Day 7 & 8 - End of Rome

Our final day in Rome we wanted to lay our eyes on the Coliseum and the Roman Forum, so that is what we did. After waling to the Roman Forum we sat down on some old ruins and ate some bread while watching people pass by. My favorite pair to watch was an Asian couple. The girl made her other half take 5 billion pictures of her from every angle with every possible thing in the background. Of course she looked at every picture and if she wasn't happy with one of them, he would have to retake it. They made me laugh! The first time we were here we spend several hours walking through the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This time we just walked around for a short 20-30 minutes. It was so much more crowded this time as well.

The Roman Forum

Me Conquering a Piece of Land

The Coliseum lives right next door to the Roman Forum. We didn't venture inside but sat on a wall overlooking it for a while. When we got up to leave a girl stopped us and asked if we spoke English. I think she was representing a tour company. We said yes, and then she asked if we were going inside the coliseum. When we said no, she looked as if we had stabbed her through the heart as she said, "You can't come ALL the way to Rome and NOT go inside!" Of course, I said, it wasn't our first trip to Rome and all her pain went away.

Beautiful

The Pates at the Coliseum

The rest of the day we didn't have anything in particular to do so as always we just wondered the streets. We are lunch in a great little place called, AO ristorante. It was delicious. We each had a glass of Sicilian wine that the Sommelier suggested after we told him what we liked and what we wanted. To eat Michael had a basil, tomato pasta and I had a provolone, tomato pasta. For dessert we went searching for gelato and found a great place. We had the flavors of Baily's Irish Cream and Nutella. We had heard about "Nutella" gelato and just HAD to find it. Both were amazing, but the Irish Cream blew the Nutella out of the water. The Nutella was great,but I think I prefer Nutella in Nutella form as opposed to Gelato form. The Irish Cream though, was to die for!

Rome is literally littered with Cathedrals. We were in a quiet little neighborhood and I saw a rather bland looking church and smiled at Michael and walked up the stairs to go inside. He followed, my mouth dropped to the floor as I walked through the doors. It was absolutely breathtaking. This church actually quickly jumped up to my list of 5 favorite cathedrals and is probably in the top three! It was so unassuming from the outside. Yet, every inch inside of this place was covered in some beautiful something. There were only 3 other couples inside that were obvious tourists and another couple people praying. As we left I tried to find it in our guide book and in the 50 plus cathedrals covered in the book, this was not one of them! There isn't much information online about it either.

As always, the pictures don't do it any kind of justice at all.

Basilica Di S. Agostino

Back on my post of the Pantheon Marianne asked if we saw the "Elephant Statue" on the side of the building. We hadn't and managed to find ourselves back at the Pantheon, and this time when hunting for the statue. We thought we were looking for a teeny tiny little statue, but we realized we were wrong when we found him with an obelisk on his back. He sat in a square of a Cathedral and we hopped in there too. It was nice, but after seeing St. Augostino's, it wasn't as impressive. We did find a painting of Jesus showing off his muscles though.

You might have to click it to make it big to see it better!

Jesus showing off his guns.

Enormous Candles

We had a long day and wanted to get back to Myra's a little early so we could pack up and make sure we were all ready to leave in the morning. We walked back via the Trevi Fountain (and hopped in another church), got home, packed, ate and called it an early night and prepare our minds and bodies for the insanity that would start the next day.

Me and Trevi again

The Crowds

Cute Street

Our Temporary Residence in Rome.
The big window on the white building with one shutter open and the other is closed is where we stayed.

Check out the size of that front door!

So that ladies and gentleman, is the end of Italy. Hope no one got to sick and tired of reading about it! :)

Day 6 - Florence

We departed Uzzano early in the morning and got back to Florence around 10. We said our goodbyes to Myra as she had a plane to catch to Croatia early afternoon. After purchasing our tickets back to Rome we checked in our backpacks again and took to the city. We would be returning to Rome at 4:00 so we had about 6 hours in Florence which actually was the perfect amount of time.

We were both a little hungry, so before we started the day, we stopped at a shop to get a couple sandwhiches (yes at 10:00am) while Michael ordered, I took pictures of the gelato.

Yum

Double Yum

The first thing we wanted to do was cross the Arno River and head up the hill to Michaelangelo's Piazza that is said to offer spectacular views over Florence along with a lovely walk up the mountain. It didn't disappointed. The hike up was quite tiring, but we managed. There were lots of steps and steep hills, but it was the cutest most pleasant little pathway. The views from the top were incredible. We saw about 10 Asian Brides and their bridal parties taking pictures. The oddest thing about it was that it was a Monday morning. Anyhow, congrats to them! We sat for a while and enjoyed the view and walked around the old city walls up more hills till we got to an old fort and more views. I actually don't know how it happened, but I didn't take a single picture of the old walls, the old fort or the view from there. But it was lovely.

Walking up the hill

View over Florence

Walking back down the steps

You can see in the pictures of the view a big dome. This is The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, or as it is more commonly known, "The Duomo". I couldn't get a good picture of it up close from the outside because it was too huge to fit in my camera frame, but I didn't try real hard either. We wanted to go inside and it was beautiful. It doesn't hold a candle to the wind against St. Peters Cathedral in Rome, but I don't think anything could.

Duomo

Inside the Duomo

Before going to Rome we had already decided we wanted to Light a candle at St. Peters Cathedral in honor of Michaels Aunt Corlis who passed away last spring from breast cancer. She and her second son, Kyle, traveled to Rome and Croatia a couple years before she passed away. On our first visit to Rome there were candles where you could do this, but there were none this time. So we had to pass, but decided to light a candle for her here, in the Duomo in Florence.

In memory of Corlis Pate.
You are missed every day.

By now, we were getting hungry and since it was such a beautiful day, we opted for a cafe overlooking the Uffizi Gallery and a wonderful bustling square. I had delicious lasagna and Michael had...hmm I forgot! Mine was so tasty I didn't really pay attention to Michaels! I do remember he enjoyed it though.

My view from Lunch.
I caught the lady in the background about put food in her mouth.
I'm sure she wouldn't approve of this picture.

My side view from the cafe

Me and the sculpture of the Rock Hard Abs man.
There was a replica of "The David" next to this fountain, but I didn't get a picture.
I was more drawn to this guy, he seemed more "Manly"
But since the David is modeled after a young King David, that only makes sense.

Many would probably think it was sac religious to be in Florence and not visit one of the great art galleries, but we didn't. Neither of us had an overwhelming urge to hop inside Academia to see the "real" David. I'm sure it is amazing, but perhaps next time we find ourselves in Florence we will. Finally, it was time for some wondering around with no plans before we headed back to Rome.

Street Scene.

In the end, I really enjoyed Florence. It was a nice change of pace from busy, big and crazy Rome. I know a person could spend months in Florence, or just a couple days. There is so much to do and see, but it is a small town. I had never really given Florence much thought besides what my friends that have been there have said. They always loved it. I never had the dream of going to Florence, but I am certainly glad the opportunity presented itself. I hope we make it back there eventually. It was a cool and very pretty place.

Now, back to Rome. We caught our train and both slept the whole way. When we got back we realized we had no idea how to get back to Myra's place and we didn't bring a map of Rome with us. When we came to the main station we came by bus and didn't pay attention to where we were. We decided to take a gamble, pick a direction, start walking and see if we could figure it out. I suppose all our insane walking paid off that day, because within 5 minutes of walking we knew exactly where we were and how to get to Myra's house. Lucky us! For dinner we made the left over pasta we had bought a few days ago, relaxed and talked about what to do our final day in Rome.

Adopted from Guatamala? Can You Help?

A quick break from our regular scheduled program!!
This is a friend of a friend (in two different directions)
I'm know noone that directly reads my blog will be able to help with this, but if you know anyone perhaps you could let me know?
I'm just reposting a post. Here it is:

Participants Needed!!!

My name is Stephanie Capshaw, and I am a pediatric occupational therapist and professor in the Occupational Therapy Program at the University of Texas at El Paso, a doctoral student in Occupational Therapy at the University of St. Augustine, as well as a fellow adoptive parent of a child adopted from Guatemala (whew!). I am interested in looking at the prevalence of symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) in children adopted from Guatemala. I am looking for parents of children who were adopted from Guatemala and whose children are now between the ages of birth to 3 years old, regardless of whether or not they have been diagnosed with SPD or demonstrate symptoms of SPD.

If you would like to participate in this study, please email me your name, address, and child’s date of birth. I will mail you the research instrument with a pre-paid return envelope. Based on the results, I will be happy to make recommendations for a consultation with an occupational therapist in your area, should the results warrant such a recommendation. Strict confidentiality will be maintained at all times throughout the course of the research project unless law requires disclosure. A random code number, rather than your name, will be used to identify information you give us. Only members of the immediate project staff will have direct access to this information. Reports at scientific meetings or in scientific journals will not include any information which identifies you as a participant in this study. Your research records, just like any hospital records, however, may be subpoenaed by court order or may be inspected by federal regulatory authorities. Please feel free to pass this invitation to other adoptive parents from Guatemala.Thanks so much!Sincerely,Stephanie Capshaw, MA, OTRDoctoral Candidate, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences(915) 747-7269scapshawotr@hotmail.com

Day 5 - Uzzano

Saturday was a welcome change from our busy pace of the past few days. We had no plans besides to bum around the amazing house. We were the first one's up, but Jimena followed not too far behind us. She made us coffee and fed us cereal, crackers and some of her homemade orange marmalade. YUM! It is made from the same oranges that she made the orange liqueur from.

Homemade Orange Marmalade

Over breakfast we chatted about health and fitness stuff. Her and her hubby (which we didn't get to meet because he was out of town) keep active and seem to have a lot of fun doing it just like us. As we finished breakfast she said we could do some "sport". It included bringing in wood for the big fireplace. So, we were off to the garden to pick up lots of wood! Michael and I lugged in the big pieces by the door and she went off with her wheelbarrow to gather lots of little pieces. This was a fun and different way to start the morning!

Morning Sport

The fire in the fireplace

After the fire was built Michael and I wanted to walk around the garden and the area so off we went. Oh, I should introduce the resident dog. His name is blackie, is nine years old, and is oh so sweet. He is actually the same age Hendrix would be if he were still alive! He followed us around the yard from a distance, almost as if he were curious as to where we were going, but as we approached the gate to leave, he quickly caught up to us as he obviously wanted to come with us. We tried to get him back in the gate before we went out, but he would have none of it. He is a slow walking easy paced dog so the walk was simple with him though we had to keep looking back to make sure he was still with us. He apparently goes out for 4 or 5 days at a time. There have been times Jimena and Andrea have found him down the mountain in Pescia. He has even gone to the hospital down there to be fed!! He was a fun dog and told us all about the mountains!

Wait for me!

Lazily Walking Along

View - I like all the old wine barralls

Me

After our little walk, Blackie was exhuasted

The home we stayed in was amazing, both inside and out. I didn't actually take many pictures inside the house, so the pictures from outside will have to do. They are hoping to get a Bed and Breakfast up and running as early as next summer! So if you're ever in this area and looking for a place to stay, this is a great place to take your business! :)

Entry Way

Back of House

Front of House

I fell in love with this orange tree and orange wall. The smaller tree that you can see branches of is an olive tree. Our room window was the one on the right above the tree.

Michael in the garden

Side view from Garden

We retreated inside just in time to visit with Myra. Jimena made us a delicious lunch of pasta, salad and cheese. We even tried Pumpkin Pasta! I had never heard of it before and it was quite good. There is a way to eat cheese in Italy, you put honey on it! Surprisingly it is VERY good. We had tried it the night of Myra's party and got to do it again here. This time, with Jimenas' homemade honey! Wow, is there nothing this woman doesn't do?

Feed Me Michael!

After our late lunch it was time for a nap and again some more sitting around and chatting before dinner. Michael and I sat on a bench outside admireing the view as the sun was setting, and blackie came to join us. The day had been pretty foggy so I couldn't get a decent picture of the magnificent view during the day or at night. Nor, could I see it as it should have been seen.

Pretty

The boys watching the sunset
Get away from me crazy woman!

Was that really so bad?

Jimena took us to a local restaurant for dinner which was amazing. We had pastas, appetizers, homemade wine, fresh home grown olives and cake for dessert. YUM! We had walked to and from the restaurant and when we arrived back home, we crashed. Sunday would be an early morning back to Florence.

(As a sidenote, we arrived home last night from Italy. Michael left Denmark this morning and is in the air somewhere between Germany and Dallas. I leave first thing tomorrow for Dallas. It has been a busy couple days!)