All good things..

We have returned home safely. I'm currently trying to catch up on email and bundle up our gifts that we brought back into neat little stacks for shipping later this week.

Rome - V

Today was great. We woke up around 10:00am and spent the day wandering
back to all the good shops we had seen over the last few days. It
started pouring buckets on us half way through our shopping day so we
made a quick return to camp and began taking shorter trips out. Up
until about 3:00pm or 4:00pm the rain carried on with its
unpredictable down pours every five to twenty minutes and then finally
gave way to a semi clear sky. We went back to the restaurant that we
had dinner at the first night we got in to town and had them modify
their minestrone with some added pasta. It was a great last meal.
After one last scoop of gilato, we tried to haggle with one of the
stand owners for a purse that Liz liked (not loved) but we couldn't
get him to go low enough to match the "leftover cash" we had on us.

Now it's on to an evening of creative packing and an early night so we
can start up bright and early to catch the first of two or three
flights home. I'll let Liz answer for herself on the topic, but I know
that this trip has been amazing in so many different aspects for me.
Experiencing other cultures and learning to appreciate the differences
between each (and my own) has been something I will not soon forget.

Our next update (if any) will most likely be from inside the states.
Thanks for checking in on us from time to time. We loved reading the
comments and feedback (sorry again to the people who had comments
removed). If the pictures sucked, I'm sure Liz will have some sort of
powerpoint within a week or two of our full res shots, so stay tuned
(or email her if you're really interested).

Rome - IV

We had originally selected dinner from a guidebook written by Rick
Steves, our general time, money, and life saver (seriously, the guy
writes a good guidebook, and I'm typically not a fan of them). But
ended up walking a little bit past the Pantheon to a place in between
the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps that we had seen the night
before. Named for the tourism I'm sure, "That's Amore" had a good menu
with prices that rivaled some of the other 'cheap eats' in Rick's
book. The quality was easily better than most places along our stay in
Rome.

After dinner we took a slightly modified path through Campo de Fiori
to look for a watch dealer. Unfortunately all we found were executive
pens and some sort of cashmere scarfs (shawls maybe?). When one of the
"pushers" delivered his "I give you very good price my friend" line, I
jokingly replied to him "that's ok, I'm looking for watches". He
whipped out a cell phone and in broken Italian asked someone on the
other line essentially "yo, where you at?" Before we could get five
feet away, he hung up and said "five minutes, he(they?) be here". Holy
hell, I just inadvertently summoned more of these people through what
appeared to be a full on networked operation. I guess it makes sense
though, as they always seem to have whatever item fits the time of day
or weather condition. Getting back to our story, I told the guy thanks
buy no thanks and we made our way back to the hotel. I have a feeling
more of an effort would have been made to get some money out of me,
but there was a police car making its way down the street and everyone
quickly closed up shop.

Interesting..

Rome - III

Slower day with a couple of sights. Galleria Borghese, National (Art)
Museum of Rome, and my favorite, the Capuchin (sp?) Crypt. We weren't
allowed to take pictures in most of the places we've been to over the
last two days, so unfortunately there isn't much to upload but I'll
send what's left before we take off for home. Tomorrow we have a whole
lot of nothing planned except for shopping and relaxing from all our
running around. I think Liz could do this stuff for weeks but I'm
looking forward to not having an itinerary for at least a day or two.
Also, I think my upper respiratory system has finally caved to the
increased nicotine and carbon monoxide intake.

We had a rather 'merkan'd out lunch today at the Hard Rock Cafe while
we were waiting for the crypt to open for the evening. I love Italian
food but the selection between American-Italian and Italian-Italian
menus is different enough that I (/we) needed a changeup. While we
were waiting for the check to arrive a group of about 10 (younger / 20-
ish) women walked in with Nike-Bauer jackets on. I stopped one to get
the story and it turns out they are a team from Minnesota that wasn't
going to have the chance to travel abroad (in school maybe? I kinda
missed that part) so their coach arranged for them to play a number of
other women's hockey teams across Europe. It wasn't Roman history, but
it was cool to see a little bit of home that I can relate to, walking
around the city just like us.

After the crypt we made our way back to the hotel, providing
navigation to another confused visitor along the way. It's always nice
to see how much of a bearing we've gained on the city in such a short
amount of time. Especially after an episode of "wait.. where does that
bus go?" or "how did that road we walked down last night disappear?"
The roads here are easily the biggest mess either of us have seen, and
the public transportation system doesn't seem to fall to far from that
tree. Though somehow it all falls into place and works without people
jumping out of their cars or off their Vespas and stabbing one another
which is nearly as amazing as the monuments that grace the city.

Rome - i

Today was our holiest day so far - we went to the Vatican, and I
managed to leave with no more than a postcard with the Pope on it (I
was thinking about the full set of dishes). St. Peter's was really
beautiful, and very different from a lot of the other churches we have
been in. I especially liked the Bernini stained glass in the front,
and how the marble statues seemed to be in motion. We spent a few
quiet minutes in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (for praying
only) and it was spectacular! (I may have finished praying quickly to
look around) The chaple is gilded all over, has huge angel statues
guarding the Sacrament, and an intricately decorated ceiling. One of
the coolest things about being in Europe at this time of year (besides
missing out on huge crowds and awful heat) is that all of the churches
still have their decorations up from Christmas. St. Peter's had a huge
nativity up in the square, and then another, smaller one, inside.
Anyway, from there we wound our way through the Vatican Museum, seeing
tons of familiar statues from Art History class, past quite a few
rooms that provided visual overload with frescoes on 5 walls, to the
Sistine Chapel. It was beautiful and quiet. I had heard horror stories
about shuffling through without having a chance to enjoy the space due
to crowds, but we were able to find a spot to just stand, crane our
necks, and then ooh and aah.
After gelato and a brief siesta, we went for an evening walk towards
the Pantheon, but ended up walking all the way to the Spanish Steps
for the second time in two nights because someone asked us for
directions, and we couldn't explain, so we just walked with her, and
finally figured out which bus takes us back to the Campo de Fiori
(near the hotel) and got dropped off in front of a gelaterie that
served pineapple flavor (we haven't seen it in too many places).
Andrew tried to buy a "Rolex" but I guess that will have to wait for
another day.
<3 Lizzy

Rome - II

Lots of walking today, starting off with a stroll down the Tiber river
to the Colosseum where we picked up our Roma Pass(es) and began the
sightseeing. Along our route we toured the Forum, Pantheon, and Trevi
Fountain. All were much larger than I had imagined and simply amazed
with the amounts of pure grace and intelligence that went into such
powerful structures built nearly two millenia ago. We had lunch near
the Pantheon and slowly made our way back to the hotel for a quick
rest and some planning of tomorrows itinerary. Don't know what's on
tap for dinner yet, but since we may do our nightwalk tonight (Piazza
Del Popolo down to the Trevi Fountain passing by the Spanish Steps),
I'm hoping to find something interesting along the way.

New pictures soon..

I think I found a decent hotspot in Rome to upload some pictures. I'll have to walk by it again tonight, but if it works you should see a bunch of new pictures in the slideshow (and also be able to click on it to see the full resolution).