Friday, October 22nd

On our last day of the trip we woke up early, checked out of the hotel, and boarded the shuttle bus for the quick trip to the airport terminal. We went through about 4 different passport checkpoints, rode another shuttle bus, and eventually made it to the gate with plenty of time to make the flight. From Rome flew directly to New York and had great views of the Alps again. The flight was long but uneventful, other than a medical emergency and a hard landing. It took a while to get through customs, but we had plenty of time to make our connection to Seattle. When we checked in for the flights, we had picked a window and aisle seat hoping that nobody would take the middle seat and our ploy was successful. We had lots of room to stretch out and sleep on the last leg of our journey. We made it back to Seattle a little after 10:00 in the evening (7:00 am the next day in Rome!). We took a taxi home and collapsed into bed.

Looking back at the trip, we have tons of memories and even more pictures. It was a whirlwind trip that was a little more hectic than we would have liked, but overall we had a great time. I think our next vacation will involve sitting on a beach somewhere warm and not going anywhere for a full week!

Thursday, October 21st

Today was our last full day in Italy. We spent the morning shopping in Sorrento, picking up souvenirs and lots of Limonchello. We packed our bags and said goodbye to Pepe. He extended an offer to any of our family and friends if you would like to visit Sorrento (20% off if your stay if you book directly with him). He gave us a lift to the train station and we started our trek back to the Rome airport. With all the transportation logistics, we were prepared to take our time and wait if something went wrong (especially since we didn’t have any tickets). Wouldn’t you know that everything went smoothly, even better than we could have hoped!

We arrived at the Sorrento train station about 5 minutes before the next Circumvesuvianna left for Naples. Once in Naples, we purchased tickets (2^nd class this time) on the Eurostar to Rome. The 2^nd class seats weren’t as comfortable or as wide as the 1^st class seats, but it still beat the pants off any of the Amtrak trains back home. The train to Rome left within 10 minutes of when we arrived in Naples. Once in Rome, we again had perfect timing and stepped on the airport express train mere seconds before it departed the station. We arrived at the airport and made our way to the hotel bus stop, where a shuttle arrived within 5 minutes and whisked us off to the Hilton Garden Inn. We had a great room looking out over the busy runways of the Rome Airport, and enjoyed using the first fast internet connection we had seen in two weeks. We ate a leisurely dinner at the hotel, then re-packed our bags and drifted off to sleep.

Wednesday, October 20th

We woke up Wednesday to a beautiful sunny day, so we headed out to the Amalfi Coast. The famous drive stretches between Sorrento and Solerno along the southern coast of the Sorrentine Peninsula. To picture the drive, imagine taking the Big Sur drive along Highway 1 in California. Now take away 1 of the lanes and add tour buses and Italian drivers. Add a few picturesque villages built into the hillside and you have the Amalfi Coast. Our rented Smart Car was essentially an enclosed diesel-powered go-cart, which turned out to be just about perfect for the drive (perfect would have been an Italian sports car!). Our first stop of the day was at a village called Positano. Literally built into the side of a steep hill, the town has only 1 street open to cars and the only way to get around is a labyrinth of stairs. We parked at the top and walked all the way down to the beach, which took about 20 minutes. At the bottom, we took guesses of how many stairs it would be to the top (my guess was 823). After chugging back to the car, we had counted 827 steps. Too bad I’m not the betting type!

The next stop was the town of Amalfi, where we wandered around and took more pictures. From there we drove up the mountainside to a town called Ravello, which is perched on a cliff 1000 feet above the water. We ate at a wonderful restaurant with a breathtaking view of the coastline (Thanks Rick Steves for the recommendation!). After some very gooey gelato, we headed back to the main road and continued toward Solerno. Our next stop was the Greek ruins of Paestum which are about 20 miles South of Solerno. We accidentally got on to the wrong direction of the autostrada, but we eventually figured it out and got to pay the toll twice! We made it down to Paestum and spent about an hour exploring the ruins. To be quite honest, by this point we were pretty tired of walking around ruins. We decided it might be more fun to make up our own stories about the ruins (i.e. the Temple of Zeus was really used to host youth basketball games and community fundraisers).

From Paestum, we headed back to Sorrento on the autostrada. We again got a little turned around and accidentally ended up back at Pompeii. I should mention that our faithful GPS “Gerdy” had given in to the trauma of global air travel and arrived in Italy without a functioning screen. We will miss you Gerdy!

At some point on the drive home, Christina developed a severe migraine and was virtually incapacitated by the time we got home. She went to bed early and I had a dinner of salami and crackers (it was a lot better than it sounds!).

Tuesday, October 19th

Our plans to drive the Amalfi Coast went out the window when Christina woke up with a stomach ache and fever. The weather also did not look good, with wind and rain obscuring our view of the water. We took it as a sign to stay home and have another quiet day. Christina spent the morning resting and I sat down and read a book. By lunchtime, Christina was feeling a little better and the weather started to clear up. We didn’t have enough time to drive the Amalfi Coast, so we set of to Pompeii instead.

The drive to Pompeii made me appreciate the Circumvesuvianna train! I quickly learned some important lessons about driving in Italy: (1) Expect the unexpected, (2) Defensive driving is key, and (3) Stop signs and lane markers are merely suggestions. The best advice I heard from other tourists was to “just drive like to want and the Italians will pass you if they don’t like it”. That was certainly a true statement, especially with the dare-devil moped and motorcycle riders! The drive took us along narrow winding roads and through busy towns. There were several spots of construction and detours, so the drive ended up taking much longer than taking the train. Oh well, it was good practice!

We parked outside Pompeii and walked into the site. Not being a scholar of history, my knowledge of the ruins was limited to “a town buried by a volcano”. What we found was an amazing metropolis of the former Roman city that was in remarkable condition for being nearly 2000 years old. Pompeii was a thriving port city along the Mediterranean before it was completely buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that the site was re-discovered and it is still being excavated to this day. This makes it one of the best preserved and complete set of Roman ruins in the world. We spent about 3 hours walking around the site listening to Rick Steves’ podcasts. The highlights included several houses and temples, along with a theater and amphitheater. It was amazing to walk the cobblestone streets and see the treads warn into the rock from chariots thousands of years ago. One of the more gruesome sights was a case full of plaster casts made of the victims of Pompeii. The eruption was so sudden that 2000 residents were killed, most buried under the ash. When the flesh decomposed, it left a void in the shape of their bodies. When the site was excavated, archaeologists poured plaster into these voids and made shockingly accurate molds of several of the victims, frozen in their dying moments.

After walking all around Pompeii, we got back to the car around 4:00. In the interest of time, we decided to skip Herculaneum and Mt. Vesuvius and head back to Sorrento. After another wild Italian driving experience, we made it home safe-and-sound. Christina made a very good chicken noodle soup and we enjoyed a quiet evening.

Monday, October 18th

Today was planned as another day of relaxation. The only planned event was a 4-hour cooking class to create (and eat!) a 4-course Italian meal. After a light breakfast and walk to town, we met up with a driver who took us to the resort where the cooking class was held. During the drive, we chatted with a couple from Toronto who were on a whirlwind honeymoon through Italy and Turkey. It was nice to have conversations in English!

It turned out that there were 11 people in the cooking class from all over the world, including Canada, Australia, England, and Finland. The chef did not speak much English, so there was a translator to explain all the steps.

The first course was an appetizer of fried Neapolitan pizza. We mixed all the ingredients to make the dough, and then made individual pizzas that were topped with tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, and basil after the dough was fried in peanut oil. The dough was incredibly good, though I would have preferred more exotic toppings.

The next course was Capri style ravioli stuffed with a 3-cheese blend of ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan. After kneading the dough, we had fun adding the filling, folding the top over, and cutting out the ravioli shape. We could tell which raviolis we had made based on the obscure shape and size of each piece!

The main course was called “Crazy Water Fish Fillets”. It consisted of a local white fish, baked with olive oil, cherry tomatoes, salt, garlic, onion, parsley, celery, and oregano. The “crazy water” name comes from the fact that it is supposed to be pan-fried in olive oil, which causes the water to pop and crackle when the fish is added. However, for our demonstration there were so many people that we had to bake it in an oven instead. It was incredibly tasty though, even to me as a person who does not typically like any kind of seafood.

The final course was an authentic Tiramisu, complete with whipped eggs, dark rum, and coffee-soaked lady fingers. By the time we got to the dessert, all of us were already stuffed from all the other great food we had eaten. I made it only a few bites into the Tiramisu before I threw in the towel. It was fun to see how to make it though. We left the cooking class with copies of all the recipes so that we could try them all out at home. I know that we’ll try the fried pizza for sure!

After lunch, we stumbled back to the house for a long siesta. After we woke up, we headed into town to grab some groceries for a light dinner and headed over to Europecar to rent a car. It took over a week, but I have finally built up the courage to drive with the wild Italians! Our plan is to drive the Amalfi Coast tomorrow, so we rented a Smart Car for the adventure. It is a funny little diesel car with a pseudo-automatic transmission, but it should be the perfect way to explore the coast without worrying too much about fitting into parking spaces!

Sunday, October 17th

After a crazy day of exploring on Saturday, we were both ready to completely relax on Sunday. We slept in until about 9:30 and had a lazy breakfast on the patio. Our biggest excursion was a trip into town to buy laundry soap and toilet paper. After that, I finally had a chance to sit down and post some of the content to this blog. The internet connection is too slow to upload any pictures, but I’m glad to be at least posting text of our adventures. After tiring of the dawdling wireless signal, we sat in the sun and read our books until our stomachs started to rumble. Pepe had impeccable timing as he brought us roasted chestnuts and pastries that we enjoyed while taking in the view.

Lunch today was a very special treat. We went to a restaurant called Il Buco, the only Michelin-rated restaurant in Sorrento. In what can only be described as a “food experience “, we enjoyed an amazing array of Italian spenders for over two hours. Christina had ravioli stuffed with octopus, followed by lamb ribs. I had a potato stuffed with cheese and bacon, followed by a steak with apple glaze. To top it off, I got a half-bottle of local red wine. By the time we left the restaurant, we both felt like we could barely walk back up to the villa (despite our wallets being significantly lighter!).

After an afternoon siesta, we spent more time reading before heading back into town for gelato and phone calls home. After figuring out where to buy phone cards and how they work in the payphones, it was great to connect to family back home.

Saturday, October 16th

Today, we got lost in Naples. Not lost in the classic romantic sense, but truly lost in a strange, dark, graffiti-strewn metropolis.

The day started out with a simple plan: see the island of Capri and then head over to the National Museum in Naples before returning to Sorrento. We are a quick breakfast at the villa and then walked down the narrow streets to Marina Piccolo (“Small marina” in Italian, but it’s actually much larger than Marina Grande). We purchased tickets for the 8:45 jet boat to Capri and were on our way less than 10 minutes later. The island is located about 5 km off the Sorrentine Peninsula and has been a favorite vacation spot for celebrities and Roman emperors alike. The main attractions are Capri town, the Blue Grotto, and the I Faraglioni rock formation.

Despite riding in a modern catamaran jet boat, the ride over was far from smooth. We had great views of the rugged coastline during the 25-minute crossing, but the boat went through many undulations in all directions. After arriving on Capri, it took a while for the feeling of rolling seas to subside before we were ready to explore.

Our main mode of transportation on the island was the public bus. All the guidebooks we read said not to purchase a daily pass and opt for single-use tickets instead because it would take 6 trips to equal the price of a day pass. Unknowingly, we made that our target. The first leg was supposed to take us to the town of Anacapri, where we could connect to a bus to the Blue Grotto. We purchased the bus tickets (#1) and saw there was no line, so we chose to wait on a nice little beach. While we were enjoying the sun, a mob of tourists decided to line up for the same bus. We weren’t worried until we saw the bus show up, which may have been slightly smaller than a Chevy Suburban. After watching nearly 20 people pile into tiny bus, it became clear that we were not going to make it. Plan B was to take the funicular up to the town of Capri, then transfer to another (more frequent) bus to Anacapri. So we rode the train up to Capri, which is an Italian version of Beverly Hills. From there, we purchased more bus tickets (#2) and headed to Anacapri. As we rode up the steep and narrow winding roads, we quickly discovered the reason for the midget busses: anything larger wouldn’t fit on the roads! The drive took us up a series of switchbacks until we were about 500 feet above the water along a steep precipice. We arrived at Anacapri and purchased the bus tickets (#3) to the Blue Grotto. Fifteen minutes later, we arrived to an empty parking lot above the Grotto. As we descended the stairs, we remembered the guidebooks warning that on days with rough water, the boats didn’t operate to take folks into the grotto. Sure enough, today was one of those days. Instead of riding the boats into the grotto, we took pictures of the stairs leading to the grotto and purchased postcards to see what we were missing. With another set of bus tickets (#4), we headed back to Anacapri.

After a quick lunch of take-out calzones and pizza, we walked over to the Monte Solaro chairlift, which whisked us to the highest point on the Island (1,932 ft). We were rewarded with panoramic views of Capri, Sorrento, and the Bay of Naples. After taking plenty of pictures, we opted to hike back to Anacapri rather than take the chairlift. It offered a great chance to stretch our legs and see some great scenery along the way. Back in Anacapri, we set off in search of gelato. One thing we have discovered about Italy is that gelato stands are as numerous as Starbucks shops in Seattle; there seems to be one on every corner. Which is why we were surprised to walk about 10 minutes down the main commercial street of Anacapri and not find a single shop. It wasn’t until we walked back to the chairlift that we discovered a shop right across the street from where we had started! Once we were refreshed with gelato, we purchased our bus tickets (#5) with the intent of going straight to the marina. No luck. 10 minutes after the bus was supposed to arrive, we gave up and rode back to Capri. From there, we purchased tickets (#6) and rode the funicular back to the Marina.

Main lessons from Capri: (1) It would have been cheaper and easier to purchase an all-day bus pass, (2) Always check to see if the Blue Grotto boats are running before you get to the parking lot, and (3) Look around before walking in search of gelato (odds are there’s a shop right in front of you!).

Our second stop for the day was Naples. To avoid the same sea-sickness from the morning, we bought tickets on the ferry. We spent about 20 minutes extra time to cross the bay compared to the jet boat, but we saved our stomachs and sanity. Arriving in Naples, we were amazed to see some of the huge car ferries that make the Washington State ferries look like small skiboats. Some of the ferries looked as large as the mega cruise ships!

Once we exited the marina complex, we found ourselves wandering very dark and graffiti-strewn streets. It didn’t help that a storm was rolling in, so the dark grey clouds matched the color and mood of the city. This was the first time during the whole trip that I found myself consciously clutching my cell phone and money belt out of certainty that we would fall victim to the famous Italian pick-pockets. Although we had a detailed map of the city, on several occasions we found ourselves on streets that were not on the map or plazas with no street names at all. After walking a zig-zag pattern through the cacophony of city blocks, we finally got our bearings and headed for the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archeological Museum). Once we were about 10 blocks away, the heavens opened up like a Tucson monsoon and turned the streets into flowing rivers. The rain was so hard that even the folks with rain jackets or umbrellas (ourselves included) huddled under the porticos of small shops and waited out the squall. After about 5 minutes, the rain let up and we made it to the museum.

The highlight of the museum is a collection of artifacts and frescoes recovered from Pompeii. After the ruins were discovered, everything of value was swept up and whisked off to museums, with a large portion of the artifacts ending up in Naples. We were amazed to see the intricately made silver dishes and colored glass bottles. The museum itself is impressive, occupying a huge palace that dates to 1585. The main gallery is one of the largest rooms in all of Europe. Another highlight of the museum is the Gabinetto Secreto, or the Secret Cabinet. This room was supposed to contain all the “X-rated” finds from Pomeii. Unfortunately, the room would remain a secret to us because it was closed for restoration during our visit.

By the time we had finished browsing the collections at the museum, we had long missed the last ferry back to Sorrento. That meant we had to find our way to the main train station and ride the circumvesuviana train again. The journey to the train station proved to be more arduous than the trek to the museum. Although we avoided any downpours this time, we found ourselves dodging rowdy crowds of Italians out for a night on the town. We again became disoriented sever times and were on the verge of being overwhelmed before we finally made it to the train station. Eventually we gave up on making it back to Sorrento in time for dinner and stopped for a quick meal of panini and pizza (there always seems to be pizza when you need it!).

Eventually we did make it to the train station and we caught the circumvesuviana back to Sorrento. As we rode the rickety rails back home, we had time to reflect on our whirlwind 13-hour adventure. We decided that either Capri or Naples would have been a good goal for the day, but trying to cover both in the same day was a little too much. By the time we made it back to the villa, we were both looking forward to a couple days to finally relax and unwind.

Friday, October 15th

After a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms, we again woke up to a damp town but clearing skies. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed down to explore Sorrento. The town was founded more than 2000 years ago, so the roads are narrow and the architecture is quite old. The city is perched on the side of a cliff, with stairs down to a marina and a small beach. We wandered down to the water and back to the main drag of town. There are several narrow streets lined with shops selling the staples of Sorrento, which seem to be limoncella, inlayed wood, and ceramic items. We held off purchasing anything until we had more time to explore. We headed back to the marina and had a wonderful lunch looking out at the boats.

After lunch we trekked back to the villa for an afternoon siesta (fully embracing that part of Italian culture!). Once we woke up, we headed back to town to get food for dinner. Christina made another wonderful dinner, this time consisting of lemon chicken and artichokes. I can certainly get used to eating like an Italian!

Now I’m sitting here typing up the text for the blog; hopefully I’ll have a chance to upload everything soon. Tomorrow we are heading to Capri for a day of exploring and hiking. More to come shortly.

Thursday, October 14th

We woke up Thursday and had another British breakfast at the hotel. We then headed to a local market so Christina could get a taste of the local produce and start planning the meals for Sorrento. She was not disappointed by the selection, though we ended up only buying a pomegranate since we did not want to carry much with us on the train.

Our next stop was the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, which is a huge building in the center of the city that was built to celebrate the first king of Italy. It is quite a gaudy building, and has all kinds of derogatory nicknames like the wedding cake and the typewriter. The best part is that there is an observation deck at the top of the building that provides panoramic views of the city. We took lots of pictures and then headed back to the hotel to pack.

The first leg of the trip to Sorrento was on the Eruostar Italia train. We splurged for 1st class tickets, which afforded us wide seats and free champagne. The trip from Rome to Naples covered the same distance as Seattle to Portland, but the 220 mph bullet train got us there in just over an hour. I kept thinking of how nice it would be to have such a system in the US. Can you image getting from Seattle to Portland in an hour?! Once in Naples, we transferred to the Circumvesuviana line to Sorrento. If the Eurostar was a Hilton, the Circumvesuviana would be the back alley of a Motel 6. It was quite a shock to go from the 1st class accommodations to what was essentially a beat-up graffiti-painted subway train from the mid-90’s. The 1-hour ride from Naples to Sorrento seemed to last forever, at least until we were able to find seats and a shred of comfort. The only alternative was to pay outrageous fees for a taxi or bus, or wait for a ferry to cross the Bay of Naples. We eventually made it to Sorrento, which is an absolutely beautiful town on the Mediterranean, nestled on a peninsula between Mount Vesuvious and the island of Capri.

Our next challenge was to get to the villa that we had rented for the week. Our plan was to take a taxi, but the driver wanted to charge 20 Euros for the 3 km drive, a price that seemed absurd even for a tourist area. It turns out that the taxis here are not regulated, so the drivers are able to gouge the tourist as much as they want. We ended up taking the public bus, which took significantly longer but only cost us 5 Euros. We arrived outside the Hilton Grand Palace and met the owner of the villa, Senior Pepe. He drove us up the hill to Casa Donna Titina. Located right next to Pepe’s house, the villa has 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, and breathtaking views of the Bay of Naples. We hardly had time to unload our bags before Pepe invited us over to his house for Limoncella. Pepe’s English is certainly better than our Italian, but we still found it difficult to carry on a conversation for very long. We enjoyed the view and I sampled the home-made limoncella which is a delicacy of Sorrento. I would describe it as lemon flavored NyQuil, but that doesn’t capture the fact that it is actually quite good. We are planning to ship a few bottled back to the US so we can share it with friends and family.

The villa was advertised as having an internet connection, and it turned out that the connection was from Pepe’s house and the only place that we could pick it up was at a table in the driveway. I was able to get a connection and spent a little time reading through e-mail and making sure that I wasn’t missing any logistics from work related to my move to Italy.

Pepe offered to drive us to the grocery store to pick up some food, so we obliged and piled into his tiny car. It turns out that it’s a good thing he has such a small car, because the streets in Sorrento aren’t much wider than a motor scooter with a wide load. After a wild drive through the canyon-like streets, we arrived at the grocery store and picked up enough for dinner and breakfast. Pepe drove us back to the villa and Christina made a wonderful dinner of noodles with tomato sauce and beef. We read our books and faded off to sleep.

Wednesday, October 13th

We woke up on Wednesday to find a very damp city. A big rainstorm had passed during the night, but the skies looked like they were starting to clear. We ate breakfast at the hotel in a 4th story room that overlooked to Colosseum. The hotel we were staying at caters primarily to British travelers, so the breakfast was British continental. There were tasty chocolate pastries, scrambled eggs, funny little cocktail wieners, plates of cheese and deli meats, and American cereals. The most amusing part was that we were eating breakfast in Rome overlooking the Colosseum, and the music in the background was Rhianna and Ke$ha.

The plan for the day was a 4-hour walking tour followed by a trip to the Vatican Museum and St. Peters Basilica. We met our tour group on the other side of the Colosseum. We had arranged it through a company called Context, which specializes in small group tours by highly educated guides. There were three couples on the tour, and it turned out that two were from Seattle and one was from Portland. I guess it’s the time of the year to escape the Pacific Northwest! Our tour guide was a French woman with a Masters degree in Art History who had lived in San Francisco for 3 years before moving to Rome. She provided a great narrative as we wandered through the historical sites.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. We walked around the outside and she described the ingenious system that the Romans used to build a retractable awning that could protect the crowd of 50,000 people from the harsh summer rays. We entered the site and got some great views of the inside of the arena. One of the most interesting lessons was that the name “Colosseum” comes from the fact that the building was constructed next to a huge statue of the emperor Nero, which was later defaced and re-faced as the god Colossus. The building was referred to as “next to Colossus”, which later morphed into Colosseum. The name stuck and now we call all sorts of stadiums “Coliseums”, while the name really has nothing to do with sports or circular arenas. The type of building was called an Amphitheatre.

We next headed to the Roman Forum, a collection of ruins that was the heart of Ancient Rome. It was amazing to see all the different levels of the buildings. As the civilization grew, new buildings were constructed on the ruins of old ones and the whole city grew vertically. By the 5th century AD, the city level was almost 20 feet taller than it had begun. Now that may of the sites have been excavated down to the original levels, you see a lot of doors and entryways that are suspended 20 feet in the air. It’s like digging a house down to its basement and looking up from the hole.

The last stop on the tour was Palentine Hill, where the Roman civilization was started by Romulus in about 750 B.C. The hill was the site of giant compounds for the emperors and senators, and the houses on Palentine eventually were called palaces. The hill provided great view of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. One of the highlights was the palace of emperor Domitian which was nearly a quarter mile long on each side. It also had a great view of Circus Maximus, where the Roman chariot races were observed by more than 200,000 people many years ago. This concluded our walking tour, and we bid goodbye to our friends from the Northwest.

After a brief stop at the hotel, we boarded the Metro and headed to Vatican City. We ate a quick pizza lunch and entered the Vatican Museum. I had no idea that the Vatican had such a vast assortment of art, statues, and tapestries that made the National Museum look like an amateur collection. It was amazing to see some of the Egyptian artifacts that were stolen by various Popes throughout the century. There were also almost endless hallways with extravagant artwork on the walls and ceiling. The highlight of the museum is the Sistine Chapel, with Michelangelo’s famous artwork depicting the entirety of Christian history. We sat and listened to pod casts describing the paintings and the incredible amount of work that it took to create them. I didn’t realize that the paint could only be applied to wet plaster, so Michelangelo had to have the walls plastered each day and just enough area that he could finish painting in a day. If there were any mistakes, the area would have to be re-plastered. I can’t imagine doing that for nearly four years!

From the chapel, we walked out to St. Peter’s Square and took pictures of St. Peter’s Basilica. By that time we were getting pretty tired, so we decided to skip the tour of St. Peter’s and head back to the hotel.

Dinner on Wednesday was our first chance to sit down and experience a true Italian meal. We ate at Urbana 47, a restaurant that specializes in creating dishes from locally available food. I had a wonderful chicken dish, and Christina had lamb and potatoes that was to-die-for. Although we only had a two-course meal, we still took about two hours to savor the food. We got back to the hotel around 11:00 and were asleep before we hit the pillow.

Tuesday, October 12th

We woke up Tuesday over the Swiss Alps, having crossed over England and France while we were sleeping. The views out the window were breathtaking and helped us break out of the sleep-deprived fog. We flew down the Italian coast and straight into the Rome Fiumicino Airport. I always enjoy flying into international airports for all the plane-spotting opportunities (yes, I’m a nerd!). We got off the plane and experienced hands-down the easiest customs process that I have ever seen. Our passports couldn’t have been out of our hands for more than 3 seconds. It was long enough to get a stamp, but hardly enough time to read our name or make any attempt to record our entry into the country. We purchased our Roma Passes, which would get us into the main attractions and provided a pass for the transit system. Since we were only traveling with carry-on bags, we proceeded directly to the airport train station and took the train into downtown Rome.

We arrived at the downtown Termini and transferred to the Metro train. Two stops later, we got off at the Colosseo station and found ourselves staring at the Roman Colosseum. We snapped a couple pictures and then headed to our hotel (Capo d’Africa) located about 5 blocks from the Colosseum. We checked into the hotel and took a chance to shower and refresh from the long journey. Then it was off to explore Rome.

Our first stop was a café for lunch. We certainly were struggling with Italian, so we resorted to pointing at the items we wanted and using charades to determine the price. I ended up with a toasted panini and Christina had a spaghetti bowl. As we ate lunch, we watched an amazing scene of busy Italians eating and chatting during their breaks from the work day. We were amused by how many businessmen we saw in fancy suits eating huge gelato sundaes!

After lunch, we went to the National Museum where they have many artifacts from the Roman civilizations. We took pictures of many statues, tablets, and paintings. What caught my eye was a complete set of armor and weapons from a Lanuvium warrior dated from 475 BC. It was just staggering to think that we were looking at items made almost 2500 years ago! After about an hour in the museum, my energy levels started to plummet as those sleepless hours on the plane were racing to catch up with me. We headed back to the hotel and completely crashed.

What was supposed to be a 2-hour siesta turned into a 4-hour coma after I subconsciously decided to ignore my alarm clock. I have dim memories of turning the alarm off, but I can’t remember having any motivation to get up at the time. By the time we woke up, it was a little past 7:00 PM. With our energy levels refreshed, we continued our walking tour of the city. We wandered past the Colosseum, Campo de' Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Dinner was pizza to-go. The Italians definitely know how to make pizza! Best of all, they have to-go pizza that is folded to create a pizza sandwich that is portable and tastes great.

Our plan was to buy gelato and eat it on the Spanish Steps, but the shop we tried wanted to charge us 15 Euros (about $22.50) for 2 scoops of ice cream! We said No Thanks and handed the cone back and walked out the door. We took the metro back to the Colloseum and got gelato by our hotel for 3 Euros. We borrowed the computer at the main desk to send a quick e-mail update, then headed off to sleep

Monday, October 11th

Note: our internet connection here is too slow to support pictures, so I will be adding those after we return.

We woke up Monday and finished some last minute packing, ate a quick breakfast, and headed to the airport after saying goodbye to the puppies. Evelyn had driven up from Portland to pick up the dogs and she was able to get us to the airport as well (BIG THANKS!!!). We we’re flying American Airlines for two reasons: cheapest price and frequent flier miles (on Alaska Air). From Seattle, we headed to Chicago on one of American’s newest 737-800’s (Built in Nov. 2009). The flight was uneventful and we landed in Chicago a few minutes early. On the ground, we experienced what I call “gate serendipity”. Expecting a long walk through O’Hare airport, we were pleasantly surprised to find our connection was from gate K10 to gate K13 (all of about 200 feet!). You can’t ask for much better in one of the busiest airports in the world. We had enough time to sit down and eat a nice dinner before the next flight.

From Chicago, we had a direct flight to Rome on a 767-300 that was almost as old as Christina and me. The seats seemed smaller than the 737 and we found it nearly impossible to sleep. The only benefit was that the 2-3-2 seating allowed us an aisle and a window seat without anyone between us. The food was pretty standard airline food, but at least it was included! Despite the Italians chatting throughout the night, we did eventually manage to drift off to sleep for about two hours.

Off to Italy!

It’s time to start up the travel blog again; this time we’re headed to Italy! We’ll spend 2 nights in Rome, followed by a week in the Mediterranean town of Sorrento. This trip has been planned for quite some time, long before I knew that I’d be moving to Italy for 6 months shortly after our return.