Roma Day 1

Maybe if I blog about our day in the evening when we are tired out from walking, I can at least keep up with this trip.  I know I still have missing entries from summer and Germany, but I'll try to do better for 4 days straight! 

When we first learned that we were going to Sicily, the kids had visions of Rome (so did I).  They all loved learning about ancient Rome in history and were thrilled by the prospect of visiting in person.  When our time in Sicily was cut to only 3 months, I knew I had to make going to Rome a top priority or time would slip by and we wouldn't make it.  I stepped up.  The second week in country, I booked tickets and a hotel.  Unfortunately, Matt could not get a block of time off--he's here to support the mission, not travel.  Rats.  He has been wonderfully supportive and helpful though. 

The kids each picked two topics/sights to read about and they will be giving their reports on video to be posted on youtube a little later. 

So we woke up early this morning, had a quick breakfast and left for the airport.  We overestimated the time it took to get there--it was less than 15 minutes!  And we checked our bags, went through security and found our gate in another 15. Then we got to peole watch and play I Spy for over an hour while we waiting for the time to board the plane.  It's a cheap local airline without assigned seats.  About 25 minutes before take off time, a swarm started at the gate.  I didn't catch on fast enough and thrn worried that we wouldn't have seats together.  But it worked to our advantage.  We were some of the last ones getting onto the first BUS.  So when we unloaded the bus at the plane, we got our first pick of seats.  Hee hee. 

Fast, easy flight.  Jess and Isaac had window seats.  We got our luggage, found the train station, but ended up using a shuttle bus instead and arrived at our "hotel".  It's more a door opening up to a group of rooms attached to a lobbyish area on the second floor.  It could just as easily be a dentist's office if it had fewer beds and more sharp objects.  In fact there is a dentist down the hall.  But it's clean, has excellent water pressure and the location is great. 

Our first order of business was food.  The kids were ravenous by this time.  We started walking towards the Forum and stopped at the 3rd pizzeria we passed, because they had gorgeous gelatto as well.  We ordered two pizzas and a plate of french fries to share.  We got stuffed and the gelatto had to wait till later.

Isaac picked the "gladiator" pizza with artichokes and ham.

Makenna and Jessica shared one with giant salami.

I snapped this as we passed by.  We will visit the Forum more thoroughly another day.

We had already driven by some amazing stuff in the shuttle, but looking down in detail had some wow factor. 

Makenna studied up on the Trevi Fountain.  I videoed her twice.  I hope we can hear her over the noise of the water.    They collect $3500 a day on average thanks to the legend that says you will return if you throw a coin in over your shoulder. 

I'm not sure if they were posing for pictures for money or advertizing the fun costumes you could buy from street vendors.  But we thought they looked fun.  Makenna tried to snap a picture when they were texting and eating ice cream, but peole kept walking by. 

I really liked this column.  I thought it was Marcus Aurelius, but it doesn't quite match the picture in the giude book.  It's nearby, at least.  This is a block away from the Spanish Steps. 

Looking down the steps.  "Hey, it this where the Princess rode down in Roman Holiday?"  Proud moment. 

We are in shadow, but you get the scope of the site.

He tried it and agrees.

Roman water is good!

This fountain is just in front of the steps.  It's pretty basic, a flooded boat, really.



Now we are at the Fountain of Triton. (There are a bunch of other fountains that I'm not including!)



We popped into a couple of churches we passed by, but it was getting dark.  I tried this next picture of Tempio Adriano, but it doesn't do it justice.  We will go back when we revisit the Pantheon during the day too.  It's just around the corner.  Jessica studied the Pantheon which gets the award of ONLY complete ancient structure.  It is truly a marvel.  No wonder it has been copied and recopied over the millenia. 



Tempio Adriano



One more.  We saw this and thought of Uncle Brett.  It's a life size wooden motorcycle.  It was a cute shop full  wooden toys. 

Jess Quote

Were aliens made to scare kids?  Cause if so, they're working!

Jess tries to open blueberries

Jessica was helping Makenna make some of her Christmas blueberry muffins.  Her job was to open the blueberries.  I heard her grunting in frustration in the kitchen and went to see this (reenacted photo).

She peeled off the the wrapper and was trying to "pop" it like a tube of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls.  Using a can opener hadn't crossed her mind.  

Halloween 2011

This was a record non-Halloween for us.  For 12 years we have planned out costumes months in advance.  Often we had family themes.  There was a Wizard of Oz year, Star Wars, Zorro and Spanish Dancer and of course the year of the zombies.  But this year we have no sewing machine, no decorations, no closet of dress-ups.  We have the same stuff we have been dragging around in suitcases since May.  Luckily some souvenirs double as costume pieces.  Isaac declared himself to be too old and mature to bother with trick or treating.  sigh.  But the girls had a blast.

We had a normal school day, an early dinner, and then dressed up as well as we could.  We drove to Marinai (the housing base) and walked around with two families we met at church.  I had the girls bring flashlights, but didn't even think of umbrellas.  Luckily, they had extras because it rained a LOT.  Some candy had to be thrown out because of stickiness--any paper wrapped things like pixisticks or individual starbursts were gross.

Makenna is a gypsy dancer.

Jess is a motocycle rider, with flashlight--but a lot of people asked if she was Amelia Earhart, when she wasn't doing this face.  

  

The Beach at Taormina

We went to the beach on on our second Saturday in Sicily.  We see the Mediterranean Sea every time we go to church, when it's not too cloudy, but we wanted to go touch it. We knew it was only going to get colder, so better try to enjoy it while it's still nice.  It was a clear, gorgeous day.  Most of the coastline of Sicily consists of rocky cliffs.  Some people at Matt's work suggested going to Taormina, just 1/2 hour away.  It actually has beaches, though rocky.  It was October 29th.  We thought we would splash our feet a bit, and brought changes of clothes so we could be dry driving home.   The water was chilly along the shore, but we saw more than a dozen out swimming.  Isaac was the first brave one to just dive in.  It was actually warmer when you swam farther out.  I don't know why, but it felt true to us and was confirmed by others.  Weird.  We were definitely the weird ones.  We didn't have swimsuits, but didn't know if we would be able to have another clear day.  So we jumped in with our clothes.  Cuckoo, I know.  Isaac and I kept wishing we had goggles at the least, and preferably swimsuits too, to try and swim out to the buoy lines.  

Before our swimming exhibition, we took a boat ride out to see some grottos along the coast.  There was one called the Blue Cave, but in Italian, where the water is almost blindingly blue.  We saw post where guns were mounted to stop ships (Allies, I'm sure) from coming in to the bay during WWII.  It was a lovely day.  We had our first meal out later that evening.  We managed to order and had an excellent dinner.  That was where Matt go into conversation with some German tourists.  We had been feeling handicapped in Italy.  

We saw two examples of local wildlife on the switchback trail down to the beach.  This one didn't bother us, but the next one did, especially after watching it scale the wall! 

That's a black snake, over two feet long.

 

On the boat ride.  The guy blows a conch shell when he come to shore to advertise his ride. 

That's where they shot at boats during the war.

The kids and I swam out to some rocks.  It was SO HARD to hold still for a picture.  The waves weren't big, but strong enough that it was really hard to have all 4 of us upright at the same time.  We didn't realize it till back at the shore, but those rocks are sharp!  I used up a bunch of band aids patching up bleeding slices from the rocks.  The water was gorgeous, but disgustingly salty.  We did get to change into dry clothes, but wished we could rinse off the salt first.  Oh well.  We will have plenty of beach days soon enough.

 

Mt. Etna

We live by a volcano called Mt. Etna.  On clear days you can see in looming in the distance.  But more often since we have been here, it is hiding in the clouds.  Sometime during our second week, Jess had a history lesson about Mt. Vesuvius erupting and burying the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in ash.  That night we got a knock at the door.  It was Upatissa.  "Sir.  The volcano.  It is erupting!  Come and see!"  We go out to look and WOW.  These pictures do not do it justice.  They were taken with our quite ordinary camera, trying to hold still braced on the hood of the car.  "The senator" said the lava plumes were shooting hundreds of meters up in the air.  We watched the stunning show for over 20 minutes before calling it a night.  Wow.  Brilliant red against the black of night.  We checked on it from our balcony before going to bed and it was still going. 

 This is as zoomed in as I could get the camera.  Even sitting on the car, it's a bit wobbly, but you can still get glimpse of what we saw. 

 This is without any zoom.  This is how we saw it, looming above the mall.  

A few days later we were driving home from our beach excursion (that's for another post).  Out the windows of the car, we see Mt Etna at it again.  No lava this time, just smoking.  

Last Saturday we decided to drive up and see it for ourselves.  It was cloudy with some showers, but almost everyday is cloudy with showers and we can't let that stop us from ever going out.   Using a combination of GPS, road signs and a good dose of luck, we made it up the mountain.   Halfway up or so we saw a volcano casualty.  We stopped to take a peek and take a picture.  I have no idea how long ago this happened, but it had to be pre-road.  Of course, we don't know how old the road is.

 We got out and hiked around a bit at this level.  I'm glad we did because it was way more cloudy/foggy at the top--well, the top parking lot.  There were lava rocks in every shape and size.  Most of the ones we were walking on were light and sounded like walking on briquettes.  There were other areas that were smooth.  Not much life.  You can see we are bundled.  It was very chilly up there.  They will be opening up soon for ski season. 

 Through the mist you can see a grove of autumn trees.  Somehow they have escaped the ravages of the volcano.  But with the lava field in the foreground, it looks more like something burning in the background.  It was an eerie sight. 

We are standing by one of the old craters here.  I think this is the one made in 1998. It was so amazing and unique that we have made resolutions to go back on a clear day.  There are many other crates to hike to and caves to explore as well.

 Jess in the mist.

 At the crater again.  We climbed down inside.  We found some trash.  Go figure. 

This is looking down at Isaac at the bottom. 

As I type this it's now Thursday.  Tuesday Matt called from work to say, go look out at Etna, it's blowing ash again.  Life is exciting by a volcano!