Casali Gasperini		€	13
gelato @ Nice Ice		€	3.5
dinner@ Forum Pizza		€	25.5
farmacia (shaving stuff)		€	16.7

Day 1 Rome

Let me just say: what a miserable flight! Not that there was anything particularly bad about it, I suppose, it's just so LONG and Bill and I couldn't get any sleep at all. So, we arrived in Rome at 9 in the morning--but to us it was 1 in the morning. We were exhausted and our eyes were stinging. We found our little B&B without a problem. Were they expecting us? Hm..well, they did have a room. Thank goodness!

But we had some time to kill before our room would be ready, also, we knew better than to let ourselves sleep right away. So...Colosseum!

But we hadn't thought to bring the Rick Steves audio tour that we'd dowloaded onto our iPod. Plus it was swarming with tourists and hawkers. So, we kinda wandered around.

We found an awesome lookout above the Roman Forum:

Our wanderings brought us to the Capitoline Museums, and since we hadn't yet used our RomaPass, our admission was free.

But my favorite part of the day--the part that helped me remember why I'd put myself through such a miserable, sleepless flight--was DINNER!

Awwww yeah. Delizioso!

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Room @ B&B Diocleziano		€	60
train FCO>Termini x2		€	30
Roma Pass x2		€	50
dinner @ Babbos x2		€	32

Getting there

It rained all afternoon, all night and all morning as we were getting ready to leave Dallas. Streets were flooded all over the metroplex. I was worried that our plane would be delayed, but as we kept checking on the status, it was still scheduled to depart on time.

But then I worried if we could get TO the airport!

This was my v iew from the passenger seat of the lane next to us!

But we'd left plenty early, and despite detours, were able to board our plane on time.

On Packing

During this planning process, Bill and I have come to love that little British travel guide, Rick Steves. Mr. Steves is a HUGE proponent of the "packing light" school of thought. So, we have decided to give it a try.

We've assembled a laundry kit, including laundry line, suction cups, a sink stopper and some Woolite. And we plan to take with us only 4 days worth of clothing for our two week trip. This, we hope, will allow us to move easily from city to city and to have extra space for any souvenirs we may pick up along the way without going over weight restrictions at the airport. Wish us luck!

Now, we if we could only agree on packing method. I have such a hard time not folding my clothing into a nice square shape and stacking it up, like I do in my dresser drawers. But, apparently, this is the WORST way to pack a suitcase as it is easier for things to come out creased and wrinkled.

So I might be persuaded to try the "rolling" method--which may or may not eliminate some of the wrinkles.

But I think Bill might be leaning towards the "bundle" method--in which you lay everything flat on top of each other and then bundle it all up. Which doesn't sound like a very tidy thing to do at all!

.

..Only 2 more days!!

New Technology

Once upon a time, I didn't own a cell phone and thought nothing at all about leaving the country without one.

But--OMG--we're going to be in a foreign country and won't even have a cell phone!! What if we need to get in touch with someone! What if we get lost! Wha t if we can't decide where to eat and need to Google a restaurant review!

How lame is that? But it's how I feel and so we went to Verizon to see if either of our phones were able to be upgraded to some kind of "global" plan for the duration of our trip. No. Both of our phones operate on a different broadband from those in Europe so, they would be useless there. But! Verizon has a global phone program that will let us borrow a phone for the trip that DOES operate on the same broadband. It will cost us 99 cents/minute and the cost of shipping ($10).

So our temp phone came via FedEx today. Roll your eyes all you want, but I feel much better knowing that I can call for help if we're stranded on the road somewhere in the Italian countryside.

Fillers

With a schedule set, and after finding airfare and a few hotels UNDER budget..I began stalking the TripAdvisor.com travel forums for tips and ideas that would come in handy while we're there.

That led me to our only two scheduled activities:

The "Scavi Tour" at the Vatican, which will take us on a guided tour of the excavated necropolis below St. Peter's Basilica where many believe is the final resting place of St. Peter.

Pizza Class with Ciao Laura, where Bill and I hope to finally learn the secret methods for an authentic Italian crust.

I have a notebook full of other ideas that need no reservations and have no real time constraints, from the Colosseum to Pompeii and from Mt. Etna to the Amalfi Coast--we'll see if we have time to do it all! But we certainly plan to spend some time on the beach and plenty of time sampling the glorious food!