Sunday...Back on the road...

We just finished breakfast and about to get on the road for Sicily. We had to buy a collapsible roof-top cargo carrier to get all our stuff home. Next time, we're taking the train so we can't bring home a bunch of junk with us! Either that, or we'll rent a cargo van. LOL!

We went to Pompeii yesterday. Always cool to walk around and see ancient ruins you would normally only get to see pictures of or read about in school.

Mom bought a book in Rome that had before and after pictures of several of the more popular ruins. This is the forum...the town center. The temple at the end is in honor of the Roman God, Jupiter...the ring leader of the Roman Gods.

The streets are have large stones across them at the intersections. The ancient Pompeians would flood the streets with water twice a day to clean them. The stones would serve as cross walks for pedestrians to get across without getting all wet. I imagine their sandals would smell funny and the bottom of their togas would get all wet, otherwise.

The ruts in the road are from chariots. The largest roads had three stones to cross, smaller streets would only have two and one-way streets had one-rock crosswalks. The axles of the chariots were all standard lengths (whatever that is) so they could fit around and over the crosswalks.

The boys brought their new bionicles and set up a battle on an ancient column. Flat Lauren had a ring-side seat. Some of the large, marble stones had little round raised surfaces that to aid in keeping them together when stacked...like two thousand year of Legos!

We saw tons of cool other stuff, but I'm tying up the only computer and we need to get on the road soon. Off to Sicily...

Bud

Rome..Naples/2+15

Rome direct Naples, two hours and fifteen minutes enroute time...

We left Rome yesterday afternoon. We didn't have to leave the apartment until 4:30 pm, so we took our time getting packed. We were on the road for about 5 minutes when the rear passenger window quit working! With my Mom's help, we were able to push it up but it was still open about 1/2 inch. We stopped for lunch, got some gas and hit the road.


Thank heavens for the bike rack - we were sitting in line at a toll both when we were rear ended by an Italian. The front of his car was pretty banged up, but there was just a skid mark on the vertical bar of our bike rack. Luckily, we hadn't made it to the NEX at Naples and picked up Heather's new bike or it would have been crunched.


We pulled over and I called the military police at the navy base in Sicily where I work. Even if there's no damage, we are supposed to report all accidents. There's been horror stories of people not reporting accidents and being sued months later when the other motorist claims you hit them and it was your fault.


I was on the phone with the military police when an Italian highway patrolman stopped. He spoke very little English so we tried to tell him what had happened. Finally, I was able to speak with the Italian liaison officer from Sicily who spoke to the Italian police and the guy who hit us.


The Italian who hit us was getting upset because he thought we were going to try and file a claim and get money out of him. He kept waving his arms and cursing "f***ing Americans" (he was saying it in Italian, but I work with the Italian military so I understood. :-)


The Italian police officer was filling out a form for us. When he got to the bottom, he asked me to write on the form and describe the damage. I wrote "No" and he just looked at me funny. He asked, "No damage?" I told him that's right, there's no damage to my car. "No damage, no sheet!" The guy who hit us realized he wasn't going to jail and he wasn't go to have to pay out the nose to the money hungry Americans. Off we went...like a herd of turtles.


About ten minutes from the NEX Naples, we almost got rear-ended again! I saw him coming this time and moved forward about 2 meters...I think that saved us!


Arrived at the Naples base and had to get a pass for Mom. Did some shopping...I got a roof top carrier for the car, the boys got some new Bionicles (Legos) and Heather picked up her new bike. We got some other stuff for the bikes...tubes, a new pump, some fenders for my Trek to ride to work.


It was late when we finished, so we went to Applebees for dinner...but there was a one hour wait. So we migrated to the bowling alley and ate at the Irish Pub.


Got to Carney Park, moved into our cabins and got to bed around 11:00 pm.


Woke up around 8:30 this morning to pouring rain. Heather realized the car window was still open about an inch so she went out side and closed Tommy's Sea World poncho in the door to cover it up! Leather seats were the best investment ever...we'll probably never get another family car without leather...so easy to clean. Wiped up the water, got dressed and pigged out for breakfast at the golf course restaurant.


Headed back to the NEX at Naples to get the window fixed. Three hours later and $35 later we sitting at the bowling alley having lunch and getting ready to hit the road for Pompeii or Herculaneum...whichever Mom decides...

More tonight...maybe.

Ciao,


Bud

Rome...Friday

Yesterday we got a late start (around noon) and took the metro to the train station. There, we bought a one day ticket on the open-air double-decker bus tour that goes to all the main attractions. The entire ride was about 2 hours. It's one of those hop-on hop-off type tourist bus.

But first, we walked a block or two down the street to a currency store. Nicolas was in hog heaven looking at all the old coins. He bought a Benjamin Franklin half-dollar and a Liberty half-dollar. Heather got an Eisenhower dollar circa 1971 (her birth year.)

Hopped off at the Vatican to do some drawing and mail a couple of postcards. Bought some souvenirs, walked around St. Peter's square and then boarded the bus again.

Rode the bus all the way back around and got off in Camp dei Fiori (Field of Flowers). We had dinner at a little whole-in-the wall restaurant - which they all seem to be in Rome - and then started the Rick Steve's Night Walk Across Rome tour.

First stop was the Pantheon. Its a huge temple built by the ancient Romans as a place of worship for all their different Gods. Christians took over when Christianity was legalized and it's been a chapel ever since. I think this is the most impressive structure we've seen during our visit. The first impression is very grand as you turn the corner from a small alley and enter a large piazza with the Pantheon dominating your view from every angle. The structure is in very good condition and is an engineering marvel.

Next would have been the Trevi Fountain, but were just there the night before, so we skipped it and walked down via della Corsa with all its shops. Mom stopped for a picture in front of the Prada store and Heather liked the big photo of Mathew McConaughey (sp?)

Last stop was the Spanish Steps. Heather, Nick and I hiked to the top while Mom and Tom braved the sea of street vendors to wait at the bottom. Stopped for some gelato before boarding the metro for our ride home.

We're off to Naples in a few hours. I need to pack and get the car loaded...

Ciao,

Bud

Wednesday...Rome

Janel and the gang came over to our flat around 11:00 am. I took a picture of Mom on the balcony of our 7th floor apartment. You can make out the wall of Vatican City in the background.

First, we stopped at an espresso bar for a cappuccino. Mom had her first Italian breakfast - a cappuccino and a cannoli. Cannoli are not usually breakfast food, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. Actually, I told her it should be a differnt type of pastry for breakfast, but she wanted to try the cannoli.

Our first stop today was the Vatican Museum. The Rick Steves guides are invaluable. He has self guided tours for all the big museums and attractions. First stop was the Pinacoteca, which is a large renaissance art gallery. Very cool paintings including my favorite of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden - it was the last painting before we left the gallery.

Stopped for lunch at the self service cafeteria and spent way too much money. We should have packed a lunch...lesson learned. We're on vacation - just have to get into the mindset of we're tourists and we're going to pay more than we should for stuff.

This is Heather and Flat Lauren in front of a map of Sicily in the map room of the museum. The room is several hundred feet long and has maps of all the regions of Italy, new and old. This one is backwards...the left side of the map is east and the right side is west..not sure why.

The museum is full of loads of cool stuff - the Egyptian and ancient Greek stuff was cool to see as was the huge hall upstairs through the palace. The halls are lined with statues, paintings and tapestries.

At the end, you enter the Capella Sistina - Sistine Chapel. There were dozens of school kids on a field trip so it was pretty loud. The docents were trying to get everyone to be quite, but it didn't work.

We took a short cut, instead of finishing the whole museum tour, and went to the Basilica. St. Peter's tomb is in the middle near the front of the church under a huge altar. The cathedral is very grand. Words do not do it justice. The place is just huge, awesome, powerful...see I can't even try to begin to describe it. Snapped a photo of Flat Lauren and then headed out to the square.

St. Peter's square is even bigger than I imagined. Again, I can't even think of trying to describe the grandeur of this place. Everything is more impressive than the last. We wandered around the square for a bit and wanted to do some drawing, but we had to catch a bus to the Colosseum before it closed.

Express Bus 40 takes you right to the Colosseum from the Vatican in about 15 minutes. In the early evening its not too crowded. The inside of the Colosseum is even more impressive. Not quite as grand as I had imagined, but very much worth seeing. I can imagine it was a big, fat, hairy deal in A.D. 80! Even more impressive is that it's still standing and we can go walk around inside this ginormous sports arena built almost 2 thousand years ago.

We took a bunch of pictures inside - wacky poses and Lego Stormtroopers. Scooped up a dirt sample from the arena floor for our collection. Arena is the Latin word for sand, which is what the ground of the Colosseum was covered with after the wooden floor was in place.

Headed back to the metro and got off at Berberini and started towards the Trevi Fountain. Got hungry so we stopped at a pizzeria. Very good margherita pizza! Watched Rome play Manchester United on TV at the ristorante. There was about 5 or 6 TV's tuned to the game all over the restaurant.

After dinner, we finally found Fontana di Trevi...chucked a few coins...snapped a few photos and then had to take a taxi home because the metro shuts down at 9:00 pm! Oh well...

'Sera,

Bud

Rome...Tuesday

Drove to Naples a day early...we left Saturday and spent an extra day at the cabin in Carney Park. Flat Lauren is with us. She didn't enjoy the ferry across to the Mainland...she doesn't like boats.

Did some shopping at Ikea and the NEX at the Navy base in Naples. We got Heather a nice road bike and we're going to give her old one to Nick. He's been itching to go on a long ride with us and Heather's ready for an upgraded bike. She got a Bianchi just like mine only smaller. Will post some photos in a few days.

We picked up Mom at the airport in Rome this morning. We all got up at 5:00 am to leave Naples by 6:00. Only to get caught in traffic on the freeway on the outskirts of Rome on the way to the airport. We were about 90 minutes late picking her up.

But, we found her and then headed for our apartment. We rented a flat for €100 a night just a few blocks from the entrance to the Vatican Museum. There's a couple of really cool stores nearby - fresh pasta, bakery, fruit stand, coffee bar - and parking for only €2 a day.

We talked to the Sanders who are some good friends from Sicily and are visiting Rome as well. Met them at the Colosseum and hiked around Palatine Hill. We didn't go into the Colosseum, though, since they already visited that day.

Bought a 3 day pass for the metro which is good for the subway and the bus. The view of the Colosseum as you come out of the metro station is amazing! You have to take the metro to see it just for the shock & awe factor. Here's a photo of my mom and Flat Lauren on the subway.

Left the Colosseum and went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a great time and saw several people we knew from Sicily! It was like a little Navy Sigonella reunion 450 miles away!

Flat Lauren wanted her picture in front of the Van Halen guitar they had on display at the Hard Rock. Sorry, its sideways. I forgot to rotate it before I uploaded...you'll have to download the photo and rotate it yourself because my internet is super slow and takes forever to upload pictures!

Got home around 8:00 pm and Mom fell right asleep. She had a 9 hour time change and stayed awake all day!

More Roman hi-jinks tomorrow...

Bud

We Made It...to Naples

We're having dinner at the Irish Pub/Restaurant at the golf course.

We left Sicily at 0900 this morning...got off the ferry about 1145 and just got here to Carney Park at 1730. The new Garmin GPS worked great! A total of 7 hours and 15 minutes of driving time. The traffic and construction weren't too bad.

Pictures and more later...maybe from Rome.

Ciao,

Bud

Our first visitor in Italy!

Flat Lauren came to visit us. We picked her up at the post office on Wednesday. Flat Lauren is Kim's daughter. Kim is one of Heather's good friends from high school. She got flat when she fell off her bunk bed...but now she can travel by mail!

We took her shopping Thursday. There she is in Heather's purse. We stopped on the way to get a picture with Mt Etna (Europe's largest, active volcano) in the background.

Street signs are a little different here. The green one on the top points you to the Autostrada (an Italian freeway.) Following the blue signs will take you to the cities. The one blue one the bottom says to take SS 417 and it ends at the city of Gela. The white one above it points to the military base I work at and the very bottom points to a yummy Italian restaurant across the street from our house.

At the grocery store, Nick and Tom had fun putting Flat Lauren in all sorts of silly situations...from cereal boxes to the frozen food section!

Today, we went to the town of Motta. Nicolas had a lawn mowing job which was more of a weed mowing. The whole yard was covered in weeds! Huge, monstrous weeds that rival any weeds we've ever seen! So far, Nick and Tom have saved $204 dollars...they are saving for a Nintendo Wii.

Heather, Tom, Flat Lauren and I went for a bike ride while Nick was mowing the grass. We rode down to the Old Time Bar for a cappuccino and a raviola. A bar in Italy is different than a bar in the United States. Bars here serve coffee, espresso, cappuccino - some have gelato, a type of Italian ice cream - and most have yummy desserts. Raviole (plural form of raviola) are our favorites - they're a flaky pastry with warm ricotta cheese.

On the way back to pick up Nick, we stopped and had our photo taken with a Carabinieri - the Italian Police. They have very formal uniforms that they wear daily and a little white leather bag - we have no idea what is inside of them. Maybe snacks?

We're off to the grocery store and the NEX to get some supplies for our big trip on Monday. We're going to Rome - Flat Lauren and the boys are very excited.

Ciao,

Bud