Italy/Greece : Day 4 - Rome -> Capri -> Sorrento

We had another marathon day today, but I'll try to keep this post shorter ;0D

Today after another 6am wakeup, we said good-bye to Rome. I realize that I didn't give you a description of what Rome is like. It's crowded, but clean and charming. In Rome, a mini-cooper is a BIG car... a smart car and cars of that size fit right in. There are thousands of scooters which the Italians call mosquitos, because of how they buzz around everyone. Fabrizio keep touting our bus driver's skill, saying that, "You are lucky you have a Napolian bus driver!" Even Jim was impressed with how he'd drive the little streets in Rome with inches to spare on each side of the bus.

We didn't really know what the "Napolean bus driver" comment meant until we left Rome for the port of Napoli (our bus driver's home). What a crazy place! There, markings on the street on only for decoration, and signal lights are considered only suggestions. But, thanks to Samuel's skill we made it safely to the port, and boarded a boat to the beautiful Island of Capri (thankfully, leaving Napoli behind).

The main part of town at the top of the hill. Jim and I headed to the funicular (cable car) that would take us there. In the meantime, the kids jumped on another boat for an island cruise:



The town was so interesting! The houses are carved into the side of the hills; the streets are little walkways or intersecting tunnels.


We found some pretty spectacular views:


Meanwhile, on the cruise, the kids were see the same things we were, but from sea level:


When the kids got back, they did a little exploring of their own... Trust them to find the Rodeo Drive of Capri. Capri is the designer showcase (second only to Milan). All the major designers and new upcoming designers have shops in Capri. Yeah, the group of ladies on our tour, who we affectionately called the "shopping ladies," were in heaven!

We stopped at a cute little sidewalk cafe for... you guessed it... PIZZA!

Now is our time to leave. We met up with the kids just before heading back down the Funicular to board the ferry to Sorrento. The ride was only 25 minutes, but it was an exhausting day. We all fell asleep.

BUT, it's not over YET! Welcome to SORRENTO!!!

We had just enough time to get to the hotel and take showers, but with our entire group taking showers at once, the water pressure was almost non-existent. I had to rinse my hair out under the faucet. Eventually, the hotel ran out of hot water... some of the group members were NOT happy! After the showers finally got finished, we took several micro-mini-vans to a lemon farm for dinner. The road to the farm was insanely narrow... too narrow for a bus... too narrow for van... but just wide enough for a micro-mini-van. BUT NOT wide enough for the micro-mini-van to pass anything (not even a pedestrian). Seriously, there were inches of clearance on each side! Here is the van:

And here is what it looked like inside, lol!

This is a private residence and they open their home up to serve tour groups a home-cooked meal. Isn't this a wonderful place to eat? The food was WONDERFUL and plentiful. Like all Italian dinners, it lasted for a couple hours.


Look at this view from their yard!


The specialty of the lemon farm (in fact the whole region) is a lemon liquor that they call limoncella. We tried the limoncella here, and it was very strong! Chris and I didn't like it, but Jim and Cheryl did. In fact, Cheryl finished Chris's cup. I told Chris to make sure that Cheryl didn't fall down the stairs on the way to their room tonight. On the way back down the mountain in the micro-mini-vans, the group, who we fondly refer to as the "crazy Australians" had hit the limoncella a little to much... they offered our driver 50 euro, to pass the van in front of us. Needless, to say, it was a WILD ride down the mountain! When we reached the bottom, we all tumbled out laughing. We got back to the hotel after 10pm... time for bed!

I'll leave you with the FUNNY OF THE DAY: Our hotel was old, but with lots of character. The elevator was tiny! It claimed to hold a maximum capacity of 5. The 4 of us got into the elevator, and it wouldn't budge! We were over the weight limit. I got out and took the stairs... Well, the elevator may have a maximum capacity of 5 Italians, but it only holds 3 Americans.

Italy/Greece: Day3 - Rome

Grab a full cup of coffee... This is a monster post for a marathon day! I have lots of pictures to share. We were up at 6am via wake-up call, and didn't get back to the hotel until after 10pm!

Our first stop was the Vatican. Where Cheryl fell out of the bus... don't worry, she wasn't hurt; just embarrassed. Look at all the people here!

Our local guide told us that some people stand in line for hours to get in, but thanks to our "front of the line" pass we walked right in. Our first destination was the Famous Sistine Chapel. We walked through long halls full of statues (yes, there are statues around all those people).

And walked down another long hall full of tapestries. But the highlight of this hall for me was the ceiling. It looked like a bunch of framed pictures all lined up. Each picture was amazing, and they went on and on and on...

There is a dress code for the Vatican, and in fact for all the churches in Italy... shoulders and knees must be covered. Our host, Fabrizio, reminded us over and over about it, so we were all dressed appropriately for the day. No photos were allowed in the Sistine Chapel. So here is my token photo:

We were not allowed to speak in the chapel (BTW, "shhh..." means be quiet in Italian too). You saw all those people in the hall? All those people were crammed in a 134'x44' room all looking up. It was packed! Remember the radios I told you about yesterday? They came in handy today. Our guide was whispering in her microphone, telling us about Michelangelo and the story depicted in each panel of the ceiling. Then she directed us all (scattered throughout the crowd) to the exit door when it was time to leave.

Our next stop was my favorite: St. Peter's Basilica!!! This place was so amazing! I could have spent the entire day in just that one building. I have lots of photos to share... I couldn't pick just one:



The big difference between the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica is that the Sistine Chapel is all paintings where St. Peter's Basilica has NO PAINTINGS. Look at this below... do you think that is a painting?

NO! It's a mosaic!

It's hard to tell even in person that this is not a painting. We had to zoom in with a camera to see the tiles. They were so small! There were lots and lots of these mosaics in the Basilica along with fantastic sculptures.

Here we are set loose for lunch in St. Peter's square. See that building on the right? That's the Pope's residence. Since the shutters are closed, that means that he's not there. He's at his summer residence.

Here's Chris having a drink at the Vatican. All the water in the Italian fountains is potable. The water from this fountain was cold and delicious!

Yeah, that is just our MORNING! Now it's off for a bus tour of the city and a stop at the FABULOUS Roman Colosseum! Look at all the people!!! Again, it's another place where people stand in line for hours to get inside, and we walked right in with our front of the line pass!

Here we are! Just to prove we were there!

And here is the inside of the Colosseum without us blocking the view, lol! To get an idea of how HUGE this place is, look how small the people are! This place was truly MAGNIFICENT! It could seat 90,000 people! The Home Depot Center only seats 27,000.

Do you see the labyrinth of rooms in the middle? Those are the catacombs under the Colosseum. We took an underground tour of the catacombs. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures. Here is Cheryl waiting patiently with her radio on, like a good little tourist:

The catacombs were okay... a pretty cool twist of tunnels with burial chambers and nitches (all were empty). If you have a chance to go to the catacombs or spend more time in the Coloseum area, I'd recommend the Coloseum.

You think we are done for the day? We are not done! Some of the group went on a trip to an Italian Opera. We decided to skip that one and head out on our own. We took the metro (yes, in Italian) to the Treve Fountain.


... And like everywhere else we've been, it's mobbed with people!

Cheryl and I managed to get close enough to toss a coin in the fountain! They say that means we will return to Rome someday... After that, we just wandered around the Baroque district...





We must have pizza! So we wandered until we found a sidewalk cafe that 1) spoke English and 2) served pizza. Our waiter was quite a character!

After our adventuring, we headed back to the metro. As we were buying tickets a man ran by us and yelled something at us in Italian. We shrugged and went back to buying tickets. We got to the platform just as the train was arriving and jumped on. We figured the man was telling us that the train was coming. Anyway, Rome is so beautiful at night... we had the urge to see St. Peter's Square lit up in the dark, so got off at the Vatican stop (two stops before our hotel). It was BEAUTIFUL and so QUIET after the crowds of the morning:

We were tired from all the walking and were ready to go back to the hotel and get some sleep. We walked back to the metro station, and guess what? THE METRO WAS CLOSED! The man was telling us that the LAST TRAIN was coming! There was no traffic around the metro and the streets were quiet. Jim thought that maybe we could find a taxi if we walked back to the Vatican.

We did find a taxi and the taxi driver spoke ENGLISH! Thank goodness, since we had no idea where the hotel was! Jim gave him the name of the hotel, but (since it's new) the taxi driver never heard of it. He called the hotel name into his dispatcher and got the address! WhooHoo! We made it through our first European adventure!

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That's it for our first full day in Europe... if you made it this far, thanks for sticking through it. But I'm not done, because I want to end with the STORY OF THE DAY:

Chris's college registration appointment was 4:45pm on Monday, which is 1:45am TODAY! Cheryl and Chris got up at 1am to register using Jim's iPad and the hotel wifi, but the registration didn't go through. Chris needed to complete an academic advisement online before he could register. He tried to fill it out, but it wouldn't work on the iPad (no flash). So at 1:45am, they were in the lobby using the hotel computer. They said that it was a good thing that the night desk guy spoke English. They had to buy time on the computer, 3 euro, and ask the guy how to type the "@" on the Italian keyboard... That was quite an adventure for them. I'm so proud of them for taking care of it all... Chris is registered for Saddleback for FALL 2011! YAHOO!

Italy/Greece - Day 1 (leave USA) - Day 2 (arrive Rome)

Yep, 25 hours of travel from our front door to the hotel in Rome! I was working on Friday, so I didn't finish packing until after midnight. I got about 3 hours of sleep before the van picked us up for the airport. We flew USAir to Charlotte. Bare-bones. No food, no movies, no music. But surprise! Our aircraft from Charlotte to Rome was running the P@ssport IFE system! I had never seen a system that I programmed in service before... I was so excited! It's a 10 year old system, but it still works GREAT! We had the choice of about 15 movies and lots of music. BUT that airplane was soooo UNcomfortable! We hardly got any sleep. When we got to Rome, I asked Cheryl, "How to you feel?" She relied, "Like crap. How about you?"

Here we are waiting for the bus with our "one suitcase and one carry-on per person."

After we made it to the hotel, we had time for a shower and and 1 hour nap before meeting the rest of our group. There were 46 people in our group... from Australia, Canada, USA, and New Zealand (most from Australia, and only 4 from New Zealand). Our "host" was named Fabrizio. He makes all our arrangements and makes sure that everyone gets where we are going.

After we met our fellow travellers, we all piled in the bus. (Believe it or not, we have a bus seating chart. Fabrizio rotates our seat position every day.) We headed out to the Piazza Navona. What a perfect place to start the trip! It looks exactly how I expected Italy to look... large plaza lined with sidewalk cafes, quaint buildings, churches, fountains, statuary, and street artists!

Oh, I want to point out that church on the left... that's where Cheryl fell down the stairs. Don't worry she wasn't hurt. She just left her butt print in Rome.


What else do I associate with Italy? Ancient ruins... we saw those too! In fact Rome is a city build on top of a city. One bank we saw had an inside balcony over their open floor that looked down into the ruins under the building. Here is one of the most famous ruins in Rome, the Pantheon. It's the only Roman building still intact.

We had dinner in quaint little cafe called the "Opera Cafe." It was on a tiny side street (or is it an ally?). There were two bottles of wine on the table (white and red) and the food kept coming and coming and coming. We were stuffed! There was a fabulous opera singer and accordionist to entertain us. Oh, and also there was Jim dancing with the opera singer, hahaha! After dinner we went for a walk along the Tiber River to the Castle of Saint Angelo.

We got back to the hotel at 11pm for bed... there's a 6am wake up call tomorrow!

Funny of the day: The hotel we stayed at in Rome was a newer hotel (The Executive Style Hotel). To turn on the lights in the room (or use any electric outlet), you need to put your key in a slot by the door. Cheryl and Chris had their own room, and when they went to bed, Cheryl just pulled the key out of the slot to turn off the lights. Well, Chris had to use the bathroom during the night, and he couldn't find the key! I asked, "What did you do?" He said, "If you sit down, you can't miss."