Saturday, May 26, 2007

Wow, Katie Feels Really Young!!!

Yesterday, we emailed during Rome's lunch hour. We were in the midst of trying with much frustration to book some tours. It ended up working out, not the way we planned, but to our satisfaction. We wanted to book a tour of Nero's Golden Palace. I checked online while posting, and it is actually closed until 2008. oh well! That's just another excuse to come back again. The other tour we wanted was a subterranean tour of Rome. Romans were a little strange, back in the day. When they wanted to destroy a building, instead of tearing it down, they just burried it and started over. So there are layers and layers of old buildings underground. Some of the areas can be explored, but preferable in a tour. The phone number we had for the tour we wanted was not responding to calls, so we had to settle for a comprehensive catacomb tour, which we are hoping will include some other underground sites.

After all of that hassle, we started walking the streets of Rome trying to find various piazas and fountains. We got lost many times, and walked about 5 times the amount necessary, but it was worth it. We walked down streets lined with great shopping opportunities...I mean window shopping opportunities of course. We were so tired and it was sweltering hot. The best part of the afternoon was stopping for gelato. Mmmmmm. That was great and refreshing. Rose got mint and I got pistachio. I got a shell stuck in my tooth, but other than that, it was wonderful.

We saw Trevi Fountain, which is beautiful. We are going to try to see it again tonight in the dark, if we can stay out that late. we also saw Piaza Novona, and the Fountain there (which I forget). We stopped at the Pantheon, which was amazing. It is incredible how buildings so old can still be standing.

I hate to stop in the middle of a thought, but our time is running out and we are starving!!! Iàll continue later.

Katie

Jesus Wore Chacos

All my life I have asked myself one question...this is where i look for the colon key...:"what would Jesus Do?" I have found the answer in Rome...well, not really. I found the answer in Nashville at a store called REI. Jesus, since He was in Rome some, would definatly have worn Chacos...it is a brand of shoe designed for poeple who will be traveling on rough terain..they are pretty cool. maybe we will post some pictures of the roads from rome...since they are the origional roads, we walked on th same streets ancient romans did! let me tell you it is difficult! you have to watch your step constantly! with any less of a sandle...we would have cut feet, stubbed toes, and twisted ankles withing 3 meters. i do not EXACTLY know how long three meters is...but they say meters over here...so i decided to speak on their terms..ò<0 that was supposed to be a wink.

THE COLLESEUM IS AMAZING! it is so huge! and OLD! I took so many pictures..but i know they will not relate the majesty of such a detailed construction! did you know it was built in 8 years? the lower level, and top level were built in just three years after that...so in a total of 11 years a magnificant structure which would be observed for over 22 centuries...and longer!

we also visited the Tremi a Caracalla, the Roman Forrum, and the Palestine Hill.

We have been eating fruit for lunch and will probably continue that. we had gelato last night..i think i may have already mentioned that...tonight we are going to a restarant called Rose Rosea. (smile) it should be fun..maybe we will post some pics next time. I think my time is up...Ciao! (this can mean anything from thank you to bye) a little Italian trivia for those of you tied down to careers and lives in the United States (home sweet home) and stuff! ;)

All this architecture is amazing Dad! Wish you could be here to see it!

Friday, May 25, 2007

this says it is posted by katie, but this one is from Rose...

Well, I have no idea what Katie has told you already, but i am going to tell you that european keyboards are mallnurished or something...some keys are smaller than what they should be. so it makes it difficult to hit them to get the correct punctuation. and i think i might blame any other errors in my email on that too.

I am so happy to be at a computer. i am typing. so i am able to see english! well, i am trying to type in english. by the time we are in paris, a MONTH from now..i will be ready to hear people speak engish! we spent about 20 mins with a lady on the first floor of our bed and breakfast to find out one simple phrase, go to 7th floor. i would have used quotation marks, but i cant find them on this keyboard. i am sure katie has had better luck.i think i have given up using contractions. because i can not find the apostrophe. rome is hot. we are not wearing jeans again. there are people here from every other place in the world. i told katie i was going to do as the romans do, since i am in rome...but most of the people i see are tourists, who also do not speak enlish i might add, so i have not quite figured out what romans do yet...except speak italian, and i can not do that.

the buildings in rome are beautiful. i have not noticed a modern looking skyscraper yet. most of the buildings i see seem to be hundreds of years old. Rome is much like Paris, and in some parts a lot like mexico. In fact, katie and i have spoken some spanish, since it is similar to italian. and a few times are start remembering french words, because i forget i am in rome, not paris. well, i guess that is all for now.

wait, i just have to tell you katie and i have walked so much today, and not slept at all. i know that is a given...but if you just try imagine two american girls with no sleep, no italian, wonder around europe with insufficient maps...you might get a kick out of it. we do! oh, and chivalry is dead. Signing off for now, this may become addicting, because it is such a comfort zone to us...so i dont know, we may post every day...ciao

Rose

Day 1....well, kind of

Hi!! I am justing posting a little note to say that we arrived safely in Rome! The plane ride was uneventful, but long. I don't think either one of us slept very much. We arrived in Rome at 7:30 AM Rome time, which is 12:30 Nashville time. We arrived at our bed and breakfast, which is great. We are about 3 blocks from the Vatican and have a beautiful close view of the Dome of St. Peter's right out of our window!! It is great.

After getting that taken care of, we bought some oranges and cherries at a market and went to a park to each a snack. Then we started walking....and walking.....and walking. Keep in mind that we have not slept in about 30 hours! We are so tired but want to stay up all day in order to not have jet lag for the entire week. So, we're wandering around trying to keep our eyes open. We found the Spanish steps, but it took us quite a while. We walked around for about an hour, never more than .25 miles away from them, but we couldn't find them. Finally, we found a sign, which led to another sign, which led to the steps. Before walking down the steps, we went inside the Triniti Del Monte Church. It was beautiful! It was just the first of who knows how many churches we'll see this week.

Now we are trying to call some tour places to schedule some tours, but not having much luck. Did you know that people in Rome speak Italian? I don't speak Italian. We're learning, though. You should have seen us with a dictionary trying to find our B&B. It was comical. So, we finally found an American Express office and they are going to help us. However, it is between 1:30 and 2:30, and apparently nobody answers their phones during that hour. So, we found this exchange place and are typing away until 2:30, at which time we will schedule our tours.

I cannot wait until dinner!! We haven't decided what to eat yet, but I'm sure our first meal in Italy will be great. It really doesn't matter what it is...last night was American Airlines dinner. You can't go down from there!

Well, that's all for now. I'm so tired that I cannot think clearly enough to type. We'll update some more tomorrow, and hopefully havee some pictures.

Have a great day!

Katie

Ok, it is now Sunday evening, and I am going to continue with the post above. We ate dinner in the Piazza Navona, it was really good pizza. Rose and I both at an entire pizza! Of course, they are thin crust and meant to be eaten by one person, but still. That’s a lot of pizza. We were so hungry and tired by then. The pizza was great. I’m sure the fact that we were sitting in Italy in a piazza, with someone playing the guitar and singing nearby, helped.

After dinner, we took the metro back to our hotel, took much needed showers, and fell asleep by 8;00 PM. Sleep was sweet. I only woke up a few times that first night, but Rose had a few problems. It was wonderful. Every time I woke up for a second, I glanced out the window, saw St. Peter’s dome, and fell happily back to sleep. We’re in Rome!!!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Rose and Katie's Very Tentative Itinerary

Hi everyone!! We are very excited to post our tentative itinerary for Europe. It is tentative, as we only have about half of the nights booked at various hotels and hostels.

May 24 - Travel
May 25 - Rome
May 26 - Rome
May 27 - Rome
May 28 - Rome
May 30 - Florence
May 31 - Pisa
June 1 - Florence
June 2 - Venice
June 3 - Venice
June 4 - Vienna
June 5 - Vienna
June 6 - Vienna
June 7 - Salzburg
June 8 - Salzburg
June 9 - Salzburg
June 10 - Somewhere in Switzerland
June 11 - Somewhere in Switzerland
June 12 - Somewhere in Switzerland
June 13 - Somewhere in Switzerland
June 14 - Somewhere in Switzerland
June 15 - Paris
June 16 - Versailles
June 17 - Paris
June 18 - Paris
June 19 - Normandy
June 20 - Paris
June 21 - Paris/Leave for home!!!

Testing

We are leaving for Europe in two days!!! We'll be posting our itinerary shortly....

Monday, May 21, 2007