Wednesday July 17

Three letters describe today

OMG

Oh my god what a fabulous gallery visit to the Borghese. I love Bernini's David as well as the other statues he did that are located here. For me this gallery rivals the Louvre and the gallery in Florence (forgot the name but it contains Michelangelos David). When we finished our two hour tour (that is all  the time they give you) ,both of us were amazed at all the magnificent statues and paintings.Wow

Before the Borghese we bicycled the nearby park so Caro could get her bike riding fix.

After our tour we walked to the edge of the old city at Piazza del Popolo and began a long walk back through the city streets doing people watching, enjoying the magnificent buildings and sites, stopping in every church that was open for visits.

I forgot that the first thing we did this morning was visit the old Roman baths of Diocletian which are now part of a nearby church and potentially part of where our B+ B is. Cool to think about

We ate an early supper near the Piazza Navona (photo below) before walking back ( just head north at Trajans column!)

Presently planning tomorrow and trying to connect with Dad via email

Rome Wednesday morning

Glad to hear from Vanessa that Mom is doing much better.Thanks for the update.

Thanks Charlie for the query on comments. I thought I had it set up to accept comments but it wasn't set up correctly; should be good now

Looking forward to another beautiful day.Today we have reservations at the Borguese Gallery (not sure I spelled the name correctly)
Roger

Rome July 16

A great day.We started by visiting the Roman Forum and Palatine hill followed by the coloseum. It was a fantastic visit to all three locations and took most of the day 

After our coloseum visit was over we started walking. We visited  numerous churches including one that had 2 ancient churches below it. In one church we saw a Michelangelo sculpture. Some of the churches aren't even the guidebooks but the reality is if these churches were in any other city they would be on the tourist maps as a must see.

We also went to the top of the Victor Emmanual building which is very  near the Forums.

We walked MANY streets enjoying the sights and sounds before finally eating pizzas near our B+B and getting home after 9.

Food is terrible expensve here and at first we thought we would go to a store to buy food but there simply aren't any around like at home.

Rome Monday July 15

First comment is Happy Birthday Lisa. Yes, I know we picked a terrible time of the year for you to be born!!!

We were awakened at 3 :30 A.M. by a Skype call from Fernando with the sad news of Caro's brother Victor passing away.Very sad but not unexpected.

We ( well mostly me , Roger) managed to get more sleep before having our breakfast with a young couple from Denmark.

At Paolo's (the B+B owner) suggestion we took the metro to the station nearist the Vatican where we braved the HOARDS of tickets sellers in many different languages (this is amazingly cosmopolitan)

We shuffled along with the multitides seeing the Vatican museum and the  Sistene Chapel  before heading over to take a walk up  to the top of the basilica dome. Parts of the trip up were a little freaky.

After that we toured around inside the basilica .Caro stepped aside at one of the side chapels in St. PETERS to remember her brother.

We walked back from there (probably 1 hour) before having a lazy supper at a restaraunt immdiately outside our place.

Our first day in Rome

Our flights went well and after a slightly stressful time finding out where our baggage was (in a different terminal on a poorly marked carousel) we found our B+B , met our host and because it was only 1 P.M. we started walking to see some sights.

We found the Parthenon and were awed by its beauty. After that we went to the Trevi fountain which also was very beautiful.

We continued walking until we started feeling the jet lag late in the afternoon. A quick bite to eat and our second shower of the day.It was 33 degrees out and very humid.

The city is full of tourists from all over the world

We were asleep at 7 P.M. local time (11 A.M. Alberta time)

TORONTO International

Killing 4 hours of time.The flight from Edmonton was on time and we arrived in mid afternoon.Still learning how to use this tablet

On the flight experimenting