Leaving Rome

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  Rome, Italy
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

ok, whew... just finished our crash tour of Rome. Yesterday we did the Vatican... St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel. We lucked out and managed to join a free tour in English - tour guide from Vancouver (yay!) - the tour actually was fantastic as it really helped give perspective on everything. John and I were tour converts by the end of the day. To see all the paintings in both the Basilica and the Sistine Chapel was amazing - to get the interpretation of them is so much more fascinating than just looking at them and not knowing the meaning behind all of it. Plus to be in the Sistine Chapel so shortly after having a new Pope elected was cool. They explained the procedure of how all the cardinals gathered in there to vote and where the smoke came from etc. as well as the 'walk' that the new Pope did after being elected. After that day we headed back to our room for a siesta (did I mention that I could very quickly become accustomed to siestas?? Oh wait, what am I talking about? I'm ALREADY accustomed to it!!) before heading out for dinner. Our new addiction - a cappachino after dinner.... which really isn't great for the sleep issue - we ended up in rather animated conversation until 3am. Whoops. Not that it stopped us from having one again after dinner tonight... ;)

Today we slept in due to our late night, and headed over to catch the tour bus... it's a bus that takes you from site to site - so much easier than having to navigate your way around town on your own. Plus you get headphones so you can hear the commentary as you drive by different monuments etc. We started at the Colosium, did another tour but quickly left it as the guide really needed to buy himself a personality and we just couldn't handle listening to him any more. So we saw the rest on our own. The coolest part (in my opinion) is the passages under the arena floor. The floor is gone today, so you can see down below into the passages. They would keep the lions down there for 2 weeks in the dark with very little food before bringing them up to partake in the 'games'... this way it would make for a good show as they would be rather feisty and ready to kill. Nice. And the ground was sand - to soak up the blood... nice. But it is interesting and amazing to see such history. Amazing that it is still standing to this day.

After that we headed over to the Trevi Fountain, which was cool - extremely over crowded with tourists, but a pretty cool thing to see. Then down the street to the Pantheon. that I have to admit was quite a disappointment - it is amazing that it is still standing, but it would be nice to see them try to protect it a little better. There is no entrance fee, and there is no enforcing of the rules i.e. no camera flashes. The flashes are ruining the artifacts and once they are gone, there is no getting them back. And it really bothered me to see how tourists can be so disrespectful of these things... no concern for protecting history at all. Too bad. But at least I have seen it now, before it completely is destroyed.

I have to say, all this time in the sun is making my tan come along quite nicely. John is jealous... he's still pretty pasty. haha But as I write this, he is on another computer looking at where we can head to tomorrow. We are looking for a beach somewhere, to just lie and hang out for a week before heading to London. There are so many places to choose from, we are having a really hard time deciding where to go. Capri? Amalfi Coast? Sorrento?? So many decisions to make while on holidays!!! uh oh... he just pulled up a place that is definitely more than I would spend, but hey, its right on the beach AND has a pool... looking kinda cushy to me, but hey... kind of looking nice too right now... hee hee we're so bad. So much for any kind of 'budget' we tried to stick to! As it is we have been going for nice dinners every night... this trip is getting very expensive! Definitely a lot cushier than what I have gotten used to, but in a place like Italy it really doesn't make a lot of cost difference to upgrade a little. It is expensive no matter what you do.

We commented this morning that we have not spent more than 10 minutes apart from each other this whole trip, and the fact that we still had so much to say until 3am last night is a good sign... :) Traveling together has been very easy, very laid back, and a lot of fun. Yay!!

Ok, well, that's about it from this end... I think John might be booking that cushy place... hee hee will let all of you know once we get settled at the beach :) :)

For all of you in Calgary - sorry to hear about all the rain... I hope everyone is surviving it? Just think though, Calgary really needs it, and every year it does tend to rain all of June - it makes everything green so the rest of the summer can be beautiful and sunny!!

Big hugs!!!
Jenn (and John)

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