Back to reality

Have been home for 5 days now, and back to work for 3! But before we actually got home we stayed one night at our favorite park and fly...and got some Tabor time. Stole this pix from Danica's flickr site as I was a bit too tired to even consider trying to snag a picture of the little cutie.



I know I am gramasan but what an adorable baby! I was so privileged to be able to pack that little guy around and snuggle, coo and laugh with him. He is really quite social, watching your face for cues, trying so hard to imitate facial expressions and trying to make the same sounds you do. Was hard to put him down for his nap... can't we play just a little bit longer?

Jet lag is pretty much behind me, .... now. It is surprising how much you might think you have converted back to the right time zone, only to get tripped up in the early evening. Do not lay down for a short nap at dinner time...

I have been asked several times what was my favorite place on the trip.... what a tough question. Each place we went had its own special appeal. I would go back to pretty much any of them in a heart beat except for perhaps Mykonos. The water there was great and the town charming but a few days there would be plenty, and only when the beaches aren't packed. Rome deserves more time, Venice we only glanced at and Athens is much more than the Acropolis I suspect. Florence... well that beautiful city also deserves more time but I think really I would love to go back and spend a week or more in a smaller Italian town absorbing the culture and the great food.

Speaking of food, we came home and bought a pasta 'machine' and have made fresh pasta two nights already. It is an art but after a few flubs we managed to make some pretty great dishes, simple but yummy. Cooked some eggplant tonight, sort of following a recipe; turned out pretty good. Probably if I did follow the recipe it would have been really great.

Have managed to upload and rotate all 782 photos from my camera. Gordon has some pix on his that I would like to pull into a 'small' Picasa album. He took his camera to work to share some pix with his co-workers so... once he is back home I will get cracking on the small album. Otherwise, you will be sorry if you ask to see any of our travel photos!

Day 5 in Rome and starting to figure it out!

Well,not that you can really figure out Rome but we are getting the hang of the buses and metro, still being amazed at pretty much every corner. For all its chaos it is really a great place. Went to the National Museum [there are 3 major parts and we covered them all]. Explored a catherdal designed by Michelangelo but built out of, over, into... as essentially a remodel of Roman baths that could serve 30,000 people. The original structure covered blocks, we saw only a small part. Originally had a 30,000 sq ft pool, hot or cold? Not sure which but there were two pools.

Found a great place for lunch, packed with locals, waiter seemed to be ingoring us for seating but he had already figured out we needed a tavolo per due and was waiting for one to open for us. [don't be impatient, it does not help] Incredible, simple food but very, very yummy. Got our waiter to pose for a picture with me. Lots of benissimo's later, up the stairs to street level. Ate at 2,30 and its 8,30 pm [can you tell i can't find the colon symbol] and we are not hungry - could eat but really not hungry.

Last stop was part of the museum, three metro stops away, where we walked down 1000 years below the street. Across the street were more ruins where old Julius was stabbed. Also a charity home for cats and more cats.

Still think our biggest threat is getting hit by a scooter, a taxi or a bus. Pickpockets seem to be afraid of us and we're figuring out the food so the restaurants can't rip us off any more.... starting to fall in love with the crazy place!

Off to the Colesseo e Forum domani - that would be the Coliseum and Forum tomorrow. Whew!

Side trip to Naples and Pompei

Today we took the train south to Pompei to visit the ruins. That was a trip in itself. Had to change trains in Naples but couldn't find even the right set of tracks and then we did end up on the wrong train. With virtually no English we got help from a kind Italian who let us know to get off at the next station and wait for the next train that was behing us.
Spent almost 4 hours at Pompei and easily could spend 4 days. It was fascinating to say the least. Wanted to spend time in Naples at the Archeologic Museum so we headed back to Naples. Another adventure to find where to purchase Metro tickets and then which line, etc ... quite a bit different than Rome. You buy these in the magazine store.. anyway after all that I had failed to read the fine print, the museum is closed on Tuesdays! So we walked around Naples. It is quite a bit rougher than Rome, lots more graffiti and trash, narrower streets with more scooters. But all in all not as bad as everything we had read. We half expected to be robbed on every corner but we had absolutely no trouble. Had great authentic Naples pizza as Naples is where pizza originated. Very simple, thin chewy crust cooked in a wood burning pizza oven. Really yummy!

Tomorrow is a sleep in day and then the National Museum and ? - ahh, I found the ? mark ont this keyboard!

Day 2 in Rome

Back in Italy with a lot of notes to self!

No.1 when taking the vaparetto [waterbus] in Venice with a short period of time until your train leaves... make sure you know when exactly which vaparetto you need to get back on... cut it so close we were weaving and dodging and flat out running. I whacked my knee on something enroute - have the bruise to show it.

No. 2 -ask about the hotel internet. Been trying to find an internet cafe here in Rome without luck, checked at the hotel and it is complimentary, can have 30 minutes a day. The downside is we can't upload photos, so will be keeping our eyes open as we explore Rome.

No. 3 - even though using points, when hotel is across the street from Versace and there is a Rolex store two doors down, the restaurants are going to be expensive!

Staying at the Grand Flora Rome - Marriott. It is across a busy road from Villa Borghese which is a huge park where many Italians were enjoying the gorgeous Sunday afternoon. We lucked out and got right into the Borghese Gallery [supposed to need reservations several days in advanced] Very incredible place, a definite top 100 places to see if you get a chance. One of the top 100 things not to see is a homeless man wiping his bottom with newspaper on the sidewalk of a busy street. We are pretty sure we know what he was doing, yucky!!

Did a walk after dark from illuminated fountain to illuminated fountain. Streets were full of people doing the same thing or just hanging out in the various squares. We headed out earlier in the afternoon working our way to the first fountain, stopping and gawking at every turn as there seems to be even more photo ops in some parts of Rome than we had in Florence, and we thought we had a lot there!

On a more serious note, we have heard the travel warnings and are staying watchful, but what do you watch for. Also how do you avoid crowds and tourist areas and still see what we came to see. [can't find question mark on this key board!] We haven't changed any of our plans and the warnings are extremely vague so we are going forward and will see what happens!