Wow! Rome - unbelievable...the history, the culture, the quaintness, the graffiti - amazing.
Had a great flight over on Air Canada. Having been a travel agent in a previous life I knew to get bulk-head seating on the over-seas flight (tip: next best thing to paying for business/first class seating when exit rows are not available). Plenty of room for my 6'4 hubby. He watched 3 movies during the flight, I drank lots of red wine with my new Canadian friend Anna who happens to work for the airline and was flying home to London after interviewing for a new job in Canada. Totally gregarious, would have made a great New Yorker. Most of the passengers in coach were treated to our loud conversation and all of them knew my name by the time we landed as she was well trained in using it in conversation. :)
Upon arrival in Rome, we checked into our 5th floor hotel (elevator not working as someone on the 4th floor didn't shut the outside door (another blog, but see the reference to me checking my bag in the previous blog...which translates to: heavy freakin' bag hauled up 5 flights) and met up with our good friends Pete & Babbie. So we're doing the Italian thing and sitting at an outside cafe, enjoying great conversation and some rosso vino, when a guy walks up asking us for a cigarette. Since none of us smoke, we were telling him we didn't have any cigarettes. He gets this funny, guilty-like look on his face and in broken English says, "Well, since you don't have any cigarettes, how about I take one of these," and proceeds to grab one of the bottles of wine off the table and runs off. It was actually pretty funny as the look on his face was like that of a kid getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, and he totally ran like a girl.
Highlights in Rome: Seeing the Vatican's Sistine Chapel/Museum. Interesting factoid - since it is its own country, you need a visa to get in. Tourism is not a valid reason. We decided if we wanted to get one, reasons could be Seminary study (student visa) or car washer as the only thing we saw of the Vatican country was a large parking lot. Our tour guide told us there was a couple of shops and a store, but not a whole lot else. She also told us the Michelangelo spent his whole time painting the ceiling standing upright with his head bent back. Having done this for so many years he developed a hump in his back and his eyes tended to roll back in his head at inopportune times. Interesting. Also learned that the artists were natoriously vain in that they painted themselves, friends and enemies into many of the paintings (some not so favorably).
Had a great flight over on Air Canada. Having been a travel agent in a previous life I knew to get bulk-head seating on the over-seas flight (tip: next best thing to paying for business/first class seating when exit rows are not available). Plenty of room for my 6'4 hubby. He watched 3 movies during the flight, I drank lots of red wine with my new Canadian friend Anna who happens to work for the airline and was flying home to London after interviewing for a new job in Canada. Totally gregarious, would have made a great New Yorker. Most of the passengers in coach were treated to our loud conversation and all of them knew my name by the time we landed as she was well trained in using it in conversation. :)
Upon arrival in Rome, we checked into our 5th floor hotel (elevator not working as someone on the 4th floor didn't shut the outside door (another blog, but see the reference to me checking my bag in the previous blog...which translates to: heavy freakin' bag hauled up 5 flights) and met up with our good friends Pete & Babbie. So we're doing the Italian thing and sitting at an outside cafe, enjoying great conversation and some rosso vino, when a guy walks up asking us for a cigarette. Since none of us smoke, we were telling him we didn't have any cigarettes. He gets this funny, guilty-like look on his face and in broken English says, "Well, since you don't have any cigarettes, how about I take one of these," and proceeds to grab one of the bottles of wine off the table and runs off. It was actually pretty funny as the look on his face was like that of a kid getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, and he totally ran like a girl.
Highlights in Rome: Seeing the Vatican's Sistine Chapel/Museum. Interesting factoid - since it is its own country, you need a visa to get in. Tourism is not a valid reason. We decided if we wanted to get one, reasons could be Seminary study (student visa) or car washer as the only thing we saw of the Vatican country was a large parking lot. Our tour guide told us there was a couple of shops and a store, but not a whole lot else. She also told us the Michelangelo spent his whole time painting the ceiling standing upright with his head bent back. Having done this for so many years he developed a hump in his back and his eyes tended to roll back in his head at inopportune times. Interesting. Also learned that the artists were natoriously vain in that they painted themselves, friends and enemies into many of the paintings (some not so favorably).
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