Our last day.

Today is sadly our last day in Rome. We slept in and took our time packing and getting the room organized. After lunch, we headed out to the Colosseum. It's hard to believe that this building is over 2,000 years old. It is quite obvious that the ancient Romans were engineers and not artists. Although very functional, there is not a lot of flare involved in this structure. It was a venue dedicated strictly to entertaining the masses - whether that was by gladiator contests or Christian killings. It was built when Rome was at its grandest in 80 A.D. Today only about 1/3 of it remains because much of the stone used in the structure was hauled out and used for other buildings around Rome as building materials became scarce. The engineering of the structure is quite a sight for construction geeks like us. The arches were built up and supported by falsework until the last keystone at the top of the arch was set creating a tension in the stones that was not only sound enough to hold its intended form (the arch) but also strong enough to carry weight on top of it. The exterior is a skeleton of 3.5 million cubic feet of travertine stone. Each column flanking the ground level arches weighs about 5 tons. It took 200 ox-drawn wagons shuttling back and forth every day for four years just to bring the stone here from Tivoli.

Once inside, you see what used to be the underground passages beneath the playing surface. The oval arena was originally covered with a wooden floor then sprinkled with sand. The stadium held about 50,000 spectators in its day. Just adjacent to the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine. Emporer Constantine legalized Christianity in 312 A.D. This arch is decorated entirely with recycled carvings made originally for other buildings. By covering it with exquisite carvings of high Roman art - works that glorified previous emperors - Constantine put himself in their league. This arch has been recently restored and is very beautiful.

We spent a little more time wandering around the Forum and Palantine Hill near the Colosseum, but the day was so hot, we soon gave up and headed back to the room to change our clothes and venture back out to finish up some last minute shopping. We went back to the area where the Trevi Fountain is located and ended up having an early dinner as the skies darkened and the thunder started. We found a quaint little restaurant in which two ancient waiters were tending the tables. The one who seated us did not speak English, but still managed to flirt with us (much to Riley's chagrin - he says it creeps him out when guys flirt with his mom). At one point a gentleman who was staggering a bit and missing several teeth wandered into the restaurant. He was immediately escorted back outside by the other ancient waiter, but when his back was turned outside, the man staggered right back in and headed straight back to the kitchen. After a brief exchange of words, he was once again escorted out. We found this whole scene comical because it almost seemed like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie. There was no yelling involved, just a brief exchange and a stern dismissal. The staggering guy wandered by the restaurant a few more times during our dinner and seemed very annoyed because he couldn't get back in. Each time he would simply raise his finger to his lips and say "shhhhh," to anyone who was looking. We found it all to be funny, but then again Ange and I had just shared a bottle of wine, so...

The rain quickly cleared and after dinner we continued wandering from shop to shop before finding ourselves back over by the Pantheon. In the plaza, there was a tenor belting out opera like a pro. He drew quite a crowd with his incredible voice. I'm sure there were some flaws in his singing (why else would he be singing at the Pantheon for "tips?") but to my untrained ear, he sounded amazing. He was a wonderful ending to a wonderful trip! Tomorrow morning we head to the airport where we will sadly have to say "arrivederci!" to Roma.

Ahhh...Florence...

On Sunday, we got up early and caught a cab to the train station. When we arrived, we purchased three round trip tickets to Florence on the Eurostar Train. This is a high speed train that is quite comfy. The trip was about 1 1/2 hours and went through some gorgeous country. Upon arriving in Florence, we left the train station and headed toward the main part of the town. Fortunately, Ange had been here before, so she was able to navigate easily through the streets. Although the area around the train station is pretty sketchy, the farther away we got, the less graffiti we saw and the nicer the areas became. We had wanted to visit the Academia Museum because Riley wanted to see the original statue of "David" by Michelangelo, but he became less interested when he saw the line that was more than a block long, so we kept moving. We finally came to the Doumo Church, another huge sanctuary for Catholics. Even though the Duomo is huge, however, it could easily fit inside St. Peter's. Mass was being held when we arrived, so we just took pictures of the outside and then moved on. There was a huge outdoor flea market where mostly leather products were sold by vendors who were eager to show all passers-by their wares. We passed the market and headed to the river where Ange knew of a nice restaurant for lunch. We spent over two hours sitting and enjoying our meal (including delicious creme brulee for dessert) while overlooking the river. It was heavenly!

After lunch we continued wandering the streets and checking out the quaint little shops that drew in all the tourists. It wasn't until we made it back to the market place when we finally got serious about our shopping. Ange got a very nice briefcase and I was able to barter for a gorgeous tapestry depicting one of my favorite Klimt paintings. After making our final purchases, we made our way back to the Doumo Church and had dinner in the surrounding plaza. Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:50, but we got back to the train station where Ange was able to sweet talk one of the engineers into letting us on an earlier train. We were pooped from walking all day! We are so glad we were able to make it there, though. The train was a very convenient option and cost about 60 euros a piece for the round trip tickets.

Saturday in Roma.

On Saturday we started out by going to the Borghese Museum. You have to have reservations in order to even visit this museum, but fortunately, Catherine was all over this fact and made the reservations for me back in Seattle! Once we got there, it was a bit confusing because we were required to check our bags. We were allowed to keep our money and passports with us, as well as our cameras, but our cameras had to be placed in a plastic bag. The logic of this did not fully register with me because when we got into the first room of the museum, I just pulled out my camera and snapped a quick shot of the ceiling before Ange came over and pointed out that I'm a dumbass. Evidently, we were supposed to place our cameras in these bags to keep us from using them. Oh well, I got one shot from within the Borghese Museum and no one can take that away from me now!! It's just too bad that this one shot wasn't of one of Bernini's sculptures. I developed a whole new respect for Bernini and his ability to take a piece of marble and make it look absolutely lifelike. There were three pieces: Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Proserpina, and David that were sculpted by Bernini and were absolutely amazing. This museum also contains pieces by Caravaggio, an artist with whose work Randy and I became familiar in Malta. There was a two hour limit on our visit at the Borghese and Riley surprisingly hung in for a full hour before he was ready to leave. We walked through the Borghese Gardens and down Via Veneto, where the wealthy stay when in Rome. Since we have been in Rome, Riley has been obsessed with everything soccer and Ferrari. Our walk down this street brought us face to face with a Ferrari 360 Modena and I thought Riley was going to faint. I snapped a picture and it is now the wallpaper on Riley's computer.

We napped after lunch and our long walk back to the hotel. After our nap, we went to the Trevi Fountain and had pizza for dinner. We then went back to the Trevi to see it at dusk when the lights come on and to partake in our nightly gelato treat. All was well until we got yelled at for sitting on the side of the fountain while eating our gelato. The police officer couldn't have been more than 100 lbs, but she meant business with her whistle and her stern directions that there was no eating on the fountain and that we needed to remove ourselves promptly. Another 50 Hail Mary's for Riley!

Roma

We traveled from Paris to Rome on Thursday. Our flight was out of Orly, Paris's smaller airport on an airline called "EasyJet." It was a bit like Southwest Airlines in that there were no assigned seats, but rather a sort of cattle call when it was time to board. Our flight was uneventful and when we arrived in Rome, we had no problem finding a taxi and getting to the hotel. Once settled into the hotel, we napped for a bit then met our friends Gretchen and Barry for dinner. Gretchen and Barry have a son on Riley's baseball team so we got to know each other well over the course of the season. It was so wonderful to see them here in Rome. They are planning to spend the next school year here, so are here looking for an apartment this week.

On Friday, we got up and headed out to Vatican City. We took a taxi to St. Peter's Square. Once we got out of the taxi, we walked into a huge crowd of people and were approached several times by people who were offering to give us a personal tour in English. I had pre-purchased our tickets to get into the museums and the Sistine Chapel, so we were able to avoid most of the lines. When we found the entrance for the pre-paid tickets, we just walked in, gave the ticket person our validation number and then walked into the museums. Basically, you have to walk through the museum to get to the Sistine Chapel. Each long room has a ceiling that is decorated differently. Although each was breathtaking, I was most in awe of a painting style that looked so three-dimensional that I thought our eyes were deceiving us. It was amazing. Riley was convinced that it was three dimensional and actually argued with me for several minutes until we went to the side of the room and then looked up at the curve where the wall and ceiling met. It was from this vantage point where you could actually see that the surface was flat instead of three dimensional. The amount of time and talent that went into these rooms is astounding.

Every room brought us a little closer to the Sistine Chapel until we finally (after an hour or so) found ourselves standing in the middle looking up at Michelangelo's beautiful fresco that he started in 1508. I must say, it was not as I had expected, however. The room is long, dimly lit, and somewhat narrow with a very high ceiling. I sort of felt like I was in a box full of people. All four walls and the ceiling, of course, were elaborately painted with 15th and 16th century Italian Renaissance paintings (or murals). The fresco on the ceiling is the most famous part of this room even though it is all breathtaking. The center of the fresco is the part that is intended to depict "Creation" where the two fingertips are about to touch. I was a bit surprised by how small that part of the story on the ceiling was from that perspective. I am so used to seeing this part of the famous ceiling blown up that I had almost forgotten that it is all a part of the larger story. I half expected it to encompass most of the ceiling, I guess. Instead, I found myself searching for it within the fresco.

As you move your way through the Sistine Chapel, there are two exits, but one is marked "No entry except for those with special credentials." We went out through the appropriate exit and made our way toward what we thought was the direction of St. Peter's Basilica. At one point, we stopped and asked one of the guards a question about St. Peter's and he told us that the easiest way was to go out through the Sistine Chapel, then proceeded to stick his bottom lip out as if to say that he was sad for us because we were going to have to take the really long way around to get there. Not to be outsmarted by a guard, we decided to start the whole tour through the museums again so that we could access St. Peter's through the Sistine Chapel. This time, instead of gawking at all the statues and artwork, we just pushed our way through the crowds and returned to the Sistine Chapel within about 20 minutes. We made our way through the box of people and were once again faced with the two doors. We chose the door on the left again because of the sign at the door on the right stating that we could not use it without the appropriate credentials. We walked a short distance before we decided that we were just repeating our earlier mistake. We turned around and started pushing our way upstream until we were dumped back into the Chapel. This time, however, we joined a tour group who apparently had the appropriate credentials and exited on the right. We played along until we found ourselves at the giant doors of St. Peter's. Success! - Except for the fact that Riley is convinced he owes someone 50 Hail Mary's for "cheating" the system...

Unfortunately, I am not talented enough to come up with the words to accurately describe St. Peter's Basilica. It is absolutely huge and awe inspiring. In fact, it is the largest church in the world (with the possible exception of one that was built in 1989 somewhere in South Africa, I think). Each Pope is represented in the church and Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bernini have all made their marks on it. High above the floor are inscriptions that include passages about St. Peter from the Bible. Although it is not readily apparent from the floor, each letter in the inscriptions is 7 feet tall. The designers considered the perspective of a person standing in the basilica and looking upward. The result is the perception that the structure is not nearly as huge as it is.

After taking in the splendor of St. Peters, we headed off to the oldest church in the world - the Pantheon. Some of Italy's most famous kings and artists are buried here, including Raphael. It was orginally a pagan temple, but in 609 A.D. became a Christian church. By comparison, it has nothing on St. Peter's, but is still regal in its circular simplicity. Its domed ceiling was once covered in bronze, but the precious material, almost 450,000 pounds, was removed in the early 1600's and used by Bernini in St. Peter's. Light and air enter through an opening in the ceiling (an oculus, almost 9 meters across), through which the sky seems to ascend to the temple, and in turn prayers freely rise to the heavens. Rain water enters the structure through this opening, but the floor is sloped to drains that quickly remove the water.

By this time in the day, we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel. At one point during the day, we discovered the sweet goodness of gellato. Riley and I are convinced that limone (lemon) is the best flavor, whereas Ange favors the berry flavors. It was a wonderful treat on a very hot day.

Wednesday - Triumph of Good over Evil

On Wednesday, we made up ground for the slow day on Tuesday. By then, we had mastered the Metro system in Paris so took the trains out to the Montmartre District to see Sacre-Couer (another church) and the bohemians. Once we got off the Metro, it was a relatively short walk through a low-rent bizarre (selling cheap clothing and cloth) to the base of Sacre-Couer. I had forgotten about the long stair climb to the top of the hill on which the church sits overlooking the city. One option to get to the top is through the use of what is called a funicular, which appears to be like a gondola. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) we did not realize this was an option when we started our climb. If we had, I am quite sure that Riley would have weighed the physical cost of climbing all those stairs with the financial cost and ease of the use of the funicular, and I would have been paying more money. Instead, we got some great exercise - but were promptly rewarded with the strong stench of urine when we got to the top. I made a face when I caught my first whiff and a German gentleman next to me said, "Ah, the smell of French perfume..." The thing I found most striking about this church was that although it looks ancient, it was built only 130 years ago by Parisians humiliated by German invaders in 1870. It was built on a foundation of 83 piers because the ground underneath was honeycombed with gypsum mines.

Once inside the church, we were prohibited from taking pictures. In fact, there was priest giving mass while all the tourists were walking around the perimeter of the sanctuary. It was kinda cool to see the familiar ceremony and to hear what we almost instantly recognized as the Lord's Prayer said in French. Oh, and once again, there was no hail or brimstone, so the visit provided further proof that we are good and not evil.

After seeing all there was to see of Sacre-Couer, we walked a short distance down to the artist district in Montmartre for lunch, then headed to the Catacombs. The Catacombs consist of underground tunnels that contain the bones of over 6 million people. In 1785, the government of Paris decided to relieve congestion and improve sanitary conditions by emptying the city's cemetaries and depositing the bones into the miles of underground tunnels that were once associated with limestone quarries. For decades, priests lead processions of black-veiled, bone laden carts into the quarries. The tour included a walk through these winding passages that were created by stacks and stacks of femurs separated only by a row or two of skulls. Some obvious pilfering has occurred over the years as visitors have removed some of the bones despite the warning at the entrance of the catacombs that anyone caught would be immediately arrested.

At the completion of this tour, we headed to the Eiffel Tower at my insistance because there is no way a person can visit Paris without seeing one of its most famous monuments. Unfortunately at the first sight of the line of people trying to get to the elevator, Riley once again made the decision that pictures of it from street level was good enough. I pointed out that the line for the stairs was much shorter, but was given a look like I was completely batty and the subject was dropped. So, we ended up going to a bar instead. Fortunately, it was our friend, Thierry's, bar! After some really good wine and another wonderful dinner at a nearby restaurant, we were faced with the daunting task of packing up our stuff and preparing to leave this beautiful city. Hopefully, we will be able to return again one day!

Tuesday - the day of churches and torture.

On Tuesday, we started out at Notre Dame. Riley says this was his favorite spot in Paris. The fact that the construction of this church started in 1163 is tough enough to wrap one's noodle around. Most notable, however, is the construction process whose schedule spread over two centuries. This is incentive to tell anyone who complains about a construction schedule that their problems are nothing by comparison (as long as my client is the one defending the schedule of course). A true miracle for the record books, however, occurred when Ange and I crossed the threshold of this church without hail and brimstone falling from the skies. That alone should be convincing to all who have prevoiusly questioned whether we are good or evil. We believe this is solid proof that we are good, of course.



From there we went to Saint Chapelle, another notable church near Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the line was tortuously long, so Riley made the command decision that we were going to skip this venue. Instead, we went to the Conciergerie because it was noted to be where people were tortured in the past (not just with long lines, but other physical devices) - a topic that is always interesting to a 12 year-old boy. Unfortunately, after paying the admission fees, we were disappointed to find out that none of these devices were still in the structure and the only thing worth noting about it is the fact that Marie Antoinette was held there before she was executed. Not very exciting at all. We ended up spending the rest of the day wandering down the Champs-Elysees and window shopping. I went into the Louis Vuitton store just so I could say I did, but when I called my husband from within the store, I was told in no uncertain terms that I would be fired if I even considered purchasing something. Modern day torture. Bummer.

Our first full day...

Today we walked our buns off! We started at the Louvre. We bought tickets at a kiosk upon entry and then headed toward the main entrance of the museum. We ran into the long lines of people before we got anywhere close to the main entrance, however. This was perplexing because we arrived approximately 15-20 minutes after its scheduled opening and the line wasn't moving at all. We soon discovered, after going to the front of the line as instructed by a museum employee, that the scheduled opening of the museum was delayed for undisclosed reasons. The doors finally opened at around 10:00 a.m. and despite the stink eyes from those who had been waiting in line for over an hour, we pushed our way through the first wave of people in the door. At that point, the race was on. It felt surreal and almost like a movie. Everyone started moving toward the Mona Lisa as quickly as possible. We arrived at this famous painting by Leonardo DaVinci with the coy smile of an oh-so-average looking, unidentified woman in the first wave of people. That means we were able to walk right up to the ropes (positioned at least 15 feet from the painting) and take photos before the real crowds descended upon the room. In the words of a very wise man, "What the [heck] is the big deal?" We were not quite sure what the draw to this painting is, but got it out of the way as soon as possible.

Once we checked the Mona Lisa off our list, we wandered through the Greek and Egyptian antiquities exhibits, as well as the medieval area of the Louvre before we allowed our collective A.D.D. to take over, and decided we had seen enough. From there, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, which is much larger than what we thought it would be. As it turns out, the Arc is 165 feet tall. Construction began in 1809, as commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to honor his soldiers, who despite being vastly outnumbered by the Austrians, scored a remarkable victory at the battle of Austerlitz. Unfortunately, Napoleon died prior to the Arc's completion, but it was finished in time for his 1840 funeral procession to pass underneath, carrying his remains (19 years after he had died) from his point of exile in St. Helena to Paris.

In honor of this mighty little man, we headed to his tomb after leaving the Arc. Napoleon's tomb has been placed in a church that has been dedicated to him and his short life (1769-1821). When you enter the gold-domed church, you come to a railing around a huge round opening in the floor. Above the opening in the floor is the elaborately painted underside of the dome. The red tomb sits 15 feet above the floor below. If you were to open the lid, you would find an oak coffin inside, holding another ebony coffin, housing two lead ones, then mahogany, then tinplate...until finally you'd find Napoleon himself. When his body was exhumed from the orginal grave on St. Helena in 1840, they found that it was still perfectly preserved, even though 19 years had passed since his death. He had been exhiled to St. Helena after a failed attempt at an invasion on Russia. Biggest lesson here? Don't invade Russia...(at the beginning of his demise, Napoleon had invaded Russia with 600.000 men and returned with only 60.000 frost bitten survivors).

The galleries surrounding the tomb contain examples of armor, guns, cannons. and other various forms of weaponry. Riley was fascinated by it all while Ange and I just sat and waited for him to get through it. I had to laugh when I read Rick Steve's estimate on how long it would take to get through this museum: "Women - two hours, men - three hours, Republican men - all day." It took us a little over an hour. I guess Rick Steve didn't factor in the A.D.D. of a 12 year-0ld boy. By this time, it was approximately 5 p.m. and we were beat. We headed back to the room with the plan to go back out around 8 p.m. to see the Tour de Eiffel. Unfortunately, after our siesta, we all decided that our feet hurt, so we just headed out for dinner in the neighborhood close to our hotel.

The restaurant we found was called La Trattoria and it was (apparently) owned and operated by an Italian man from Napoli. He was wonderful and so was the food. Ange and I shared a bottle of wine and were given a "shot" of Limoncella (sp?) after our meal. We were fairly sedated by the time we arrived back at the room. Now we rest and prepare for another big day tomorrow. Our first stop will be Notre Dame. Bon Nuit!

P.S. I can't seem to get the pictures to upload from here in the hotel room because the signal appears to be too weak. I'll try to check it out tomorrow.