Sonlight Core H Week 6F Feb. 6-12th, 2017 Rome, Italy then back to Michigan

Sonlight Core H

Week 6F

Feb. 6-12th, 2017

Rome, Italy then back to Michigan

We had to leave Bologna in the wee hours of the morning to get to the airport by 5 am.  We managed to get a cup of coffee at the airport to drink while we waited for our plane to come in.

I will put a few pix in here, but I am going to do individual posts for each place we visited.  For example, one post for the Uffuzi Museum, one post for the Duomo, one post for the Vatican City...so later when I want to look up pictures of a specific place we visited I can type that place into my Search box, at the top of the home page, and go directly to that place and not have to scroll through a lot of typing.

Our scheduled time to be in the Vatican was set for 10am, but we had to get a bus ride there, and yesterday proved how difficult it can be to find a bus, so we were downstairs eating our breakfast at 7:35am.  We ate in a hurry, got on our raincoats for the rain, and headed out.  We went to the bus stop that we were told to use and waited...and waited....and waited.  At 8:45 (we had waited a good 45 to 60 minutes) we started walking; looking for another street with a bus stop sign.  I saw one of those yellow tour buses and ran after it and banged on the door.  The driver motioned with his arms that we were supposed to go forward then turn left; not letting us on....you get the idea, everything difficult....we tried another bus after that until we finally gave up the idea of a yellow tour bus (the empty, comfortable ones) and had to get on a regular city bus (masses of people crushed together, going at a snails pace and long waits at each stop-dreadful!). We found out later, at the Tourist office, that the tourist (yellow) buses only start running at 9am, that is why we were never picked up from 7:50-8:45am! Oy...that stung!

  Eventually, we did make it to our destination: Vatican City.  We had to go through a bunch more hoops with our tourist place and lots of waiting in the rain, and then finally following the tourist lady as she held up her stick with a red scarf tied to one end.  It was totally right out of a movie--the big mass of people following the person holding up the stick!  We had no idea where we were going, and she didn't speak at all; just kept bouncing her stick up in the air at each intersection as we seemingly walked away from Vatican City!?!!  This was the worst, most chaotic hours of the whole trip...plus there are never any bathrooms in Italy.  If Vatican City were in America, I assure you, there WOULD be porta-potty's or a public bath restroom--not in Italy! None.Nothing.Good luck to you if you drank three cups of coffee before heading out your hotel!!! 

Once we got inside, were given our official tickets, we could use the restroom and find our way through all the rooms leading to the allusive Sistine Chapel.  What can I say about it---it was perfect.  I was so afraid I would be disappointed, but found the chapel just right.  The ceiling wasn't too high, and the proportions of the figures were spot-on.  I loved it.  I didn't love the guards yelling at us to stop taking pictures, that really crushed Dd.  We had been taking photo's in every room leading up to the Sistine Chapel, and hadn't seen any signs saying not to take any photo's as we walked in the door.  And then three guards jumped down our throats...yikes!...you'd think we were rule breakers!  Then they yelled at us to move to the center of the room...they were harsh.  After we were safely in the folds of the crowds, and the guards couldn't see us anymore, we could soak up the paintings.  It was really great.  The rooms before and after were a blur to me!  I did see some of Rembrandt's drawings (and Raphael's paintings later), but the room for them was so small that you couldn't step back and get a good look.  There was amazing art everywhere, but at some point you are just drowning in it all and are overwhelmed.

After the Sistine Chaple we were hungry and back-tracked to a place where doors let outside to a balcony of sorts--with benches.  It was sprinkling still, but we wanted out of the chaos for a while to eat in peace.  We ate and feed the pigeons (as we did in so many of our meals!).

We went back to the tourist office in Vatican City and asked how and where to go for our St. Peter's Basilica tickets.  We did get to go around all the masses waiting to get in with our tourist package; which was really nice.  Both places had very long lines for people that had not pre-bought their tickets, but we sailed through.

Inside St. Peter's, we were thrilled to hear a crowd around some priests singing beautifully.  It sounded so amazing in the huge marble cathedral---indescribable.  Dd recorded it until her battery died.  This church was really amazing--but the best part of it was getting to see Michelangelo's Pieta!  It was up on a platform, behind glass, behind a roped off area, so you weren't allowed to get close, but you could see it!  I'll share a lot of pictures of St. Peter's in a special post, it was really something, and humming with ton's of people/tourists.

We walked out of Vatican City and found (with help) the yellow, tourist bus stop and waited.  We were so tired.  Due to the rain the top of the bus had it's tarp up, but we sat up there.  It was still fairly early so we stayed on the tour bus for their whole audio tour of Rome.  It took about an hour, and then we were back to Vatican City.  When the bus got near our hotel we got off and walked to a bigger grocery store for our next meal.  It is always so fun to see the different grocery stores and shops in other countries.  We bought our dinner and walked to our hotel.  Dd had found a funny cartoon on tv in Bologna that we've found in Florence and also in Rome, called: Zig and Sharko.  We had fun watching that as we ate our dinner.  There was also another funny cartoon that we could follow called: Boog and Elliot.  

Dd's fitbit had her down for 15,000 steps today!

Tuesday (2-7-17)

Finally, a great day in Rome.  We had all decided to never come back to Rome, and then on Tuesday we had such a lovely day!  I'm so glad our last full day in Rome was nice.  We had another early breakfast--which only opens at 7:30 to 9:30--we were there at 7:30!  We took the yellow tourist bus, and went to the Colosseum's.  Boy, was it crowded so early in the day!  We took a bazillion pictures as we walked all through the various areas and floors.  They had a tiny trailer on the ground floor with maybe six toliet stalls for the women's restroom, and I'm glad I used it early b/c when I went to go back at the end of our visit the line was crazy-long.  Again, at such an enormously popular tourist spot you'd think they'd have more than six stalls for thousands of visitors each day??!!?  Anyway we walked and walked and enjoyed all the sites. 

 I'll post a specific post just on the Colosseum's soon!

In the lot between the Colosseum and The Forum we found a place to sit and eat our picnic lunch...with the pigeon's (sea gulls and two-toned crows are always there too).  We were beside the Arch of Titus.  Then we had to get in a long line for The Forum.  We had to go through high security when entering any of these sights, and for some reason, the Forum's security took a long time.

The Forum was definitely awesome.  It helped that it was just the most beautiful day---high 50's or low 60 degrees.  It was a real blessing to be outside taking in all the history of this place.  We took so many photo's!!!  I'll share soon.  I especially liked getting to see their herb gardens (Rosemary, Thyme, Sage..), vines, ivy (large leaf and small leaf), various other plants--many actually flowering in February!, flowering pop-out roses....we saw another European Robin, a stray cat, and lots of these green with yellow tailed parrot-like birds.  There were the manicured pine or spruce trees, olive trees, magnolia's, old-huge Beech trees...Cyprus trees, little white daisy 'weeds' in the grass alongside cute little blue flower 'weeds.'  There was so much to see, especially if you love nature.  Don't forget all the things to see, historically, at The Forum too!  That was all great too!  They did a pretty good job of having markers telling you what things were, but I would have liked a bit more of that; as I was very interested.  We spent something like 6 hours there--it was great!  Our last day in Rome, at the Colosseum and Forum were such a treat!

We took the yellow tour bus back; sitting upstairs in the open double-decker seating to see the view better.  The tourist buses really do show you the sights!  We got to go by the Tiber River again, and see the ducks swimming out in it.  There were a group of Seagulls taking a bath and enjoying the water.  The audio guide pointed out the oldest bridge that was beside us, with angels on it to keep travelers safe.  We got off the bus and stopped at a gelato shop before we went to our grocery store one last time.   Luckily a hotel manager was at the desk so we could pay our Rome tax bill and reserve a taxi to pick us up at 4:30am.  We ate back in our hotel room, though Dd and Dh were getting a little tired of their sandwiches.  We had to pack our bags, take our showers and wrap up our great day.

Our plane from Germany to Washington, D.C.

Wednesday (2-8-17) Airport Day

Rush, Rush, Rush....we had a nice, long drive in the dark to the Rome Airport.  It took a solid thirty minutes to get there.  It was great seeing the city at 4:30am in the morning---the Colosseum and The Forum were lit up with flood lights contrasting the darkness outside.  There weren't many people, just a few in the cars on the streets, but not many!  At the airport, we bought some much-needed coffee, as our hotel's breakfast wouldn't start until 7:30!  We got on a tiny plane (three seats on the left side, and three seats on the right side, maybe 50 rows) and flew to Frankfurt, Germany (again).  A few hours for a layover and then we flew to Washington, D.C in a big plane.  On these big planes, each seat has it's own screen and you can pick whichever movies you personally want to watch.  In the past when I've flown to Europe the airplane would show everyone the same movie on a big screen in each section.  Now the screens are attached to the back of the seat in front of you.  I watched: "The Secret Life of Dogs", "Trolls", and "Storks" (all good!)  After we landed we had a bit of a layover and then we flew to Michigan.  Eventually, Grampy picked us up and we went home...brrrr! it was so much colder in Michigan than Italy!

Dd with her new Italian scarf and purse, ready to fly home!

Thursday (2-9-17) Share Pictures Day

Dh shared our photo's on his laptop to Giz and Grampy for hours!!!!  I couldn't believe they actually wanted to see all our photo's!  Sophie, Agnes, and the chickens were all still alive and well!!!  We unpacked, and started on the laundry! 

Friday (2-10-17) Dh goes back to Work Day

Giz and Grampy left us before Dh even left for work!  They were ready to go home!!!  Two weeks was a long time for them to be away from their home.  



Dd had a "Girl's Club" at the "D" house, and spent the night.  They did ROCK PAINTING!  She painted five rocks.

Dd made cookies to bring to the Girls Club

Saturday (2-11-19)

Dd went roller skating with her girl friends, and ended up falling and really hurting her back.  She had a great time, at least up until she fell.  My migraine started---next 7 days.ugh.

Sunday (2-12-17)

Back at our church!  Church, Sunday School and rest. 

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