All Who Wander, Are Not Lost

Eager to begin our adventures this morning, we were planning on getting up at 6:30 so we could get to the Vatican early before the crowds. However, our "scheduled" wake up call never occurred and we all ignored the watch alarm until 8:30am. Oops. After a "hearty breakfast" of bread, croissants, and dry cereal, we ventured to the Vatican City around 10:30.

At the Vatican, we bypassed 2 blocks of waiting lines, thanks to our online prebooked tickets, and easily entered the museum. We did another audio tour, but we each bought one for 7 Euro, which isn't too shabby and we were able to enjoy the history a little more this time after a good night of sleep, minus Meredith. Rooms after rooms we saw Egyptian artifacts, paintings, statues, sculptures, chinese tours groups with matching red hats, courtyards, fountains, tapestries, lots of B.O. (including us and others), and magnificant intricantly decorated ceilings, we finally made it to the highight of the Vatican- the Sistene Chapel.

At first glance, we all thought "is this it?". But after listening intently several times after nodding our heads a little bit, we thoroughly appreciated the amazing artwork. The history behind the chapel and Michaelangelo was truly astonishing. For your quick information and the most interesting facts of the Sistene Chapel, the ceiling depicts a timeline of Christianity and its most told stories. One of the side walls portrays the "The Last Judgement", which was absolutely incredible. All of work Michaelangelo did took nearly half of our lives to do it. After a few moments taking it in, we left to explore the St. Peter's Basillica and San Pietro Plaza.

St. Peter's Basillica is only a few blocks from the Vatican City. It is most known for the Swiss Guards, who are motionless, 284 huge columns in the square, and the statues/elaborate ceilings inside. We actually got to touch St. Peter's right foot, which apparently is the thing to do, and we saw actually confessions of a young guy.... wonder what he was confessing?! Another interesting thing was the mumified Pope John the 23rd. He slightly looked like Santa actually. After receiving directions from some friendly guards, we began the "10 minute" stroll to the Pantheon... After a good hour, quality directions from an Italian Bartender, 5 Euros sucked and gone down a vending machine, we finally made it to the Pantheon. This is the only unrestored historical momument. It was originally a chapel for Christians and Martyrs, one of the largest dome ceilings with a sunlight opening in the top, and Raffael's final resting place.

A few blocks over we went to a popular plaza named Piazza De Navona. There were 3 fountains, many streets performers comprised of singers, vendors, dancers, musicians, live statues painted in mud, and oh, there was this one mime comedian...... who instantly spotted Erin and pulled her up as his joke material. He had her mimick his hand gestures... until he raised his shirt....and pretended to pull her bra off.... Erin politely said no and ran quickly back to us. No worries, we have a video recording of everything. We strolled around the vendors and streets for a bit until dining at a semi-local italian restaurant. We ALL enjoyed dinner tonight. Its interesting to us that we have to pay so much for water most everywhere, minus some random fountains locals drink from. We took the Metro back, somewhat embarassed in our Mom jeans, tennis shoes, ratty hair, and t-shirts, as tonight the Romans were just beginning their fun filled nights.

After the bombarding the concierge with questions, getting our safe unlocked (harder than it sounds), and getting ready for our day tomorrow. It is now 1:06am, and our wake up call is ensured to ring at 4:30am so we can venture to our next destination... SORRENTO!

Ciao Bello! (Bye Beautiful - in Italian)

When in Rome

After 7.5 hours of flying, 3 airplane meals and 2 hours of sleep, we arrived in Rome at about 7:20 am. After departing the plane, we collected our luggage, exited customs and made our way to the metro station where we took the train to "Rome Termini," the main station in Rome (no gypsy kids). From there we began our trek to the "Yes Hotel." With failing backs , wobbly legs and 70+ lbs of luggage we climbed about 200 stairs and walked up 5 blocks of cobblestone street and finally reached our destination. To our surprise, the "Yes Hotel" is actually very nice. We have a suite with 2 rooms, 2 showers, 2 hair dryers and 3 beds. This will be very helpful when 4 girls are trying to get ready.

After finding our home for the next 2 nights, we walked to the train station and headed to Ancient Rome to see the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The Colosseum was astounding. We took an audio tour here which was informative and a good thought, but after 32 hours of nearly no sleep and a monotone voice, this did not prove to be the best combination.

Then we headed towards Palatine Hill where we were able to see many of the ruins before a small rain shower moved in. After being offered thousands of umbrellas by locals, we decided the most economical option for saving Molly's white shirt was to find shelter under a nearby tree. Luckily we only had to stay there for about 15 minutes. After the shower passed, we walked toward the Roman Forum. It was magnificant to see the marble columns still standing after the test of time.

But enough with the history...reality is we were exhausted. We came back to the room to freshen up and headed downtown for some shopping, real Roman gelato (yum yum) and ended up in a recommended genuine Italian restaurant.

Thanks to Erin, we were able to conquer the language barrier and place an order. This restaurant supposedly has the best ravioli on the planet to which Molly and Meredith are albe to attest. The restaurant was run by an old man and woman, where he helped the customers and she did the cooking. Now we can say we've eaten authentic Italian food in Italy--while this was a greater experience for some than others (Allayna!)

Now, we are back in the hotel room....not doing as the Romans tonight, as they are just beginning. However, we will be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning ready for our trip to the Vatican City, that is if we can get this posted without deleting it AGAIN! :)

Buona Notte! (Goodnight! in Italian)

Hi from Boston

Hi there from Boston,

It's about 3:00 and there isn't much to say, but we wanted to let everyone know that we are in Boston will be here until 5:45. At 5:45 we will begin our journey over the Atlantic and will arrive in Rome around 7:45 Friday morning. While in Europe we will be 6 hours ahead of North Carolina time, so this will be a little bit of an adjustment, but we will make it!

Much love from all of us!

Days before Departure

Hey Everyone,

It is only 2ish days before we depart for Europe. We are all very excited, frantically packing, and taking care of last minute details.

Quick Itinerary of our travels:
-Rome for two days
-Sorrento/Capri/Naples- three days
-Lucerne Switzerland for three days
- Praha for three weeks
- Vienna for two days

We will try to update frequently!


Allayna
Erin
Meredith
Molly