Hilton Garden Inn Rome Airport Fiumicino

I went to Rome for Turkey Day. Italians don't know about Thanksgiving, but the Xmas decorations sprung out on Friday, right on time. Santa Claus and Baroque architecture, childish to ancient, profane to sanctimonious. In Rome, a city where nothing is new, the opposites don’t attract, they just tolerate each other in a stand-off. Lingerie ads on the churches.

Rome is the eternal city, 2765 years old, according to the ...

Last night I dreamed of onward travels. Anxious dreams. Today is the day I've been dreading since the beginning. Today I go to Rome. I have to obtain visas for Ethiopia and Sudan. I hope it will be quick, and I hope it will be painless, but I have visions of money flying from my pockets as I wait for the slow gears of third world bureaucracy to slowly crank out my paperwork. "Just give yourself lots of time" Shanny, the tour manager had advised. Time I have, money ...

We got off the ship this am. Took a train into Rome and another to Fiumicino (near the airport). We leave in the morning for London then a direct flight to Colorado. It has been a long adventure. I lost count on the cities and countries. We are worn out, but will have some great memories from this journey.

I would definately ...

... at a little place just off the square and had our usual "deal". 8 Euro for a pasta meal, glass of wine, and cappucino. We had Gnocchi in a ragu sauce. It was amazing. The Gnocchi tasted like little pillows of cheese and dough. Yum. From there we continued walking (probably on mile 6 by now), and decided we need to see the Roman Forum! How could Tony come all the way to Rome and miss that? So we jumped on a bus. Tony kept saying how great it is that ...

... was that we held the flight up by 10 minutes, sorry peoples. But... I felt better when they were still searching for another lost passenger. The flight crew weren't impressed though! The flight went quickly and managed to get through (1) The Contract, (2) Die Hard 4, (3) Provoked & (4) half of Transformers :) My eyes were square when we got off the plane!

... Chapel (which had like 500 tourists cramped into the relatively little chapel) I was like "**** this ****. I just want to get out!!!" And then after the chapel was like another 20 minutes of walking through MORE museum! I was soooooo ******. The rest of the day was devoted to seeing all the cool stuff we hadn't previously gotten to, such as the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Good stuff. The next morning we headed off to one of the oldest cities in Italy: Naples.

... city -- filled with feral cats, broken columns, stairs to nowhere that once led to temples, and the stone floor where Julius Caesar stood when his assassins attacked him. After seeing a Michaelangelo statue in the Minerva church, the Bernini elephant holding up the Egyptian obelisk outside, and passing the nearby Pantheon, it was time for Gelato at the place that several people recommended to us. It was excellent. But... now that we know about it, please don't tell ...

... to see it from the road. Next, we strolled over to the Pantheon. Scientists are still perplexed as to how its massive concrete dome was poured, without any structural support whatsoever. An afternoon shower dictated that we seek cover in the nearest establishment, a gay Roman bar. Ok, maybe not, but there were 10 gay Romans chatting and drinking tea for over 30min before we saw anyone else come in. There was also a Bosendorf ...