Finishing the path.

May 22nd--We were a little slow moving today especially since we didn't have anything pressing on the agenda. After being in Rome for almost 3 weeks, we've really been able to see most of the sites. Today, we decided to go see the last 2 sites along the "Path of the Illuminati" that were seen in the movie "Angels and Demons". We headed toward Castel Sant'Angelo, but had to stop for lunch along the way. We just stopped at the first restaurant we passed that had outdoor seating. We are going to learn not to eat at a restaurant that has their waitstaff trying to hustle you on the streets. Also, we are going to ask how much drinks are before ordering them from now. You would think we'd learned that from our orange/lemonade drinks in Capri, but apparently not. Austin got a Sprite and Abby got a Fanta orange...when the bill came, we were floored at how much they charged for them. One soft drink alone was 7.00 Euros. That is a total rip off so from now on if the price isn't listed on the menu then we will ask before ordering. Anyway, we could have let the drink situation ruin our day, but decided to just blow it off and head to Castel Sant'Angelo. The Castel Sant'Angelo was originally a mausoleum for Roman emperors and later a castle and place of last refuge for popes. After walking around Castel Sant'Angelo, we caught the bus to go to Santa Maria della Vittoria Church. We had to stop for a gelato break on our short walk to the church though. The weather is beginning to get hot over here so breaks are becoming a lot more important in the middle of the afternoon. Santa Maria della Vittoria Church houses Bernini's statue, the swooning St. Teresa in Ecstasy. The statue shows that Teresa has just been stabbed with God's arrow of fire. In the movie, this is the church where the Cardinal was burned to death. After a brief visit in the church, we headed back toward the Termini train station to catch the metro back to the apartment. On the way though, we had some errands to run. I know that probably sounds crazy to those that think we are vacationing, but there is still real life stuff to take care of. We went by the post office to get a box so that we could ship the remaining Winter stuff that we were still lugging around with us. Then, I had to find some summer pajamas. I did not plan ahead when packing so it's a good thing for stores in Europe. Plus, like I already mentioned, it is getting pretty hot over here and our apartment doesn't have air conditioner so it gets a little hot at night. We then stopped by the grocery store on our way back to the apartment. All in all, a good, slow day in Rome.

Sorrento and Capri

May 18th--We got up and moving this morning in order to catch the 9:40 train to Naples. Our plan was to stop in Naples for lunch and some shopping before heading to Sorrento. We arrived in Naples around 11:15, checked our bag at the station, found an information booth to get a map, and headed out walking to find some lunch. The map was not very good. It did not have all the street names on it and we spent most of our time in Naples wandering in the trash and traffic. The streets were covered with trash and we soon found out why. There were no trash cans to be found. This is where the long garbage strike occurred and we don't know if this is a result or not. The traffic was going every which way on the streets. When we went to cross the street, we felt like we were playing a game of frogger. Although my favorite ATARI game, I still don't like the thought of actually being inside the game. We quickly nicknamed Naples, Nasty Naples. Anyway, we found the pizzeria we were looking for and sat down to eat. We decided on pizza since Naples is the birthplace of pizza. We ate our lunch and then went looking for Via San Gregorio Armeno. This street was the main reason for our visit to Naples. Mike had found it on the Internet as the Christmas street lined with nativity scene workshops. I was hoping to find a Santa Claus made in Italy, but no such luck. By this time, we had had enough of Naples so we walked pretty quickly back to the train station to pick up our luggage. We then got in a taxi to take us to the port. There are two ways to get to Sorrento: by train or by boat. The kids really wanted to take a boat plus it's a shorter trip to Sorrento. So, we boarded the boat at 3:00. Naples was basically a been there, done there, got a postcard kind of place....now off to Sorrento. The boat ride to Sorrento was pretty uneventful. Upon arriving in Sorrento, we had to purchase bus tickets at the tobacco shop and board the orange bus. Well, the first orange bus was completely packed full. So, we had to wait on the next one. The next one ended up being crammed full, but only after we were on it. We took a short, windy road up to the main plaza where we had to change buses heading for our hotel on Via Capo. Luckily, the bus dropped us off right at our hotel, Settimo Cielo. The hotel is set high on the cliff above the ocean. You enter off the road and go down the elevator to the lobby and rooms. Our room was set into the side of the cliff with a great balcony. It was about 4:30 by the time we entered our room and the kids wanted to go swimming. So, we all went to the pool. Abby was the only one that actually got in the water for the temperature was about 70 degrees. We hung out by the pool before heading to dinner. We went to a restaurant about 100 yards from our hotel and sat outside on their outdoor patio overlooking the water. It was wonderful scenery and food. I ordered the "catch of the day". Well, little did I know that the whole entire fish (head and all) was going to arrive at the table. Luckily, the waiter filleted it for me before putting it in front of me. Despite my original thoughts, the fresh fish was really good. We also enjoyed a wonderful lemon cake since Sorrento is known for it's lemon trees. After dinner, we strolled back to our hotel. The kids went to bed and Mike and I enjoyed some wine sitting out on our balcony.

May 19th--We woke up this morning to the beautiful sun shining onto our balcony and the kids saying "we want breakfast". Luckily, we got breakfast with the hotel. After breakfast, we all got ready and walked down to the main plaza in Sorrento. On our way to the plaza though, we dashed into a lot of lemon shops to get some free samples. We sampled: lemon chocolate, lemon chocolate covered almonds, and lemon cream. They were all very good. I'm quickly falling in love with anything lemon. We walked down to the lemon grove garden. It was not at all what I had pictured. I expected this beautifully manicured park with lovely lemon trees growing on it. Not at all what we saw...it was just a small area with lemon trees on it. The grounds had weeds all over it. It must strictly be for producing lemons, but we did see several lemon/orange trees combined. That was pretty cool. After exiting the garden, we walked across the street to eat lunch at a pizzeria. We then picked up some drinks and snacks from the local grocery store and took the bus back to our hotel. At this point, we had waited long enough to go swimming. So, off to the pool we went. This time, Mike and I both got in the water, but only for a short minute. It had not warmed up from the day before. The kids loved the pool and it was still relaxing just being by a pool that overlooked the ocean. Amazing scenery! After the pool, we decided to head down to the marina area for dinner. In order to get down there from our hotel, we had to take the path through the local campgrounds and then stairs down to the street and then walk the street down to the marina area. Going down was nothing like going up. After enjoying another wonderful seafood meal, on the water, we had to go back up the way we came down. The big difference this time was we were doing it in the dark. We climbed the steep stairs back up the campground in the dark. It was dark with no lights and lots of trees and brush around that made it sorta spooky. We questioned our logic on the climb but we made it back to our hotel room just fine.

May 20th--Today, we decided to take a ferry over to the island of Capri. We walked from our hotel all the way down to the port area in order to get on the boat. We boarded our boat at 10:45 for the short 20 minute ride to Capri. Upon arriving in Capri, we let the kids play on the beach for a little bit before eating lunch right on the marina area. When we went to order our drinks for lunch, the waiter said "we have lemonade". Well, I have already mentioned how we are trying out everything lemon in this area. So, we all decided to get the lemonade, but the waiter proceeds to tell us that it's a little sour and suggested that we add orange juice to it as well. We thought, okay that sounds pretty good. Well, when we all took our first sips of this drink, our faces puckered up. The drink was so sour and was still very sour even after adding some sugar to it. We got our bill for the lunch and one drink alone was 6.50 Euros. The 4 drinks totaled more than the cost of our food. We were floored...the drinks were not that good and we had totally just been suckered. Oh well! We will stick with our waters and soft drinks next time. After getting over the shock of the drinks, we bought our tickets to get on the boat to take us to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is a grotto from the ancient Roman times and one of the main reasons for our day trip to Capri. We had to wait about 30 minutes before enough people had arrived to fill up a boat. Once there were enough people, we boarded the boat and took it partially around the island. The scenery was beautiful and the boat ride was about 20 minutes to arrive at the Blue Grotto area. We pulled up to this area and I thought "what in the world are we doing?". There were several big boats unloading people into 8 foot dinghies. A dinghy pulled up along our boat and told us to get in. Mike got in first, then me, then Abby and then Austin. We all piled into the back, sitting on the floor of the row boat. One single American lady joined us in the front while the guy was in the middle rowing. He rowed us up to a big boat where we paid for our dinghy ride and our entry into the Blue Grotto. The next thing we knew we were entering the tiny hole in the side of the cliff and the rower pulled fast and hard on a cable to squeeze us into the grotto. Upon entering though, we immediately saw the beautiful blue in the water from the sun reflecting on the limestone bottom and our rower began singing "O Sole Mio" while rowing us around for a couple of minutes. I'm pretty sure the kids were in shock from the minute we entered the Blue Grotto until we got back into sunlight. It was definitely something you don't experience every day. After exiting, we pulled back up to the boat and got back on for our 20 minute ride back to the marina. When we arrived back at the marina, we had a little time to kill before catching our ferry back to Sorrento so we got gelato and hung out on the beach. Once we arrived back at Sorrento, we made it back to the hotel in time to swim for a little while before heading to dinner. We decided to go up the hill from our hotel to a restaurant about 300 yards away only to find out that this particular restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. Yep, it was Wednesday. We tried to catch the bus back down to the plaza only to watch it drive right past us because we were at the wrong bus stop. So, we walked all the way down to the plaza to eat at a wonderful restaurant with outside seating under lemon and orange trees. By the time we finished up dinner, it was late and the kids were tired. We went to catch the bus back to our hotel only to realize that the main square was closed off at night to traffic and the bus wouldn't stop at this particular stop. A cop directed us up the street to where we could catch the bus. Well, we were having a hard time finding this particular bus stop in the dark and I saw a Line A bus coming so we hopped on it only to quickly realize it was heading the wrong way from our hotel. The bus driver ended up dropping us off way on the other side of town. We crossed the street and stood at the right bus stop for over 30 minutes. By this time, Austin had fallen asleep in my arms and Abby was on her way to meltdown. We decided to just walk back to the main plaza where we originally started all of this and caught a taxi back to the hotel. There have been several time where our money has been well spent and this is definitely one of them. Everyone was tired and ready for bed!

May 21st--We woke up this morning and packed up to head back to Rome. We took the bus to the train station in Sorrento and caught the 10:30 train back to Naples. This train took a long time because it stopped every few minutes, but we arrived in Naples about 11:45. We grabbed lunch and quickly boarded our train back to Rome. Unfortunately, when purchasing our tickets, we picked one of the slower trains back to Rome, but it turned out fine because it was either sit on a train or sit in the Naples train station. We would rather sit on a train. The train ride was uneventful. We arrived back in Rome about 2:30, took the metro back to our apartment and just chilled the rest of the day.

MeMom leaves Rome

May 18th--MeMom left Rome today for her 12 day cruise. We left the apartment at 11:00 to help her and Gilda get to the train station. We figured that if we could get them on the train to the port, surely they could make it onto the boat by themselves! We put them on the train and waved goodbye at about 12:15 as the train pulled away heading for the port. We haven't seen any CNN reports about lost Americans so we assume they made it. After that, the kids ate lunch at McDonald's while Mike and I found some Asian food. It was a nice change from the Italian food. We then headed back to the apartment for a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Everyone rested and then we went to the park for a couple of hours before dinner and bedtime. There was some junior high (or similar age) band concert going on in the park. We all enjoyed the music as the kids played. We all turned in early because we are heading south tomorrow to the Amalfi coast for a few days.

Bernini

May 16th--Today we had reservations to go to the Borghese Gallery. This is the only museum in Rome that requires reservations and is hard to get into. Our reservation was from 1 to 3 so we decided to have a picnic lunch on the grounds of Villas Borghese. It was a beautiful day and there were plenty of shady spots to enjoy lunch. We all perched ourselves on a cement wall and ate our lunch while people watching. There were lots of people out today. A little before 1:00 we entered into the bag checking area of the Borghese Gallery. This took a little time, but we had our bags checked a little after 1:00 and immediately took the elevator up to the top floor. It was a good idea to start on the top floor because everyone who enters starts on the bottom floor and crowd the area. The top floor was filled with many paintings and a bust of Cardinal Borghese done by Bernini. We also saw 2 Bernini self-portraits. Upon finishing up this floor, we walked down the spiral staircase to the bottom floor. We immediately walked into Room IV which houses Bernini's "The Rape of Prosperine". We were instantly in awe of his work and stared at this statue for a while. It was amazing how Pluto's fingers dig into her body like it was real. This was probably our favorite piece in the gallery, but we did move on and witness several other amazing pieces by Bernini..."Aeneas" (Aeneas's home in Troy is in flames and he escapes with the three most important things to him), "David" (although not near as good as Michelangelo's, it is still amazing) and "Apollo and Daphne" (this is another wonderful piece that tells the story when you walk from back to front of the sculpture). After leaving the Borghese, we took the metro to the Trevi fountain. It was a little warm again today so the kids enjoyed splashing the water all over themselves. We all tossed a coin into the fountain for luck and an assured trip back to Rome. From here we took the metro back to the apartment. MeMom and Gilda went to a restaurant nearby the apartment for a final dinner in Rome while we fed and bathed the kids. Then when they got back to the apartment, Amy and I headed out on another "date night", taking advantage of our last night with a babysitter. We started off in Campo de' Fiori. This square is lined with restaurants and we enjoyed the patio seating of Ristorante la Carbonara. We enjoyed a nice Italian meal while watching the people and activity of the square. After dinner, we walked over to Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain. In addition to enjoying another Bernini work, it was also a prominent piece in Angels and Demons. We took some pictures (again, no dead cardinal) and then strolled a couple of streets over to the Pantheon. We started to skip this area since the last time we were here we didn't have such a great experience. However, we decided that it would be worth seeing the Pantheon at night. At this point it was a little after 11:00pm and we thought the subway closed at 11:30. We hoped on a bus and started back for the metro station. We then remembered that it was Saturday night and the metro is open until 2:00am on the weekends. It was a good thing because the traffic was horrible and it took us over 30 minutes to go the couple of miles to the metro. We got back to the apartment tired, but having enjoyed a great day and night with Bernini in Rome.

"17 Again"

May 15th--Don't we all wish we could be 17 again? Well, after our climb up the St. Peter's dome yesterday, we woke up this morning wishing that a little bit. No, just kidding. As we mentioned , it was actually one of our easier dome climbs. I do think that MeMom and Gilda wished they were 17 again though after all the walking they've done over the last week. With that said, we took it pretty easy today. We did go out to eat lunch at a restaurant close by our apartment. It was good and cheap. It's nice to be outside of the tourist area where things are much cheaper. All 6 of us ate for 22 Euros. After lunch, it started raining so we headed back to the apartment for inside activities. Mike, Abby, Austin, and I left the apartment about 4:00 to head to see the movie "17 Again". All that the kids knew was that "Troy, from High School Musical" was in it. The theater we found that shows movies in English is right off Piazza del Popolo. There is a scene from the movie "Angels and Demons" that occurs in a church in this Piazza. So we had some time to kill before the movie so we stepped inside the church to see the Chigi Chapel. Unfortunately, it was under restoration (much like in the movie). We looked, but we didn't find any dead cardinals inside. We left the church and walked across the Piazza to the theater. After getting our popcorn and Coke's, we sat down to watch the movie. The movie was really cute and was enjoyed by all. After the movie, we went to the McDonald's by the Spanish Steps. It was a really big McD's and the adults first time to eat McDonald's in over 100 days (the kids 2nd time). It was late when we finished up dinner so we headed back to the apartment for bedtime.

Roaming Rome

May 14th - We have spent the last three days hitting some of the more historic (and candidly blog boring) sights. Therefore, we are going to combine them into one blog. On the 12th, we woke up so tired from doing the Caesar Shuffle the day before, that we decided to take it easy. We headed out of the apartment just before noon and made our first stop lunch. We ate at a nice restaurant near Termini station. We then walked over to the National Museum to see the great collection of Roman sculptures. This visit almost didn't happen because it is the first museum on our trip that they charged the kids full adult price (because they were non EU children). Most everywhere we have been is free for kids and we couldn't imagine paying full price, especially for Austin. So we initially refused to pay and walked away. We then decided that we wanted to see the sculptures and didn't want to have to leave anyone out, so we went back and paid (although I firmly told the lady I was paying for them under protest...like she cared!). Once inside we saw many Roman emperor busts, The Discus Thrower and original Greek statues. After leaving the National Museum we headed over to the Baths of Diocletian. The former public bath structure was originally sprawled over 10 acres. Today, all that remains is the former main hall of the baths which is now the Church of Santa Maria delgi Angeli. The main hall alone is the size of a football field and 7 stories tall. This gives you an idea of how large the original baths were where they could cleanse 3,000 Romans at once. That's a lot of dirty Romans! That pretty much wrapped up the day (other than our afternoon gelato stop). On the 13th, Amy decided that she would stay back with the kids and let them have a "play day", watching movies, coloring and spending time at the park. I decided that I would take my mom and Gilda to some of the historic churches in Rome. As we were getting ready to leave, Austin decided that he didn't want to stay back, so he ended up coming with us as well. We started off at the San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter-In-Chains). This church, one of Rome's oldest founded in A.D. 440, houses St. Peter's chains and Michelangelo's Moses. Michelangelo's statue was originally supposed to adorn the tomb of Pope Julius II. Pope Julius originally hired Michelangelo to build his massive tomb but then ordered him to paint the Sistine Chapel. Julius died before Michelangelo would ever finish the tomb. We then headed to San Giovanni in Laterano (with a brief stop for lunch along the way). This was the first Christian church in Rome, opened in about A.D. 318. It served as the home of the popes up until the Renaissance renovation of St. Peter's. Still today it is the home church of the Pope. We had planned to visit the nearby Holy Stairs, but arrived during the afternoon closure. We opted for gelato instead and headed back to the apartment. Since we were home early, Amy and I decided to have our first date night in 100 days (but who's counting). We decided on dinner and a movie. "Angels and Demons" was opening in Rome today and we thought that would be a perfect movie given its setting and content. We found a theater right off Piazza del Popolo that was showing the movie in English. It was very cool watching the movie and seeing the sights we have been visiting in the movie. After the movie, we walked down Via del Corso and had a nice dinner (sans kids!). We spent some time talking about the movie (I have read the book; Amy hadn't) and mapping out sights in the movie that we haven't seen, but want to. We finished up the night at the bottom of the Spanish Steps before catching the metro back home. Today, May 14th, we decided to visit Capitol Hill and the museum there and then re-visit St. Peter's. After another late start to the day, we began with a climb up Michelangelo's grand staircase to the center of Capitol Hill's main square. We entered the Capitoline Museum and started with a nice lunch on the terrace. We then made our way through the museum seeing many famous works including the original She-Wolf statue (this is just the funniest statue / city symbol to us), Marcus Aurelius, the Dying Gaul and the Boy Extracting a Thorn. We also were able to get some good views of the Forum from the Tabularium. We left the Capitol Hill area and took the bus to Vatican City. At this point we split up so that we could climb St. Peter's dome. My mom and Gilda decided they were not up for the climb, so they did a little shopping instead. This was one of the easiest dome climbs we have done because an elevator took us up to the base of the dome. All we had left at that point was a nice, easy 320 step climb to the top of the dome. From the base, we were able to walk through the interior of the dome and look down on the massive interior of St. Peter's. From the top, we were able to see spectacular views of Rome's sights in the distance and the plush gardens of the Vatican below. After seeing "Angels and Demons" last night, it was neat to be so close to many of the sights today. We then climbed back down the dome and met up with my Mom and Gilda. From there we went down below the church to the Crypt. Here we saw tombs of many of the former popes, including St. Peter and Pope John Paul II. We then exited back in the center of the nave of St. Peter's. It was again, shortly after 5pm and mass was being conducted. We wandered through the church some more just trying to take in all the surroundings. Having spent so much time in various churches, it is amazing what kids, including a 3 year old, will pick up on. As we were leaving, Austin noticed a very large, but plain cross on the Holy Door. He whispered for Amy to come over to him and then said, "Mommy, Jesus isn't on the cross". He seemed very worried by this...but luckily, we are not!

The Caesar Shuffle

May 11th - Today we decided to continue our tour in the heart of Ancient Rome. We started our day today at the Colosseum. The Colosseum was built in A.D. 80 when the Roman Empire was at it's peak. Inside, it's three levels could accommodate 50,000 fans. We started on the arena level where we could view the underground passages that once carried animals and warriors beneath the playing surface. The arena was covered with a wood flooring that was then covered with sand. We then made our way up to the second level where we had more views of the arena floor area and this massive structure. After making our way around the Colosseum and imagining Ancient Roman life, we exited on our way to the Roman Forum. We stopped off at a nearby restaurant for a nice, cool lunch. While the temperature is only in the 70's here, when out in the open, the sun can become quite warm. So going inside in the cool restaurant was a nice break. Once we had all recovered, we headed into the Roman Forum. The Forum was the center of Ancient Rome with the most important temples and halls of justice here. We wandered through the ancient ruins seeing the remains of many of these buildings. This included the 3 remaining arches of the huge Basilica of Constantine and the Temple of Julius Caesar, where he was burned after he was assassinated. We ended near Capitol Hill with the Forum Square and the remains of the Temple of Saturn. We left the Forum and walked up Palatine Hill. This hill contains the ruins of the former Imperial Palace. The palace was huge at over 150,000 square feet. It is hard to imagine it's size based on the remains but certain markers allow you to understand its enormous stature. By this point, we had been in the sun all day and everyone was tired. Luckily, Rome has many public fountains that produce cool drinking water so we were able to periodically fill up our water bottles for hydration. We exited back down Palatine Hill and made our way to the metro for our return to the apartment.