Homeward Bound – 8/07

I was up, got ready and was down in the lobby at 5:30 for our trip to the airport. There were five of us that Jason shuttled to the airport: the “original four” of Jeff, Sam, me and Aprile were all on the same flight to San Francisco; and Robert whose final destination was Montana.

We said goodbye to Robert at the departure curb and got our boarding passes without any problems. Since we had some time, we decided to get a bite to eat before going to our gate; that was mistake number one. After eating and a bit of souvenir shopping, we headed to the gate. The passport validation and going through security took a little longer then we expected but we still had plenty of time. To get to our gate, we had to take one of those automated shuttles that took three minutes to switch buildings. There was a little bit of confusion at the end of the ride and instead of getting out with thought it would take us closer to our gate. Wrong… we went back to the main terminal and the security guard made us get out so we couldn’t go back. So ran to get the shuttle again only to find out we had to go through security again. Now we were really in trouble. We politely forced our way to the front of the line, got through then ran back a long way through the main terminal to the shuttle. We got on and went to the separate terminal. And, wouldn’t you know it - our gate was at the very end of that terminal! So, we ran some more. Fortunately for us, they were boarding the flight but there was still time to spare.

After we got to the gate, I noticed my boarding pass was different from the others. I initially thought I was on a separate flight, but when I found that was incorrect, I asked the desk attendant what was up. Come to find out, that was my London to SF pass. After I found my Rome to London pass, I couldn’t find my London to SF pass. We tore my carryon bags apart, it was no where to be found. After all the running to get the flight, I couldn’t get home. Right when I was about to despair, I heard a voice calling my name. It was the airline attendant asking if this was my boarding pass. I had left it at the desk. What a drama to go through to get on the plane in Rome!

When we arrived in London, we went right to the gate for our plane to SF and found it was already boarding. When I got to the ticket agent, the computer beeped at my boarding pass; they had reassigned my seat to someone else. I was upset because my new seat was not on the isle until the attendant told me it was an upgrade. I had been upgraded to business class! I had a wonderful bulk head seat with plenty of foot room and easy access past my neighbor on the isle. Now that was a blessing from God after all the trials I went through in Rome.

Our flight to SF was uneventful arriving on time. After getting through customs, we met each others families and took photos. We were back on American soil; back to our normal lives and loved ones once again.

Last Day in Rome – 8/06

This was our last full day in Rome and in Italy before returning home the next day. We were up early again for our last walking tour of Rome, but not without a hearty breakfast before leaving. On the agenda today was the Vatican Museum and Saint Peter’s Basilica. So off we walked to the Vatican.

On our way there we crossed over the Tiber River and had some great views of Castel Sant’Angelo (Castle of the Archangel) in the semi-cloudy, still morning. I got some great shots with lots of reflections and sky. Apparently, this castle built as a tomb of Roman Emperor Hadrian; was used as a tomb by subsequent emperors for almost 100 years. Over time it became a fortified palace; in the Dark Ages it was a fortress and a prison; in 1277 it was connected to the Vatican by an elevated corridor and was a handy place of refuge for the pope during invasions.

A few long blocks from the Castle St. Peter’s Basilica came into view, but that was saved for later after we saw the Vatican Museum. On the way there, we walked by an entrance into Vatican City where some handsome and nicely costumed men (I’m not sure what you call that outfit!) that stopped cars and people to validate their entrance. We waited in a long line for about 30 minutes before entering and finally getting into the museum. I saw Raphael’s famous “School of Athens” and “The Stanza of the Signatura”. The room that housed these paintings was amazing: all four walls and the ceiling were lavishly decorated with gold leaf, mosaics and frescos from Raphael’s hand. I sat in that room for quite awhile taking that in. After that came the large collection of modern art before entering the Sistine Chapel. I stayed there for quite some time taking it all in. When the pain of looking up got to me neck, I continued on through the Vatican library. Check out the paintings on the ceiling and arches. The cabinets along the bottom are where the library treasures were kept. I bought a book of the artwork of both Michelangelo and Raphael as I was leaving. Check out this exit stairwell; is that too cool or what!?!!

After we exited the Vatican, we walked back to St. Peter’s Square to regroup before going into the Basilica. I took several blurry pictures of the Pieta and the light in one of the ceiling’s domed skylights. Besides being huge, I was amazed at the opulently decorated interior of the Basilica. Statues after statues; paintings and more paintings; the relic of Peter’s remains; the bonze statue of St. Peter where people stood in line to touch his foot; the huge canopy where the priest held mass using the full church; all the side chapels. I just stood in awe of it all; I wondered why the church would spend so much time and money on such extravagant decorations and outward appearances. All I can say is money, position and power can cause corruption in any kind of organization. Anyway, I took a picture of the square as I exited the Basilica.

After finishing up on our final tour, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage. We were to transfer to the Holiday Inn near the airport either by taking a taxi or the hotel shuttle. The shuttle would leave for a few more hours and we were very tired and in need of a shower, so we took a taxi. The Holiday Inn was just like on in the States. It had large rooms, a large swimming pool, and the other amenities you would expect from a large hotel. Since there was little around the hotel in the way of food, most of us gathered for dinner that evening for one last meal together with the group before our departure the next day. After some tears and final pictures, I went back to my room to repack my suitcases for the trip home before retiring for the night.

Rome, Day 2 – 8/05

We were out early for our walking tour. Our first stop was Piazza Navona. Even though we had visited it the day before, Jason wanted to point out a couple of things; the Bernini sculpture’s of the Four Rivers in the center and the fountain of the Moor at the southern end. The Four Rivers fountain was not accessible due to restoration work so I got a picture from Wikipedia to post here. I’ve also included a photo of the Moor fountain.

Next up on our tour was visiting a couple churches. On our way, we passed by the Pantheon and we went in again. I took a picture of the carriages that you can rent for an old fashioned ride around Rome with the Pantheon behind it. Just behind and above the carriage is the entrance. The think I found most interesting was the hole in ceiling so here are couple of it. The floor was slanted to drain rain water that came through that open hole.

After this we visited a church where Jason new the priest and Jason had painted a painting of the inside of the church. I don’t remember the name of it but it was beautiful inside. It had a ceiling that was painted in perfect perspective. It also had the highly ornate interior consistent with most of the churches in Rome.

The next church we visited was the Church of San Luigi which had two Caravaggio paintings: The Calling of Saint Matthew and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew. The lighting in the little chapel inside the church was run by a coin operated switch. You put a one Euro coin in and the light stayed on for several minutes; then it went out again. It was a good way to bring in some extra change for the church. After this we headed to the Piazzo del Popolo (Square of the People) to see another church that had a Caravaggio painting. By the time we finished it was around noon, so everyone went to get lunch then we were to meet Jason at the Villa Borghese Museum for our 3:00 scheduled tour there. I’ve included a shot of one of the churches in the Piazzo del Popolo.

We all met at the Villa Borghese to see the collection of artwork. The Cardinal Scipione Borghese was a Renaissance era prelate, art collector and a member of the Borghese family. The cardinal used this as a party villa and to hold his art collection. It had some fabulous Bernini sculptures and several works by Caravaggio. It was my favorite of all art places we visited in Rome. I bought a book of Caravaggio’s work at the museum book store. It was written in Italian, but that was okay because I was interested mainly in the pictures. Speaking of pictures, here’s a photo of Serena, Theo, Craig, Sean and Judy with the hat, waiting for everyone to finish the tour.

Once everyone got back together, we headed down the road, past the zoo, to the National Museum of Modern art. They really do have modern art in Italy! It was a nice change after seeing so much religious art. I’ve included a picture of Sam walking up to it. Once we finished there, five of us decided to take a cab back to the hotel. We were really tired after a whole day of literally walking around Rome. After cleaning up Sam, Jen, Robert and I went out for a nice dinner and we celebrated Jen’s birthday. For dessert, we stopped at a nearby gelato shop. It was a perfect end to a very busy day.

Rome, Evening Tour - 8/04

Our first stop on our evening tour was Piazza Navona. This piazza has a famous Berini’s Four Rivers Fountain in front of a building in which Michelangelo was the architect. From there we went to the Pantheon where I got a picture of the outside of it while a group of us were sitting at a nearby café; that’s Robert in the red shirt taking a picture of some of our group.

Next we were off to the Trevi Fountain. This was built in 1762 by Nicola Salvi and it was built to celebrate the reopening of an ancient aqueduct that powers it. The fountain’s main character is “Ocean” a figure that represents water in all of its form. Water gushes from 24 different locations. Tradition has it that by tossing a coin over your will assure your return to Rome. After working our way through the crowd, we took pictures of each other throwing in our coins (here’s to my return!) then Craig took a picture of our evening tour group in front of the fountain. It was a fun site.

Our last official stop of the day was the Spanish Steps. This is a wide set of step with a curving walkway on both sides leading up to an obelisk at the top centered between two church bell towers. The evening we were there they were setting up for a concert so the place was jammed. According to the Rick Steve’s guide book, this is one of the icons of the city of Rome.

After seeing the Spanish Steps area, everyone regrouped and went their own way for dinner. Craig, Judy and I decided to have dinner together. We found a good-enough restaurant for dinner; the food was decent but the waiter pulled a fast one on us by doubling the price of our caprice salads. When we called him on it, he gave us the line that we got the “special” mozzarella. It was a line of bull but we let it ride this time; I would not, however, be taken again by the crocked waiters of Rome!

Our last sight for the evening was to go back to the Trevi Fountain to see it light up at night. It was beautiful and much less crowded. My night time picture is blurry since I didn’t have a tripod. Now that was a long day of sightseeing and it was still hot and very humid at 11:00 at night! I couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel to air conditioned comfort and a soft bed.

Going to Rome, Morning Tour - 8/04

Our Monday started early to catch the 6:45 train to Rome. Jason wanted to maximize since we had only three days in this big city. We arrived in Rome around 9:00 and headed for our first site, the coliseum, via the metro. We were jammed like sardines into that train but were presented with an awesome site upon emerging from the station. We went inside and Jason showed us around. He said the museum and the best views were from the second floor, so we walked up the same stairs as a Roman would back in the heyday of the coliseum. The museum had a model of it and showed the event floor and elevator system used to raise and lower animals and people onto the event floor. There was a wooden floor over the top of the maze-like center section. At the far end of the interior picture you can see a platform that was built over a small section of event area to give you an idea of what it looked like. They actually use that area today for concerts and other events. The photo of me shows a closer view of this platform behind me and the doorway where the gladiators use to enter the stadium. The other photo is of me, Robert, Jeff, Jen and Brandon. It was an amazing place to experience.

After finishing up at the coliseum, we headed for the Roman Forum walking past the triumphal Arch and Basilica of Constantine on our way to the entrance. Once we got inside the Forum, we took the long and rather fast walk by some of the major landmarks: The Arch of Titus (where I took a photo of the inner side of the arch); the house of the Vestal Virgins; and stopping in the shade of the Arch of Septimius Severus to wait for stragglers. In the foreground of the photo (starting on the left) are Theo, Jeff, Jason and Sean with some building columns in ruin behind them. After we all gathered here, we left the Roman Forum. The visit was too fast for me so I hope to go back there some day to explore more of it.

Once we left the forum, we stopped at a landmark of the prison where St. Peter was held in jail the Romans. It has become a sacred place to Christians and they have built an altar outside and inside the dungeon where St. Peter was kept. In the photo, Jason is standing on the left at the top of the stairs to the prison; if you look closely, you’ll see a head at the bottom of the middle pillar; that is Amy walking up the stairs after her visit inside.

After this brief stop, we headed towards our hotel. It was getting really hot by this time and we were all ready for an air conditioned room and a cool shower. We got to the hotel around 1:00 and we had some time to eat lunch and relax until 4:30 when we all met again for the evening round of sight seeing.

Last Day in Corciano (Sunday) – 8/03

Our last day in Corciano was cleanup day. Everyone was to leave their abode cleaner then when we arrived, so in our villa with six women we broke up the space for cleaning. We all cleaned our own rooms; Aprile did the kitchen; I took the refrigerator; Eileen cleaned the living room and shelves; Judy did one bathroom; Amy and Sam did the other. Afterwards, Sam and Amy crashed on the couch with Robert who was visiting and keeping us company while we cleaned. It was another sad time knowing we would be leaving Corciano early the next morning to go to Rome for the last excursion of our trip.

Knowing we had cleaned all food out of the house, the whole group of us when out to dinner one last time. We drove to a park on a neighboring hill that overlooked the largest lake in Italy. There were two large tables set up outside a small concession area where we had reservations to eat. We had a great Italian meal of several antipasti, pasta and dessert all accompanied with the wine and/or water of your choice. As you can see, Jason got into the meal by serving pasta around our table. There was a brilliant sunset that evening over our view of the lake.

After dinner, we went to Gabrielle and Dina’s home for more ice cream and a video he had made of our visit in Corciano. He gave everyone a CD with the video he made as a going away gift to everyone. This was a very nice ending to our summer stay in Corciano.

Last Saturday in Corciano – 8/02

There were a lot of mixed feelings about wrapping up our trip in Corciano; some people couldn’t wait to get home; some didn’t want to leave; and some had a mixture of both. Saturday was devoted to packing. We had to have everything packed and the luggage ready to pick up at 7:00 am Sunday to be transported to Rome.

But, there was still some light in our weekend; the Corciano Festival started Saturday night and ran until early September. They had artwork on display by their featured artist and there was a band that played some warm up music. We were invited to have dinner of traditional Italian fare in an old building that was once a tavern. We met Gabrielle in the piazza and he took us there.

Just imagine a room with a vaulted ceiling, tables with benches and the people who would patronize this place in days of old sipping wine and sharing local stories and gossip. And, we did the same. It was a fun dinner and a nice end to our packing day.