Our trip to Italy

Well we made it! We’re sitting in the plane, as apparently someone has nabbed our gate. It was an uneventful, easy morning – caught the train to the airport (not before 2 pastries and cappuchinos at the station!)

The train takes you right into the airport though finding where to even check in was an adventure! For international flights, you do 3 security checks, then get on a bus to go to the actual terminal. Our flight was delayed a bit – as were all the flights this am due to headwinds – but we made it on and were off and running by 11am Rome time.

And now here we are! We both miss it terribly already, and we’re plotting how to get back!

Another hour or so home, then dogs to pick up and a holiday to celebrate!

We’ll post a wrap up gallery of the last photos – and our favorites of the whole trip- later this weekend.

Much love to you all.

Ciao ~ k &b

Its really hard to believe that its been 12 days, and we’re laying in our hotel room, packed and setting an alarm for sooo early tomorrow am.

Buying tickets to get to the airport via train was super easy, and we had a lovely dinner at a sweet pizza place (complete with wine from south italy and cappuchinos all around) to cap the day off.

Before we forget about all we did today, we’ve got to write it down.

After a lovely buffet breakfast at our hotel, we started off toward the Colosseo – which is on the south end of the city. About a mile from our hotel, the walk went quickly and we took in rush hour around Rome. Its amazing to see guys and ladies in work clothes zipping through traffic on their way to work on their mopeds – Vepas, etc. Fantastic. On our route, you turn a corner and down a long street you can see the facade of the colleseo from the north side – GINORMOUS, even from so far away. Throngs of people all over the place – seemingly out of nowhere – the colleseo sits among a bunch of other incredible relics – all from 2000 years ago (the Colosseo was built in 80 AD). The famous Arch – Arco d’Constantino (yes, that emperor), the Palatino, the Forum, and the Colosseo all sit on the same plot of land. We opted to brave the site ourselves – there are TONS of tour guides waiting to take you through – and with the help of Rick Steve’s Tours on our iPhone (check him out at RickSteves.com, totally cool and fantastically helpful for any city!!!) We stood in line for about 30 minutes, and listened to what we would be looking at. Really incredible. As you have seen in the movies, the Roman’s were an interesting bunch – and kept people and animals below the structure (which seated 50,000 people) for the “fun” of the day. The floor of the amphitheatre is now open to the cells and rooms beneath, but they used to put down boards and 9 inches of sand for the games. We walked through the second and first levels and shot a bunch of pictures. An amazing place, and a feat of architecture. Neither of us has ever been in a building that is 2000 years old!

From there, we rested for a bit and decided to walk around the Palatino – ruins of the original roman city to get a look at some of the archeological sites they have there. We walked all the way around the site – and saw buildings that are older than the colleseo. From there, we agreed that we’d head to the Vatican, and hit the Pantheon on the way back to the hotel. It would make for a long day – but you are only in Rome a few times in your life if you are lucky.

To get to the vatican, we had to walk through wonderful streets, and by some amazing monuments – first, through the Piazza Campidoglio, then to see the great Monumento a Vittorio Emmanuele. He was the first king of Italy, and the building they built in his honor is amazing. gold statues, marble gods, and chariots with four horses each adorn the tops of the piazza. Stunning!

From there, we walked through Piazza Navonna and had a lovely lunch (pizza and cappuchino of course!) while watching the square. filled with cafes, resturants and artists selling original work (these are everywhere in Italy it seems!), it was a great place to people watch. We left the piazza and headed toward the river. We crossed over on Ponte Umberto, which leads up to the pallazzo giustizia – a gorgeous state building. From the bridge, you can see St. Peter’s Basillica already. We walked past Castel Sant’Angelo – a huge fortified structure that does really look like a castle. Then to the Vatican itself.

The square is huge, and filled with 240 columns on either side – hard to believe it is its own country! B really enjoyed it – as did I – so much history there! Both the new and the old Basillica were built on Peter’s burial site – thats the same Peter that was Jesus’ disciple, over 2000 years ago! We hung around the fountains, took a bunch of pictures, listened to another Rick Steve’s episode about the Vatican’s history, and headed out of the square to find some gelato.

From there, onto the Pantheon. When we got there, we had a lovely little cappuchino stop, and then into the building. Rapheal is buried there – as was his wish – and the building is stunning. a tribute to all religions, we could have sat and looked at the dome all day. This dome was the inspiration for the Duomo in Florence, which was the inspiration for the Renessaince art movement, so you could say, it all started here. The only church in all of christendom (and Rome) that has been a working church for all 1400 years of its existence.

We wanted to run to the train station to get our tickets for tomorrow am, but we were caught in the most incredible storm – hail and all! Seems to be an afternoon occurance here in rome. We finally made it home, happy and soaked through about 7 hours after we started. what a day!!

Now, we’re packed and prepped for tomorrow’s flight home. Looking forward to seeing our pups, pony and the cat, but so sad to leave here. What an incredible place, and what a gift it is to be here together.

We’ll try and post again tomorrow before we take off.

much love to you all. k & b

What a day.

This is a quick post – we’re on our way to dinner and the train station to buy tickets to the airport (for our early morning trip to FCO) – but wanted to send a quick update.

Today proved that B & I make great tourists together – over the last 7 hours, we walked down to the colleseum, around the Palatino and the Forum, through the Piazza Navona, past the Castel Saint Angelo and to the Vatican. On the way home, we walked through the Pantheon and back past the Opera house. We must have walked at least five miles. We told the cafe owner (we stopped for cappuchinos before the Pantheon) what we’d done, and he responded “on feet?!” Of course, the afternoon wouldn’t be complete without a tremendous thunderstorm. This time we got caught in it – hail even! Amazing. we laughed about it as we stuck ourselves in a little overhang  – “hey, remember that time we got caught in the hail in Rome?”

alright, off for a shower, dinner, tickets and some cappuchino of course.

buena sera ~ k & b

After a lovely two hour train ride in a Eurostar bullet train, we made it to Rome. Amazing how many Americans there were taking the train! So many backpackers, and lots were post-college age. The train was really fantastic – in Europe they sell two seats accross from one another in a set of four, unless you specify to be together. Of course, we didn’t know to do that, so we sat with two italian ladies. We made it into Rome on time, and we were thrilled to discover that our hotel was only about 8 blocks from the train station. Perfecto!

The hotel is great. Very European. The room is small, but perfect for us. We both saw the TV and laughed – we haven’t watched TV in ten days, and neither of us want to! We cleaned up a bit and headed out for the afternoon. As it turns out, everything is much closer than expected. We made it to Trevi Fountain (unbelievable!!), the Spanish Steps, La Piazza delle Republicca, La Villa Medici (the very wealth family from Florence), La Piazza Quirnale and Santa Maria degli Angeli. Although it was a healthy walk, B’s map skills were fantastic, and he guided us the whole way. We stopped for great pizza for lunch just by Trevi Fountain (sold by the Kilo, what a great idea!!!) and had a bit of gelato to accompany us for part of the walk. We’ve both decided that mint chocolate chip is the absolute best flavor. We took some great shots – K still has to download about 300 from the last days in Tavernelle, and today – but we’ll upload some from our little

camera tonight to the photo blog, and put a few here too.

The most incredible thunderstorm blew in as we finished our four hour tour of the city – we tucked ourselves into Piazza della Repubblica and waited for it to pass. Almost 30 minutes of the most incredible rain! There are some really smart street vendors here – they show up out of nowhere selling umbrellas by the fist full! We came back and rested up for a bit (both of us are reading great books right now) and then headed out for a little celebratory dinner. As silly as it sounds, we celebrated our vacation, our engagement, and our wonderful time here in Italy at a little resturant down the street. Yummy cappuchinos finished off the meal, and we’re back now for an early night to read for a few hours before bed.

We miss Tuscany already – the sun, the people, the wine, the air – but Rome is really incredible. Much more open then florence – the streets are wider, everything is grander – but a special city in its own right. There is something humbling about knowing that the pope has resided here for centuries. Although we both love little towns like Assisi, there is something magical about Rome. It helps that both of us have heard enough italian (and our respective second languages are coming back to us as well) that we can get around, ask directions, order stuff without feeling too American.

Tomorrow, we’ll head about ten blocks south and visit the Colosseo, as well as the many beautiful buildings around it. That will take most of the day, but we plan on being a little lazy about it.

Hard to believe we’re almost home.

Arrivederci ~ K & B

We’ve taken the last few days to rest, and read and get lovely tans. There hasn’t been too much to write about. The weather has gotten really lovely – in the 80′s, sunny and perfect for poolside reading. We’ve gone on a bunch of long walks – yesterday, we walked almost all the way to town and back – about 3 miles. Lots of fresh food for lunch and dinner, and we’ve been spoiled by the pastry shop for breakfast every morning. K says she’s not going back to regular coffee – its cappuchinos from here! Yesterday, we drove into town, and K survived driving a stickshift in Italy! we did a few errands and took a nice tour of Tavernelle. Last night we had a lovely dinner with Aldo and Laura at a local pizza shop, then back to their house for gelato and noce (which we figured out is walnut!). It was a wonderful evening. Laura invited us to stay in their house in Milan when we come back! The center of design – we certainly have to go.

Now its early and we’re almost packed for Rome. Our train leaves Florence at 11, 2 hours into the city and then the hotel is just a few blocks away. We dont have any plans yet as to what we’d like to see between now and Friday morning (our flight leaves Rome at 10am), but we’ll figure it out when we get there. As we only have two days there, we may not see it all! Plenty of pictures to come. We’re looking forward to spending a few days just the two of us.

Sad to leave Tuscany – beautiful countryside, and lovely people – but excited to visit Rome and enjoy each other’s company on this new adventure.

arrivederci!

K & B