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[WreckWench]

This was going to be a quick recap of my trip so far but not having internet allowed me to get carried away offline in my trip blogging.

The Trip of a Lifetime... for my mother and as it turns out... ME!



NOTE: As many of you know I have promised my mom a trip to Rome for most of my life. Truthfully I was worried about making good on the promise. After all when I had the money I didn't have the time. And when I had the time I didn't have the money. But the window of opportunity was rapidly closing and it was now or never given my Aunt is dying of cancer and my mom's health has started to slip accordingly. So in a complete panic I booked this trip taking my mom and traveling with her best friend who lives in Washington State... Helen. Having her best friend with her has really made the trip 100% more enjoyable for her and allowed me to sneak some work in while traveling and not feel as if I'm taking anything away from her special experience. Truly the best of both worlds!

By the time we arrived at the B&B we were staying at in Rome it was nearly 1:30
pm after landing at 10:30am. We then had a full orientation from the B&B owner who was extremely nice
and helpful and we unpacked a bit and got organized to use the Metro and
do a bit of sightseeing around Rome. We can see the exterior wall of
Vatican City and the top of St Peter's Basilica from our B&B windows and
are probably a block from the entrance. We are about 4-6 blocks from the
Metro and it takes you everywhere. It took a few attempts to figure out
my bearings because the roads are not entirely right angles but they are
fairly well marked and not entirely directionally challenged. We are
right next to a wonderful gelato shop that makes amazing homemade ice
cream and sorbets. For 1.5 euros or roughly $2.20 you can get a small
cup with 3 different flavors in it. I had strawberry and pina
(pineapple) sorbet along with eggnog. Mom had strawberry, pina and
berries & cream. Helen had Amaretto, caramel and some chocolate
concoction. They were decadent and the best food or drink all day!
(However the food in business/first class on AA was quite good coming
over to Italy. We were served drinks while boarding, and then dinner was
hot nuts and a delicious assorted veggie stick tray with herbed dressing
for dip. This was followed by chilled seasoned large shrimp and thinly
sliced salmon with dill dip and a large well created veggie and spring
greens mixed salad. The main entree was either steak, chicken, shrimp or
4 cheese ravioli all prepared surprisingly well. Dessert was either a
fruit and cheese plate or an ice cream sundae.)

Let me back up and describe the pre-flight and flight itself. We
arrived in New York at 3:05 from DFW at gate 40 and were departing from
gate 41 to FCO/Rome. It took longer to find a power outlet for me then
to get to the gate. Helen was arriving at 4pm but her gate was 34 and
mom was going to wait for her at the gate when it got closer in time
since she had to pass by us anyway. Helen arrived early and was escorted
by a wheelchair to the departure gate before Mom even had time to go and
meet her. It was about time for her to head that way when I looked up
and saw Helen sitting at the gate talking to a nice lady. Needless to
say Mom and her had a grand reunion and were like two kids who had just
come down for Christmas and were waiting for their parents to tell them
it was ok to tear into the presents. They were non-stop talking and
walking around the terminal from about 4pm on giving me valuable time to
do some much needed work. I was doing quite well getting final details
wrapped up when at 6pm my computer started doing a mandatory software
download and I could not stop it or speed it up. I was panicking it
would not finish before we departed and it did not. Not knowing if I
would have a usable computer I was regretting I did not bring my backup
computer with me. Hindsight is always 20/20 and the next time I will be
OVERLY prepared since Murphy strikes at every opportunity.

We were scheduled to depart at 8:50pm Eastern and started boarding at
8:10. They allowed anyone needing special needs to board even before
First Class. Mom and Helen were worried that I was cutting in line as I
moved us towards the front ahead of the Exiecutive Platinums and
Platinums. They thought because they were lined up that they were all in
first/business class which I tried to explain was not the case and
simply said "stay with me". We were in row 5 and 6... the last row of
first class. I was to sit next to mom and Helen in the window next to
whomever was sitting next to her. SInce they had not stopped talking yet
I opted to swap seats with Helen and have her sit in my seat. They were
giggling and laughing and having a ball like two giddy school girls on
their first day of big girl school. Everything about first class was new
and fun and exciting for them. Our impromptu seat changes threw the
flight attendants off a bit thinking that Helen was the platinum AA
flyer. There were two older gentlemen in the row ahead of mom and Helen
so they asked if they were all together. They giggled saying no telling
them the real story and thoroughly enjoying the personalized attention.
The flight attendant finally put all the pieces together and smiled
knowing the flight would be fun seeing it thru the eyes of these two
excited ladies. And enjoy they did. They helped them with the seat
controls, the menu, and all the other amenities in first that were so
new to mom and Helen. Mom had flown first class domestically a couple of
times but never internationally and Helen had never flown first class at
all. They compared notes about their experiences from DFW and Seattle
respectively and giggled about every aspect from the hot orange priority
tags on their luggage at check in to the drinks before departure and the
fancy sleeper recliners to the full sized pillows and blankets and
goodie bag that contained socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, and other
lotions and potions to make the flight a bit more comfortable. They
giggled again when the hot towels were brought out and were so
entertaining not only for the two flight attendants that fell in love
with them but for myself and the gentleman behind them. He was a
professional basketball player agent and was checking in on 10 clients
who had just started the Italian season. Flying from Houston to JFK via
Miami he immediately went to sleep after a glass of water and never
stirred until 45 mins before landing where he drank some more water,
brushed his teeth and chatted for a few minutes. He said that since the
flight was only 7 hrs if he went to sleep as soon as he got on the plane
he could offset most of the jet lag since his clients expected him to
hit the ground running when he arrived. And while we arrived officially
at 10:30 am and there were no customs forms to fill out...getting off
the plane, finding restrooms, and retrieving bags to then find our
driver took well over an hour. The hotel was nearly 45-50 minutes away
and finding our driver and loading the taxi was another 30 minutes or
so. Truthfully it felt like it was evening by the time we started
touring at 3pm. We saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevoli fountain, found
a cute little street cafe near the Spanish steps and had open flame
cooked pizza. They had cheese pizza and I had eggplant and cheese. It
was very good. Pizza was 6 euros and bottled water was 3 euros. At $1.42
US to the Euro bottled water is quite valuable here! We arrived back
around 6:30pm had our gelatos and decided to call it an early evening.
Three showers later it was lights out. We slept like rocks until about
2am when everyone needed restroom breaks. They both went back to sleep
and I opted to work instead. At 2 am here its only 8pm Eastern. The good
news was my computer finished the download during our touring but the
bad news was I had not gotten the proper wifi password so could only
work offline. I had debated if I would keep a blog/journel about the
trip but decided to use some of the time offline to capture our
experiences so far.

Our first full day which will be Friday will take us on walking tours of
the Colosseum and surrounding sites and the catacombs which have only
recently been opened up for tours. If we are up for it well do a 7 or
8pm special Vatican night concert next to our hotel. Then on Saturday we
are scheduled to see the Vatican, St Peter's Basilica and museums in the
morning leaving the afternoon to catch anything we missed. We'll depart
for the boat around 9am on Sunday and I am not sure what we'll do
waiting to board the Navigator of the Seas but we'll have all day to
figure it out.


This wraps up my first installment. Not sure when you'll get it but
hopefully you do! And yes we are taking LOTS of pictures! Love Kamala

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

A truly grand start to a special trip!

I do hope the Occupy riots in Rome did not pose any problems for you with your scheduled itinerary. Stay safe!

[ScubaSis]

Just Loved the trip "start" report!!! I hope all is well and ya'll are getting to enjoy eveything you have planned!!

[TCdamsel]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences with us! I'm so happy that your mom and her friend are already having a good time and you've barely begun! Rome is such a magical city... Enjoy, enjoy!

[WreckWench]

Hey gang...back online for the last time before heading to our cruise. We have NOT been impacted by the riots...we saw some of them forming as we ended our tour of the Vatican but the City was well protected and not in the best interest of the Vatican to allow anything to happen to the 3 million visitors annually to the Vatican. We were very safe. In fact the tour guides have been telling everyone where to avoid and let us know a day in advance the riots would happen and why they would happen.

My mom and her friend are still sleeping. They are taking us to the pier way to early but I can not seem to fight it. Once on the boat I am not sure how well the internet will work so will officially call this my last update just to be safe.

The highlights are that we saw EVERYTHING we wanted to see and then some. I can't wait to blog about it when I have all this offline time. So stay tuned...

p.s. All I can say is WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!!

kamala

[WreckWench]

Thank you! I am hoping it will be ok...read some report where it was down on the boat we are one...so I guess Murphy is still lurking around every corner!

[finGrabber]

it sounds like ya'll are having a great time! Wish I was there too

[WreckWench]

So you are UP to start your birthday EARLY!!!

[cat fish]

Thank You for sharing your adventures with us. We are with you virtually!!

[tadawson]

Small world! I was just in Rome from the 4th to the 9th, albeit on business. I did get one day to go sightsee, and it was fantastic! I hope you enjoy Rome as much as I did!

I spent a week in Portugal after that, and am currently fighting off the jetlag . . . that's the only part that really sucks!

- Tim

This was going to be a quick recap of my trip so far but not having internet allowed me to get carried away offline in my trip blogging.

The Trip of a Lifetime... for my mother and as it turns out... ME!



NOTE: As many of you know I have promised my mom a trip to Rome for most of my life. T
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Edited by tadawson, 17 October 2011 - 08:34 AM.

[WreckWench]

DREADING THE JETLAG on the way home...but I'm keeping some really odd hours here so maybe it won't be so bad!

Doing som work so will get a blog entry in later!

[WreckWench]

I wrote this offline but could not get it posted. I am cleaning up all the notes I left myself while offline now that I'm back in the land of access!

Day 2

After a good nights sleep albeit an EARLY night's sleep we set off to master the metro and start our first tour. Fortunately we had found the meeting place the day before in our exploration of how the metro worked but getting 3 people anywhere in this crowded city is challenging let alone 2 over the age of 75. Fortunately the Italian people are very helpful and considerate...many times offering up their seats on the Metro to my mom or her friend. We used a company called Viatour to set up our tours in advance. Our first stop was the Colosseum and Ancient Rome.. We paid to have small tours with headsets and supposedly they were tours that 'Skipped the Line". And skip they did. We started earlier than most of the non-organized tour people did and we certainly went to the head of the line in front of them. Of course there was always a line of other people in similar tours BUT those lines were short in comparison.

The Colosseum was quite amazing...even the second time around. (I had seen it when I was in Rome during my college days) but it seemed even more amazing now. We were able to upgrade to a special tour that let us enter the 3rd ring of the colusseum which was usually closed. This gave you panaromic views of the city that paled in comparison to the postcards, books and all previous memories. In fact I do not think i was able to see that ring of the colosseum the first time and it was worth every step it took to walk to the vary top of the structure. And stairs they were...they were about 2 feet to 2.25 high requiring you use the handrail to help you up them. (How did Ancient Romans walk up them I'll never know.) But an interesting factoid was that they designed the colsseum so it could be exited in 20 mins by every person in it. They called it a vomitorium...not because you got so sick trying to exit so fast...but because the mass exodus was so fast it was like the colosseum was vomiting the people out. We also got to go underground into where the gladiators and the wild animals lived. This area had only been open for about 9 months and was due to close the end of October for another 2 years while they did more restoration of it. Another interesting factoid. The colosseum is both white and black. The black structure is stained from soot and pollution from the bustling city that has grown up around it. The white has been restored to its original luster. And another interesting factoid....very few of the elaborate columns and statues remain on the grounds of the colosseum. It was common practice of the day to reuse materials into other structures. So most of the marble which was probably gleaned from other older structures to build the colosseum soon became the building blocks of new buildings including many of the churches that now inhabit Rome.

The morning flew by and it was time to see the rest of Ancient Rome. Most of it could be seen directly from the colosseum but what you failed to realize is what you were really looking at. Every arch and every building was literally built on top of another structure. Instead of tearing down 2nd century structures to build 6th century stuctures...they simply filled them in with dirt and built on top of them. Afterall they had survived this many years so they would be a good foundation for the next generation. Fortunately for us they did do this and as they excavate the ruins we can see this ancient history which would have been entirely lost if they has not had this practice. Upon the completion of our tour which encompassed so many buildings and arenas we headed for some lunch and transit to our next tour.

We had a delightful lunch at a sidewalk cafe and looked out onto the Trevoli fountain which was also our meeting spot for our Crypts and Catacombs tour. This tour consisted of seeing two sets of different catacombs which showed the migration from burial of the earliest Christiains to how they bvried them throughout history. Some of the catacombs included frescos and natural light shafts indicating someone important was buried there...in some cases popes. Over time families were buried together in rooms with arches. Or often groupings of like individuals such as all laborers or tradesmen would be buried together. The layers of the tombs showed how marvelous the engineering feat it truly was digging these crypts to begin with and to discover them so many years later. Our tour including a unique stop at a church that was originally built during the 12th century only to find out it was built upon the remains of a 4th century and then a 2nd century and even first century structure. What was even more amazing was the priest who served in the 12th century church kept hearing water running and everyone thought he was crazy. Then one night he secretly started digging and found the remains of the 4th century church. A massive restoration began which would ultimately reveal the true water source that he heard... a complete aquaduct system that still was flowing from the 2nd century. They never could identify the source of the water but it is still fresh and clean to this day. Each layer of this amazing church was from a different century. It was mind boggling to think that all that history evolved on top of itself. In fact there was no record of the churches below the original 12th century church...until a priest went mad from the sounds of running water!

After our first full day of touring we quickly found dinner and headed home via the metro. After miles of walking we called it an early evening by having a wonderful street side cafe dinner and then hitting the rack by 8pm. Tomorrow would be the Vatican including the museum, St Peter's Basilica, and more!

p.s. The weather was perfect and just the right temperate for lots of walking without being too hot or too cold.