Rome

Following are scenes from Rome, one of our most favorite cities.

Site of Caesar"s assassination

Colosseum

MMAXXI  Muesum of Modern Art 21 century

Start of dinner, food followedSt. Peters

Bernini"s Four Rivers Fountain

Plaza Novona,

Scenes from the Castle

 Bell tower of the Castello

Karen and BIF (best Italian Friend) at the local winery  Note the 5 liter box of rosso

Castello Montefugoni and area

Photo (maybe)

Still trying to figure out where the photos have gone after I have posted them to the blog.

Yikes here it is  This is the gate to Volterra  It is of Etruscan era 200BC

Photos

Photos

Home at last

It's been a week now since we finally arrived back in Ashland, 45 hours after we left Rome. The flight home was uneventful except for 5 hour layover in San Francisco waiting for our flight to Medford.
It was a wonderful trip and we have many good memories of Italy and being with Chris and her brothers and wives. Hopefully we will keep in touch as time goes on. Her brother Tom lives in Anaheim and both him and his wife BIF (best Italian Friend) work for Disney.. I see a trip to Disneyland next year.
Favorite places or events? The Castello Montefugoni was a pleasant stay and we would reccommend it for others. Best meal was in a trattoria C'era una Volta (once upon a time) I had pasta with wild boar sauce , sienesse pork with white beans...Yummmmy. Favorite place is in Rome, piazza Rotunda, home of the Pantheon.
I will follow this with photos. Back on the laptop so it is easy to do.. Never did figure out how to do photos from the iphone.
It was fun doing the blog and hope you all enjoyed our adventures.
Ciao
Gary and Karen

Greetings from Philadelphia and you might ask what are we doing in Philly. Read on dear reader but only after I finish the Rome Adventure. We spent on day at the Vatican Mueseum and St Pauls basilica. Absolutely exhausting but well worth the visit. We had a timed entry so we did not have to stand in a Long line to get in welcome the 21st century. The day before we went the forum, crossed over the oldest bridge in
Rome 2nd century BC. The forum now charges you 12 euro/person. 5 years ago it was free. Use this money to pay off Greeks debt. We did a lot of walking, looking in store windows, checking out newest fashion wave, shoes with clunky heels, shorter skirts and leggings. Off course you have to be a stick to wear this and look good. Also noticed that the Italians tend to quite trim in figure. Not enough Mac D's around. Food in Rome was OK. Did not go to any really nice restaurant. Were not in the mood. Our last night we went to Flynn O'Brians pub for beer and pizza and a soccer match. Was tired of wine. That after noon we went a upscale enoteca for wine and a salad and cold plate of meat and cheese. The shop is very modern lots of glass and steel. Some had gone wrong behind the bar and two of the staff were really at each other. Wish we knew Italian so we could know what it was all about.
Enough old stuff so we went to MMAXXI. Mueseum of modern art 21 century. The building completed in 2009 was a piece of art in itself. The art in side was more about structure, film, story telling. Very litle paintings.
Back to Philly. Left our hotel roomFriday morning in torential rain storm, caught the train to the airport and arrived at our gate with a hour to spare. Alas aleck the crew was still in Rome stuck in traffic and would vet to the airport an hour after departure time. So we missed the San Fran connection in Philly and spent the night at Embassy Suites curtesy of US Air. Actually it was a good idea. The flight to Philly was 10 hours not really excited about another 6 hours to SF. We later found out the Medford Connection had been cancelled. So we visited happy hour at the bar, had a nice filet mignon steak dinner and went to bed. Our new flight leaves Philly at 10 this morning. We hope.
Ciao
Or