A Living, Breathing Museum...05.15.08

Buon giorno! Grettings, all.

First off, forgive any spelling errors. I am typing my entries on the hotel computer, which is an old PC with some task buttons in Italian. Plus, Keisha would wring my neck if I spent too much time in front of this thing. But, promises must be kept...

Well, as you can probably tell, we made it to Italy. Sorry for the delay in notifying you. We had to walk around a bit, with eyes glazed over, just to try to get on the same page with Rome and the time zone. But, as we prepare for our afternoon tour of Vatican City, we wanted to be sure to drop a line or two. First and foremost, the US Air flight was horrible, but we arrived directly, with no problems with the Immigration police on either side of the Atlantic. Oh, and US Air double and triple checked Keisha's paperwork before boarding. We arrived in Italy yesterday morning, and made the trek to Rome. One word of advice: If you are traveling with a suitcase (or two), it is best to spend the dough and take a cab to your hotel, or take the hotel up on the offer to provide shuttle service. We traveled by train all the way, with standing room only on both the express train from the airport, as well as on the underground from the Roma Termini to our section of the city (which felt like it was on the Manhattan bound E train during rush hour).

But, when we finally got here, we were relieved and ready to tackle Rome. To keep ourselves from taking a nap, and contributing to jet lag, we hit the bricks and visited the Trevi Fountain (which is just a few blocks from our hotel), The Patheon, the Piazza di Novona and the Piazza di Spraga (sp?), also known as the Spanish Steps. We walked off every glass of wine, every gelato and every morsel of goodness we consumed since we arrived, but it is all worth it. Your eyes get as much exercise as your legs. One thing's for sure- Rome is a living, breathing museum. On your way to the landmarks that attrack a horde of tourists, you bump into countless pieces of art. From the architecture, to sacred grounds and churches, to courtyards that seem to have withstood the test of mankind, Rome is a preseved piece of human history. The level of crativity and, is some cases, faith that must have inspired the works here is inspiring. Words will not do this place justice, so we are taking a bunch of photos.

This morning, we collected ourselves and walked back to a little gourmet shop we discovered on our was to the Trevi Fountain, and had a morning sandwich of home made bread, ham and fresh cheese. We ate our breakfast by the Trevi Fountain, then dashed off for a real italian cappaucino. The tour transport will be here in a couple of hours to take us to Vatican City, so I will sign off now. It's lunch time.

Ciao!