Italy Just The Beginning

Monday, October 6, 2008

Home and tired

We are home and I am exhausted. I am trying to get my inner clock reset so I feel like a real person again. Well it's back to work in a few days after all the laundry, unpacking and trying to find a spot for the stuff that I bought. I don't think I have wall space for all the art I bought but i will have to find a place for it eventually.

Becky

Sunday, October 5, 2008

On our way home!

We are on our way home, We have to stay up for over 24 hours to reset our clocks I hope we will be OK.

See you all soon!

Becky

Rome day 3

St Peters Square where the Pope gives his weekly address

St Peters Basilica the largest Catholic Church in the World

Me and Mom in front of St Peters Basilica at night.

Today we went to the Vatican. We had to stand in line outside the walls for about an hour before they would let us in. I didn't know what to think about the Vatican. It just reminded me of a lot of over indulgence. I thought about the common people and how deprived they were and that they didn't have anything and yet their church had a huge amount of wealth that they put towards things of the world. Anything you can imagine in gold and marble statues, the tapestries and the furnishings, the paintings and everything was just overdone. This is not to say that the Vatican was not grand, it was. It just was too much I think.

We then went back to the hotel and packed to come home. That was a lot of fun trying to get everything to fit into our bags and not have them overweight. We did OK. We then found out we were going to take a bus ride around Rome at night. That was awesome to see all of the stuff lit up and glowing was so cool! We drove past a movie premier and the president of Italy arrived as we were driving around there were police cars everywhere. It was really kind of cool.

We will be leaving in the morning and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on this awesome trip. I have learned so much and I am excited to plan another trip back to Italy to spent some time at some of the places I thought were cool!

Becky

Rome Day 2

The Pantheon a beautiful church that only took 7 years to build it is amazing to thing with the intricate details of the ceiling that it only took that long to get it built

Today we saw more and more of Rome. We started out walking to the Spanish steps and then to the Trevi fountain. They were great! At the Spanish Steps I ran up to the top twice the first time just to see if I could do it and the second time to get a picture. The steps are amazing and our guide had warned us about pick pockets. There were a lot of them that I saw, but luckily no one in our group had any problems.

At the Trevi fountain we spent about 30 minutes just looking around the fountain. It was more beautiful then I had imagined. I think I could have spent a couple of hours there just walking around and people watching. We got some gelato before moving on to the next site which was the Pantheon. We then saw several of the alblucus that were stolen from the Egyptians during the reign of the Roman Empire. There are 230 of the ablucus's in Rome and only 2 are left in Egypt. I think soon one day the Egyptians are going to call then stolen and demand there return.

Talk to you soon

Becky

Rome Rome Rome

St Paul's outside the walls church.

Rome is so amazing on the first day we were able to see the Forum which was part of an ancient city. It was huge I never realized how large the Forum was until we got there and walked around for a couple of hours.

We then went to the Colosseum and learned all about what happened there on almost a daily basis. Mom and I in the picture have our fist's held up similar to what the emperor would do to let a gladiator live, if they had survived their fight with either a wild animal or another gladiator. We spent about an hour there and one guy from our group got lost so we had to wait and find him.

We then went to St Paul outside the walls church. It was really cool. the interior was great! It was then back on the bus and back to the ship to get ready to get off the ship the next day! We are having an amazing time!

Becky