Grandi Rome

... records of the burials lost. It was common during the centuries, as it is today, to unearth spectacular intact Greek and Roman artifacts, like the Laocoon sculpture, commissioned and transported to Rome from Rhodes in the 1st century BC, but lost for centuries under Nero’s Golden House. Its discovery in 1506 became a sensation involving Pope Julius II ("Il Papa Terrible" for his bad temperament), Michaelangelo, Raphael ...

... with an elegant living and dining room. The only draw back was the location on a busy and noise street; Corso Vittorio Emanuele #308. But the location was great for sight seeing, very close to Piazza Navona, Campo de Fiori and the Vatican, a very walkable home base.

... streets. There are stupid amount of oneway-cobbled streets and huge manholes that could swallow little children no problem. And they are lurking behind every turn and every few meters. Yes. Cobblestones are cheap and low maintenance. That's also the reason they still use the ****ing things in finland (like just this year they built with new cobbles and left nice over 20 cm gaps between the stones to neatly swallow a thin roadbike tire). I came up with this theory of development of ...

... propose to Nicole and she said YES!!! couldn't ask for a better or more memorable day. on our last day, we attended the audience with the Pope. really cool. so many people. the service was also in 6 languages. (which made it a little long for us - ha) but we enjoyed it. OK, so Rome again is a must see for any European vacation. history, religion, great food, great weather...everything you could ask for.

... and made our way across the street only to find a line wrapping around the outside of the church just to take a picture with the old manhole cover. Talk about a totally unromantic vision. It's not that I was expecting to re-enact the scene, or even wanted to at that. It's just that all the people and the lines and the rules and regulations about how many pictures you can take (just one!) really turned me off of the whole venture. I could stand the lines to the Vatican, and ...

... somehow! The laid back idiots that we were (see preface), didn't print the Orbitz Itinerary... so we had no clue how to get a hold of them. We were finally able to use our little bit of known Italian to have a nice person working at one of the rental companies inform us that it is Avis that is a partner company to Budget. It wasn't until we went to the Avis front counter and were then directed to a secondary counter in another building where a tiny sign ...

August 5 It is our second day in Florence and I am absolutely loving my stay! We started our day bright and early to go to a leather demonstration. Leather in Florence is very popular and has been ever since the Medici family-- it was pretty neat learning how to tell the difference between real and fake leather as well as the tricks that some retailers may use when selling leather. After the demonstration a few of us ...

... set off an alarm on the door. We glance at each other and continue walking. Quickly. As the airport terminal blares behind us, we scuttle into the train station across the street before we start laughing. I am a menace! Setting off alarms and hitching rides on trains everywhere! The train into Rome was fine, if expensive. We emerge from the terminal exactly as the directions say, walk exactly as the directions say (by a ...

... had a great vibe about them. Of course, as usual, at first they thought I was younger when they saw me until I started talking. I got ready before they did and headed to the lounge area to meet up with the group in a corner quietly. I don't know what's wrong with me but for the most part of the whole trip, I'm not my usual social butterfly self. I waited for a few minutes as Trey (one of the staff) did a head count of the people who were going to the tour/crawl ...

Leah and I split up again this morning. A group of people from the hostel went on a walking tour of the city. Highlights included the Colosseum, the Forum, Circus Maximus, and then the catacombs. It turns out that the catacombs are really far away, and not really walking distance. No one else thought the trip was worthwhile, but I was really excited about seeing them, so I went off alone ...