The End

Even though we have one day left of our trip, this will be my last blog......I can't believe that it is over. It is a bitter sweet ending. I am looking forward to coming home to see my kids...I have not spoken to them in 15 days, and I usually talk to them on a daily basis. I miss them so much, I really do, I can't wait to call both of them the minute I land in Chicago. However, I am not looking forward to coming home to 20 days of work and stress that I left behind.

As I sit back tonight while everyone is infront of the fire and talking, laughing and enjoying a glass of wine, I am reflecting on this entire trip and my life......and realize just how fast it went.

This trip has been something that has been better than imagined, something better than any of my wildest dreams could of imagined and through all the planning (for 10 years) exceeded my expectations by 100 fold......And as I sit here and type my last blog, memories of our trip come flashing through my mind..........

Michael and I sat on the steps of a church in one of the villages that we visited, and watched 2 children, a little boy and a girl chasing the pigeons around the courtyard. They were probably around the ages of 6 and 3, and the little girl followed her older brother throughout the square as he chased and tried to kick all of the pigeons. We just sat there for approximately 45 minutes and just watched them run around, chasing all the pigeons and the parents trying so hard to follow them and settle them down. It brought me back to the time when we use to take Christi and Mikey to the lakefront in Milwaukee to feed the ducks...

We would save up our bread for weeks, put all the crumbs in buckets, then bundle up and go down to the lakefront and park along Martin Luther King Drive, get out of the car, and start throwing bread towards the ducks.....They would flock towards all of the bread crumbs and as Christi would throw the crumbs to them, Mikey would chase all the ducks away. However, they would come flying back (obviously because they wanted the food), but Mikey would still chase them away and Christi would yell at him for chasing the ducks away, because she just wanted to feed them and Mikey wanted to chase them. During those times, we just laughed, but now, as we sat and watched these children chase the pigeons, we both realized just how fast life has gone by.

Its hard to imagine that my children are 27 and 23, that even though we have spent our entire lifes trying to make the best of being the best parents, that sometimes you sit back and say......If only I......I wish I would of not worked so hard, I wish I would of gone to more of Christi's tracks meets....I only went to one.....ok, I have to say, those track meets were so long, it is about 8 hours that you have to wait to watch your kid run for 15 seconds....Needless to say, I wish I would of gone to more.....I wish I would of been home when they came home from school to help with homework, to make them a good dinner, or just to be there. However, our lives resulted in working late and trying desperately to do the best that we can and it still continues to be so.

Tomorrow I turn 46 years old (happy b-day to me) and maybe as I reflect on the fact that I am closer to 50 then I was a year ago, and maybe because of the fact that I am sitting here on my second glass of wine, I am feeling just a little bit sorry for myself, it is still the fact that I am not getting any younger. I am tired of working so hard, I am tired of missing so much of my childrens lifes. I miss the thunder storms when Christi and Mikey would come down the steps with their blankets and crawl into bed with us because they were scared and just cuddle between Michael and I and feel so safe. It went so fast, I want to slow down and I am going to make some changes in my life to do so, even though it might involve some decisions that I just don't want to make.....Don't get me wrong, it is not going to be any marital decisions, as I could not imagine my life without Michael, but personal and business decisions that I need to make.

I want to spend more time with my husband, my kids, my family and my friends, before another 25 years goes flying by and I sit here and say "DAMM", I did it again......I am not going to allow this to happen....I have been blessed with such great friends, wonderful health, large families that care for us so deeply, and of course the benefit of giving life to two amazing kids.....and Michael. He is truly my sole mate, and I am not ashamed to say that. I thank everyday for having such a wonderful partner in my life, someone who will accept me for who I am (even though sometimes I can truly be a bitch) and will unconditionally love me. I am thankful for having the ability to give life to two children who were healthy, and have grown to be such amazing people....Who if it were up to me, I would spend every day with, but knowing that I need to let go and let them grow! My happiest days are when they both come home and spend the night at our house....I love Christmas, because that is the one time that I know they will both be home. It has been a joy watching them grow, but it has also been sad because I know that I am not needed as much as I was 10 years ago. However, I also can't wait to be a grandma.....I am so ready.........

So as to end this blog, I want to say to Christi and all of Christi's friends who are reading this.....I know that you are starting your family's, or thinking about starting one....Please listen to me on this one subject.......Take every moment and enjoy every moment of your husband and kids lifes, don't work so hard, because it goes so fast I truly mean that....It goes so fast....Don't think you need to have material items to make you happy, because what truly makes you happy is love and friendship. Be true to your feelings and be true to your self.

Thanks for following this journey with us, I wouldn't change one part of my life however, I wish it would slow down.........I love you all, and see you when I get back to America.

Ciao (sorry I have been spelling it wrong this entire trip)

I Love YOU CHRISTI AND MIKEY.......SEE YOU SOON

Last Day at the Villa

It's Thursday, where did the time go? Well, Michael and I had a fabulous day on Tuesday being all alone at the villa. We got up at around 9:00am, went for a walk down to the closest village, which is approximately 3 miles away. We sat at a little bakery, grocery store, bar (yes, all in one place). Had a cup of capuccino and a pastry then proceeded back to our villa up the mountain top. The walk was anything but fun, there is no side of the road, it is road then ditch. So, when a car comes through, we are running in the ditch because they drive so fast and don't care what is in front of them. We then took our long walk up the driveway which every morning we complain on how hard it is.

We then took a shower, built a fire, because it was cold on Tuesday, and read a book, took a nap and then a little walk with the dog, Molly, who lives here. She is a black and white long hair sheep dog. She led us through a little path through the woods and up further in the mountains. It was actually really nice to go for a nice walk through the mountain woods. We had no idea where we were going, but she led us up the mountain, then down again. By the time we got back, Gail, Gary, Frank and Patti returned from their day in Sienna and we popped open some wine and sat around the fire and laughed and talked.

As the wine flowed, we started talking about the "bidets", which are located in all our rooms, plus have been present at our hotels this entire trip. Needless to say, we all decided to admit that none of us know exactly why it exists? Obviously, we know what it is intended for, but why not just sit in a bath full of water? We also all admitted that none of us have truly used the bidet so what did we do? All of us, with a glass of wine in our hand, went to each of our bathrooms to see just how they work.......Here are our questions that we are putting out there.....If someone knows the answers, it would be great to hear them. Why is there a drain plug? Is it so you can soak? If so, then again, why not use the bathtub? In these particular bidets, the water spout goes down, why? If it is meant to clean the privates, shouldn't it go up? There is a little towel bar with a towel and a soap dish next to it with soap on so we assume that it is to clean up? Again, why not a bathtub?......We sat in the bathroom for approximately 20 minutes laughing histarically but none of us would demonstrate the usage of it. We actually got to the point of Michael pulling out his computer to google it.......Needless to say, we got on another subject and these questions were never answered!

It was so fun to sit and laugh and talk and be with good friends who you feel so comfortable with. I never wanted the night to end, but it did.

Wednesday, we ventured out early and went to a castle which is located high upon the mountains. It is a castle that someone still lives in, however, he allows tours of his grounds. It was a great day, Michael and Gary played soldier running around the top of the castle, planning how they would protect it. They truly regressed into their childhood again. We then found a little diner and had a fantastic dinner, drove home through the winding hills and back to the villa.

Today was Michael and Franks birthday. Michael turned 45 and Frank turned 52. We went to Florence again because Patti got her passport stollen so we had to get her a new one, then went to a FANTASTIC restaurant where we had a fabulous lunch and the owner is a 27 year old (hint, hint, Christi, he is real cute.....I have him in our picture which I downloaded, he told me that if you were ever in Italy, we should bring you by....) They brought us a little cake to celebrate our birthdays, and bought us some wine....It was one of the best meals we enjoyed on our trip.

We then came back to the villa where Patti and Gail had a little surprise for Michael and I....They brought a veil and put it on me and gave a nice little toast to Michael and I for celebrating our 25 year anniversary. I of course cried, it was so sweet....I am so lucky to have friends like them, I truly am.

We then brought out the presents for Michael and Frank's birthday.....All I can say is that the picture tells the story. In case you don't know what it is about, it is a apron with the picture of "David" on it.....Something we joked about this whole trip, and so funny how they look in it. I am going to make Michael wear it for Christmas Eve!!!!

The night is winding down, we are sitting now, enjoying our last night at the villa, with a bowl of Pistachio Gillato and good friends sitting by. What a day, what a night. I am going to stop this post and start another one, because this is getting so long and we leave on Saturday and I want to end my Blog with another post.

Chao

Rainy Days in Tuscany

I did not know that it rains everyday in the mountains of Tuscany. We have a thunderstorm or a rain cloud that will pass over, it will rain very heavy for about a half hour then awe, the some comes out! I guess thats why this region is known for their wine and olives, no need to water any plants here. Yesterday we ventured out late morning. It took us all a while to get going yesterday because the night before we drank 8 bottles of wine between 6 people. I think when I get back I will have to seriously stop drinking for a while.

We went about a half hour south of here to a village called San Gianamorali, it is a midevel town that has been converted into restaurants and shopping. We spent the whole day touring the town and going up into the many towers that still exist. Michael, who is afraid of heights, actually climbed up one and was ready to continue when I chickend out and could not go any further. It had steps that were metal with holes through them, so you could look down and see just how high you were. I can't do see through steps! Michael turned around with me, and I felt bad because usually he is never up to climbing anything higher than a step ladder. He did try to make me feel better by saying he was ready to turn around too.

We ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant and then ventured on home. First I have to say that Italians do not believe in butter or ice. They will give you a huge basket of bread, but no butter. You will get a soda with a glass, but no ice. I am looking forward to having butter and some bread when I get back to the states.

The way home was very interesting. The roads are very very winding, they have no lights, the roads are not marked as to which hwy you are on, and sometimes you will see a little sign that will say the name of a town and an arrow pointing at which direction you should go. So all of a sudden you are making a fast turn on a narrow road. It also takes so long to get from point A to point B because of the narrow, sharp curved road.

This morning it rained (imagine that) so we decided to go to the grocery store. All six of us!!!! When we arrived at the store, they told us they were closing in 15 minutes (because all the stores close between 1:30 and 3:3o) I have no idea why, but they do. So we all grabbed hand baskets and flew around the store looking for butter, bread, etc. It was quite comical watching us all run around the store.

So now we are back at the villa, the sun is out, I saw a rainbow on the way back and took a picture of it. Hopefully you can see it. Soon we will make some dinner and just relax the night away infront of the fire.

Tomorrow Patti and Frank and Gail and Gary are going to venture out to Sienna, but Michael and I are going to stay back and enjoy the villa for a while, and be alone! HMMMMM I wonder what will happen? Ha ha

Chao

Tuscany

Had our first blip on this trip and that was trying to find our driver once we exited the train from Venice to Florence. After about 45 minutes of looking for someone holding up a sign with the name "Cannella" on, and not being able to find one, we decided to try to call the company by phone. Not an easy thing to do when our cell phones are not working and all the pay phones are in italian and most everyone speaks italian.

Frank finally asked another driver if he could help us and this man spoke some english and truly helped us out. Our driver got her days mixed up and thought she was to pick us up at the train station on Saturday and not Friday. Thank god she was in Florence shopping with her son. So she rushed over to the train station to pick us up, put her kid in the back surrounded by all of our luggage and on our way we went to our villa.

We stopped along the way at a grocery store to pick up some essentials......Wine, cheese, more wine, champagne (for Patti and I), I think we bought some bread to? Don't remember to much today, Patti and I drank our portion of wine and champagne, so back to grocery store we go today!!!!!!!

We finally got to the villa 8 hours after we left Venice with a ton of wine and a little groceries, all of our luggage and an absolutely beautiful view along the way. Our villa sits up high in the mountain regions of Tuscany, near a village call Luccarelli. Our driveway has olive trees and wine fields along both sides. The driveway up here is steep. You think our driveway at home is steep, try driving up this one.

We unpacked, then started to make dinner. Spaghetti!!! What else would you eat in Tuscany? We then built a fire in the fireplace and relaxed and talked. It felt good to get away from the hussle and bussle of the last few days.

It is raining today on and off, so we built another fire and Mike and Frank are reading books and I am showing Patti how to blog. Tonight Gail and Gary arrive, so i think we will just heat up some leftovers and relax again.

I have attached some pictures of our view for you to see. And yes, I have internet here so I will keep posting!

Hope everyone is healthy and safe, we are having a fantastic time and I don't want it to end. Love you and miss everyone!

Chao!

Venice

This is our last day of our tour part of the trip. And I have to admit I am so done with taking tours.....I think if you are to come to this country, you need to either study the history first, or take a tour. I recommend the tours. We have enjoyed them tremedously, but I am tired. Every morning we are going by 8:00am and don't return until after 6:00pm. Then, take a shower, and try to catch someplace to eat before 8:00, so we can get back to the hotel and get to bed early to do this all over again.

Tomorrow we leave for 8 days to Tuscany where we rented a villa in the countryside, I am looking forward to maybe being able to pull out a book and read and just enjoy the views of this country without a tour guide pointing everything out.

We arrived in Venice yesterday in the early afternoon. We took a train ride from Florence to the train station and then a "water taxi" to our hotel, which is located directly on the grand canal. Out of all the places that we have been so far, this is by far my favorite. I am not sure what it is that attracts me to this place, but it is beautiful. There are no cars on Venice, you must walk everywhere. There are over 400 bridges that connect all the waterways throught the city and the "dry land". No bridge looks the same and all are beautifuly ordained with rod iron or marble.

As I was saying before, everything is by boat. They have police boats, ambulance boats, bus boats, and taxi boats. They have boat stops all along the canal which are just like bus stops, people wait in line and the next thing you see is this large boat coming up to this stop and 25 people will get off and 25 people will get on. We actually have one located next to our hotel and last night we sat outside with some cocktails and just watched it. Truly amazing.

We did not have a tour yesterday (thank god), so we unpacked, and took a walk on our own, just to see the sights. We then took a gondola ride. That was the one thing that I wanted to do, and I did it! It was fabulous. For 45 minutes we went in and out of many waterways and saw some georgeous (as they call them) Palaces, and private homes, with some champagne and music. Can we get any more romantic than that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we had a walking tour of the city which the guides are so good at telling us the history of these places, and seeing some of the sights that most tourists don't see. We then took a tour of the murano glass factory and saw how vases, glasses, chandeleirs are made. They are all hand made and hand blown. Because this was a special ocassion, they gave us a souvenier of a horse, which we saw the designer make!!! They wrapped it up so well that I don't think we will have a problem at all bringing it back in one piece. I did want to buy some wine glasses, but yeah......they were 750 euro's for 6 of them (which was the minimum order). This is about 1,300.00 in american money. Sorry murano, maybe some other time!

Everything is so expensive here. Our lunch which will consist of a pizza, and a bottle of water is about 25 euros or 20 dollars. It is crazy. I'm hoping when we get to Tuscany, my debit card can rest for a bit. Ha ha

I am excited for our next journey, but also a little sad that it is half over. I can't believe that we have been here for 7 days already, it is just flying by. Hopefully in Tuscany we will have wifi capability, if you don't see any posts, you will know that we don't.

I have attached some pictures of Venice, but truly the pictures do not do this place justice.

Talk to you soon

Chao

Florence

I have just learned a valuable lesson.....Make sure you save your blog periodically throughout before your wifi connection gets lost. Otherwise, you will be re creating what you just spent a half hour typing.

First I want to thank everyone for all the comments to this blog. Yes Christi, I did figure out how to read them. I hope you are enjoying following our journey.

I am sitting outside on our veranda in 75 degrees weather, sipping on some champagne and enjoying this FABULOUS view of the city. I have attached a video of the view, because one picture just doesn't explain it.

The past two days have been filled with walking tours of the city and also tours of museums. We have seen paintings from Michaelangelo, Donatelo, Leonardo Da Vinci......HMMM I don't think we saw any paintings from the last ninga turtle Rafael.....Wait, yes we did. ha ha. We have saw churches that took over 150 years to construct, statues that took 2 years to complete, including the statue of David.

This city has so much history. Mikey you would love to hear the stories about this city during WWII. On one side of the river are museums, on the other side is the shopping capital of the world. Christi, this is where you would be....SCARVES everywhere. I will try to get you one, but we have dinner reservations tonight and then we leave tomorrow morning for Venice. The shops here close around 7:00pm. I will try, but can't promise anything.

What a day, what a vacation..I have attached also a few pictures. One of them is of a shop name, that I thought was very funny....Sorry, it is kinda childish, but very funny. Another photo is one of many beautiful sights of this city. I could spend all day taking pictures of these sights. I have actually never taken so many pictures in my life. Absolutely georgeous. One more of the pictures is of one of the many statues that are in this area. Christi this is for you.....Do you want to see my.....? I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. It is a inside joke between Christi and me and Michael.

I hope you guys are enjoying these posts as much as I am enjoying writing them. Unfortunately, I always seem to have to rush because we have something new to discover.

I miss everyone, but I also am not ready to come home. Tomorrow is Venice, I will keep you posted.

Love you all

Last day in Rome

I don't think that I ever talked about the weather. It has been sunny and about 78 degrees every day. They say that this is not normal for October, but I will take this weather anyday. However, I thought it was going to be much cooler and packed alot of long sleeves shirts and sweaters, so I have been a bit warm at some times.

Another thing I want to talk about is the language. Everyone told us that you don't need to speak italian to come here, but honestly, I don't know what we would have done without Michael being able to understand this language. He is not fluent by all means, but because he is such a geek and spent the last few months studying, it has helped us out of a few jams that have came up. Most people are pretty tolerant of us speaking english, however they say thank you when you try to speak italian. I have noticed that we get treated just a bit better because we are trying to communicate with them. It has been fun, I have learned a few words and will use them, but I still don't feel to comfortable saying sentences, so I leave those to Michael.

Today we were to visit the crypt and catacombs here in Rome, and I will admit that this was the one tour I was not looking forward to. Who wants to see a bunch of graves underground? Plus, Michael and I went up to the rooftop bar last night and ended up drinking way to much. HMMMM imagine that. Our waiter was the nicest man, he kept on pouring us free toppers to our wine and bringing out a egyption after dinner wine which was awesome. But, John Carlo told me today that this wine is very potent and you can not drink that much or else.....Where was John Carlo last night?

So I crawled out of bed 10 minutes before we were to meet John Carlo and Georginna. They took us to our first catacomb visit and yep, it was closed. I have never been happier. However, they knew of another one and yes, we had to take a tour of graves underground. I was not impressed, but the tour only lasted 20 minutes and I was very happy to get away from that place.

Georginna and John Carlo felt bad because our tour was supposed to be for 4 hours and only lasted 30 minutes, so they decided to give us a tour of the outskirts of Rome. They took us to the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. It is a city that is built into the Mountain tops. This city is called Tiboli. We visited a cardinals residence, they arranged for us to have a private lunch in a room with the best view and we were the only people in this room. After lunch (which they called appetizers), they took us to another restaurant that usually has a month waiting list, and because John Carlo knew the owner, they gave us a table. Again, this was next to the mountains, you could see many waterfalls and the most beautiful rolling hills. Our tour that was supposed to last 4 hours ended up lasting 7 hours. And of course, "do as the romans do." The wine began pouring, which by the way, actually made me feel just a bit better. We had such a amazing time. John Carlo and Georginna are so sweet and nice and actually I think we are leaving Rome with some new friends.

They just began dating, both just got done with bad relationships, but when they look at each other, you can see a spark. We told them that when they get married, we will come back to Rome for the wedding. I hope it happens for them, they both deserve to be happy.

So now we are back at our hotel, trying to sober up. We want to take a nap, but it is 4:00 and I know if I lay down, I will never get up. Today is our last day here in Rome, tomorrow we head to Florence and I don't want to waste this day sleeping.

I don't think I will be able to blogg on Monday as our train gets into Florence in the early afternoon and then we have a tour immediately. We will then have to unpack, and get organized. Rome was a fantastic place to visit, I recommend it to everyone. I can't imagine this trip getting much better than the last few days. All I can say is WOW! I hope all is well with everyone, and I will talk to you in Florence. I will try to post some pictures also. It just takes so long to download, I don't have the patience to wait.

Chao

Second Day

I am sitting her right now with a glass of white wine, because you know the saying "do as the Romans do" It is 12:45am (Rome time) and 6:45pm (Burlington time)I am just taking in the entire day. I don't know if I am going to be able to keep up with this city. There are so many sites to see, it is truly amazing. As I look back at our few days here and realize that this country is over 3000 years old. America is only over 25o years old. The history here is mind boggling. Our itineray today was to see the Ruins and the colleseum.

We woke up this morning at 6:00am (Rome time) and went for a walk looking for a small italian bakery also called (pasticceria). However, Rome is a city that is full of tourists, so all the restaurants, bakery's, are like small convenience stores. We stopped at a small bakery, off the beaten path, had a cup of cappiccino and a roll with frosting on. MMMM Magnifico. Walked around the city for a while until our tour guide came to pick us up. This is the same tour guide from last night, her name is Georginna. Above find a picture of her, Michael, John Carlo (our driver) and of course the bartender, who is standing right next to Michael. Anyway she picked us up at 9:30am and preceded to tell us she drank too much.....Hmmmm we felt fine. I guess I don't understand why all the people we go out with, seem to always have a hang over the next day? It is so wierd. P.S. Christi, you need to e-mail me an explain to me how to post more than one picture!

So back to our day......We first visited the City of Rome Ruins. I expected to see a bunch of stones in a large field. Wow was I wrong. It is amazing. As soon as I learn how to post more than one picture, I will totally share them with you....Hint....Christi......I.....Need.....your.....help..... then it was to the colleseum. We spent four hours with Georginna and it went so fast. Mikey, if she was younger I would so hook you guys up! Her knowledge of history is truly amazing and when she talks about it, her excitement about Rome is infectious. The lines for the colleseum and the Ruins were so long, however, she knows so many of the guards that we did not have to wait in line. Otherwise, it would of been at least a two to three hour wait, just to pass through the gates.

We were dropped off at our hotel at approximately 2:00pm (rome time) and we just had to take a nap. At 4:00 we were awoken by a protest being done by college students who are upset because the government wants to make the colleges private (which means they would have to pay to go to school)....Yes, it is free in Italy to attend college. Actually, the government pays for health insurance and college. This protest was huge, we watched it through our hotel room for about a hour, then we decided we wanted to walk the city alone.

We walked to the spanish steps. One one of the many amazing places to vist and which is the place that I thought for sure Michael was going to punch someone. What happened was: Michael and I decided to sit on the steps and I was trying to take a picture of both of us together. This man approached us and gave me a dozen roses and said that he would take our picture. He took our picture, took back the dozen rozes and gave me 5 of them. Michael pulled out some money to give him a tip and he wanted 10 euro's. FYI our dollar is worth 65 cents in Italy. Michael only had a bill for 20 euro's and the guy was going to walk away with it. Michael proceeded to say 'NO" I need some change, but the man was arguing with him. Michael grabbed his hand and told him if he didn't give us change that we would call the Police. The guy gave Michael his money back and also took back the flowers.

We then walked until 6:30pm and on our way home wanted to stop for some Gilato, which is just like ice cream. By that time, we were out of Euro's so we just assumed that our dollar would be suffice. We ordered our Gilato and tried to pay with American money and the store said that they would not take our dollar......How sad is that, that our economy is so bad that foreign countrys want nothing to do with our dollar. It was humbling to say the least. We didn't have any Euro's, so we had to walk out the door without our gilato. I was bummed, I wanted Gilato!!!

We came back to our hotel, had a few glasses of wine on the roof of our hotel. P.S. Mikey thanks for the wine recommendations, the bartender said it was a good choice.... and now back in our room. What a night, what a day.

As Michael and I sat on the roof of our hotel and talked, we realized, how blessed we have been these past years. I keep thinking about when I worked at St. Mary's Rectory and a man came in to make arrangements for his wifes funeral and he said to me: "Are you married?" I said "Yes" he said "Enjoy your life now" "Don't wait until you retire....I waited until I retired and thought that my wife and I would travel and spend so many wonderful days together, and now I retired a few months back, and I am now making funeral arrangements for her."

This has stuck in my head for so many years, and I am so glad that we committed to follow our dream to visit Europe. It is now 1:30am, and I must go to sleep. Another long day tomorrow awaits us. I hope all is well with everyone, and thank you for the wonderful followers and the posts. I am glad that you are enjoying our story.

Chao

Our first stop was the Ruins. I can not explain, just look at the attached photos:

First Day

All I can say is WOW....If you have never been to Rome, but this city on your bucket list. It is the end of our first day, we have been up since Thursday morning at 7:00am. We arrived here in Rome at 8:00am (Rome Time), 1:00am Burlington time. The flight was awesome, we had a 4 course meal for dinner and breakfast.....Thank god for frequent flyer points, otherwise I could of never flown business class. The food was awesome and although the flight was eight hours and 30 minutes, its wasn't that bad. Our seats actually reclined to a lay down position, it was so cool.

It took us 2 hours to get our luggage and get through customs, and because of the long period of time, our driver who was to pick us up and the airport decided he was going to leave because he thought we picked up a taxi....So, we picked up a taxi and got to our hotel which is in the middle of downtown Rome. We had one hour before we had our first tour of the vatican which like I said....Everyone has to go. I have a ton of pictures, but I am not attaching them until I can figure out how the WI FI works in this country and I can get it to be in english. Anyway our tour lasted for 4 hours but our driver and our tour guide became our friends and decided to take us to some local hangouts. They took us to a little wine bar and the bartender fixed us up dinner of cheese, sausage, pizza (but not american pizza) and a few bottles of wine.

Needless to say we are exhausted, it is 11:45pm here and we need to go to sleep because we start again at 9:00am (rome time)...We have only a half day tour in the morning, so we will have some time tomorrow afternoon to get this WI FI working. I will download pictures then. The weather is great, I miss everyone.

Chao, Chao (which means by by) Talk to you tomorrow