Benvenuto/Arrivederci a Roma/Benvenuto a Firenze

OK, getting access to the web is not really the issue in Italy....it's finding the time! It has been a hectic 4 days since our arrival. So, this post is a quick....very quick....recap and I'll try to fill in the holes during the next few days since life will be slower here in Firenze and we'll have more time to post. (Not to mention that the internet hot spot is right across the street from our hotel!) Here we go....

Saturday: arrived in Roma about 8:30 a.m. No one got much sleep on the plane, prompting Dylan to coin a new nickname, first applied to Ali, but we've all earned it at one point or another during the weekend: cranky yankee.

After an exciting shuttle ride to Hotel Alimandi, we dropped our bags and headed over to St. Peter's square for a little orienteering. It is stunning from first view. Our hotel is one block from the Vatican museum (home of the Sistine Chapel) and we get our first glimpse of the 2,3 or 4 hour line to get in (depending on whom you ask). Our concierge tells us the best time to get in line is around noon and if you get in line then, you MIGHT get in by the time they close at 4:45. We decide that maybe we won't see the Sistine chapel on this trip after all.

Sunday, July 8

Alison wakes up at 6:10 a.m. Ugh.

Delightful breakfast prepared by Francesco (the breakfast chef) on the rooftop terrace of our hotel.

Mass at St. Peter's at 9 a.m. Got right in, no line. (More people in line Saturday afternoon just to take pictures inside of the Basilica than in line to go to Mass on Sunday. Gotta love the Catholics.)

After Mass we toured the Basilica museum of treasures. More on this later. We got in for free (saving 45 Euros) becuase Tim translated "brochures" for the desk clerk at the museum.

Then it was up to al cupola. 320 steps (after the elevator). Unbelievable views of the Eternal city. Worth every painstaking step. Oh, but we found out the camera was broken. More on this below.

Leaving St. Peter's we caught the tail end of the Pope's Sunday morning blessing. We saw him from his window just as he was ending the blessing. The crowd went crazy.

Sunday afternoon....metro ride to the Colloseum and Palatine Hill. Very hot. Thanks to a tip from Jenny's dental hygenist, we got our tix at the Palatine Hill office, saving about an hour wait at the Colosseum. After climbing around the Colosseum, we headed back to our hotel for showers....peeyew did we stink.

Monday, July 9

Liam, Jenny & Tim head back to St. Peter's for the Scavi tour. This is a private tour provided by the Vatican of the excavations BELOW the area where the Popes are buried. There is much to say about this experience in a later post. Extremely powerful and we learned what is REALLY in the bronze box marking in the area dedicated to St. Peter on the floor above (spoiler alert: it's not St. Peter).

Monday afternoon: Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Piazza Navona and Santa Maria del Vittoria (home to Bernini's masterpiece The Ecstasy of St. Theresa of Avila). Amazing. Closed the afternoon with the best gelato in Rome at Giolitti.

Tuesday (today): Liam and Tim back to St. Peter's for more pics. Sistine chapel line seemed to be the shortest today, probably only 2.5 hours long! Visited the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and also went to mass in the Chapel of San Giuseppe. Liam took some great pics with the new camera. This afternoon we took the train to Firenze and checked in to Hotel Burchianti. We have a beautiful 17th century fresco on the ceiling in our room!

OK, here's the deal on the (old) camera: it broke. Won't download pictures. SO, we bought a new camera, but of course, the memory cards from the original camera don't fit the new one....AAAGGHHHH. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get this all straightened out and get some pics posted on this blog.

Here's one to whet your appetite from the new camera. More on food, sites, etc to come....