Villa Concettina Rome

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 ...

... We decided on the Roma Christiana bus which had an included entrance to the Vatican Museums. It was extremely hot again which made sitting on the roof of the double decker bus a little hard until we got moving and then it was fine. We passed many sights, the Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colosseum, Circo Massimo, Palatino. Traffic is crazy. The drive along the Tiber and past the Trastevere where cousin Carmen lives was gorgeous. Finally we ...

... shots. This is only a tiny sample. On the way back from the Vatican, we stopped off at the Trevi Fountain. We had been warned that it was not that impressive but I have to disagree.Again, the only problem was the street hawkers thrusting various bits of tat at you. You get a bit tired of saying no all the time. Likewise when you are eating. That evening, we ate al fresco just around from the hotel and we were bothered four times with ...

... are and the nicer the atmosphere becomes. At the very top there was an open air art market where some very good oil paintings were available for only 50 Euro. I checked out the art for a while and then headed back down the stairs to find Belle. We headed off in the direction of the Trevi Fountain, browsing the many shops along the way. I was struck by the very stylish cashmre and woolen overcoats that were on sale, all for very reasonable prices compared to those I have seen ...

Day 6: Rome, Italy Wednesday, September 5, 2007 I forgot that my birthday is in a few days! Woohoo, the big 22. We are having a big celebration Sunday night at our apt with all our graphic friends and others. It is for Alex, Lucia and myself! We started full classes today, ehhh, and got introduced to our billion projects that all blend in with each other, talk about information OVERLAOD! I had 3 studios and we all just stayed at ...

... Mediterraneo. We talked a lot; got some ideas about where I might travel after school ends - Elba, Sardegna, or the coast below Portofino... now I must go out and try to find or borrow an English language Italian travel book to try to get a better handle on the logistics. Nancy on the way home walked around my block with me, and was happily amazed at the riches here. She found some things I hadn't seen, such as a small gallery with miniature watercolors of ...

... right away. Continuing to marvel at the quaint little shutters attached to the windows of the town houses she kept her gaze upwards, until Richard's sudden lack of enthusiasm of said buildings had become very apparent, and she noticed his eyes fixated on the prominent landmark ahead. We moved hastily towards the structure to admire it more closely, and took multiple photographs from numerous angles.  Deciding that we would take a look inside the ...

... time, but I really didn't. Now that it's over, I can't believe how quickly it all went, from getting into London, then meeting the group and spending the past two weeks with them. What am I going to do at home? Going to the mall doesn't sound quite so appealing anymore. I suppose I can try to take the trip spirit with me and see each experience as an adventure, and then maybe my life will be more exciting. Maybe it always was, but I just didn't see it that way? How's that for deep

... the Roman Forum, and if you look carefully at Photo 14, you'll notice it's the same patch of land as Photo 4, on my 25th June blog entry. Ha! After the play, we look for more things to do. There was a free concert going, and it was just about to start in 30mins. We power walked our way to our intended venue, but when we got there, it was empty. Circling it for a minute or two, checking and rechecking the brochures, we realise we are at the WRONG place! ARGH!! We walked ...

... she had found it hard to think that she couldn't do such a climb. On the trip down we went to the part of La Rocca where we could look right down into the city. From this overlook we could see back west on the coast all the way to the rocky hills around Palermo. Somehow, as we journeyed along a wall, we took a wrong turn. We still had a special view right down onto people's terraces in Cefalu, but we had to backtrack to get down the same way that we had come up. Did we sleep well that night?