Roma, Roma, Roma and not just Tomatoes.

It is 10:30pm here and we have had a day like no other. We set out for the city center after enjoying our terrace top continental (European Style: Yogurt, rolls, croissants, cereals, soft cheese, blood orange juice, fruit, espresso, milk, toast, jams, sometimes ham, sometimes boiled eggs, etc.) breakfast. We drove straight to the city center today to kick things off at the Vatican. It was fun for me to listen to the ooh's and ahhh's as we moved closer to the medieval and Renaissance walls that protect Vatican City on three sides. We had a wonderful local guide that is an expert in Vatican history who did a great job of explaining what we were looking at in the present and what we'd see as we moved about. In all, we walked 2 solid miles and about 400 sets of stairs and of course the highlights were the Sistine Chapel (Michaelangelo's frescoes) and St. Peters' Basilica. The five kids on tour were GREAT, along with the rest of the group during the loooooooong and wonderful history lesson.

After buying some gifts and leaving them to be blessed at the Vatican, to be delivered later to our restaurant, we had a nice lunch of either SUSHI (team Savage was super happy about this) or a sit down cafe style lunch. We hopped back on our bus, which is manned by possibly the most skilled big bus driver we've ever seen. "Pasquale" can park a tour bus in the same space as a volkswagon with just one hand. We like him! For anyone that might have been a little bored at the Vatican (kids, though they were wonderful), the rest of the afternoon was about to get extra exciting. We started the second half of the day at the Collosseum and since I had only leaned over on the wall to tie my shoe in 2007 and bi-passed going in, today was going to be another new Italian experience for me as well. It's almost unimaginable that when we are standing there, that this is where the gladiators held center court all those centuries ago. The layout is awe-inspiring just in sheer size and scale, given the crude tools that were used to erect such an awesome structure. Seeing this magnificent piece of architecture, is proof that the Romans truly are the worlds first and finest engineers. We enjoyed some comical photo ops with local dressed up like gladiators before heading over to the Roman Forum, which is essentially the oldest excavation of the Roman Empire, according to our guide. It's roots begin somewhere in the 7th century BC and ultra exciting is the newest discovery of the tomb of Romulus, the first king of Rome. I think when you walk through something like this, your mind is trained to convince you that it's not real because it's so hard to believe that we were standing in the same place that these people lived and moved about in, so long ago. After taking a break under a tree at the base of the Emmanuel monument, which is massive and garish for being so stark white against the aged surroundings, though it certainly commands attention at the top of the hill, Pasquale managed to find us and drove us over to our super yummy dinner. We have paid for a student grade tour to cut on cost and it has a way of showing up in our dinners. We had baked chicken and french fries two nights in a row this week and french fries a third night with a different meat, so now the fries are the running joke and we are super elated when it's something other than baked chicken or fries. While we enjoyed the super delicious pizza from last night, tonight was an excellent meal that is customary in Italian working class homes. We had amazing creme based pasta with raddichio, followed by Italian meatloaf and Chickory Root greens (taste just like Spinache) that were spiced with red pepper and then a yummy chocolate mousse to round things out. My table also enjoyed two plates of Caprese, which is the typical plate of sliced mozerella, tomatoes, basil and a little bit of lettuce.

This evening we are all enjoying wine, in pods of old and newly made friends on tour. The doors to rooms are open and a lot of laughter is spilling out in to the hallway. We had an exhausting day but in all the right ways. I am thankful that tomorrow we sleep in, leave the hotel at 10am and will enjoy our free day in Rome, which will ultimately be guided by Carmen and topped off with a night time city tour with Pasquale at the wheel and Carmen explaining the sites. We saved Trevi Fountain for this exciting look at the city, under the street lights and changed tempo from the day.

Carmen, our tour guide, is a real seasoned vet. She is efficient and resourceful so we are in great hands. She deserves a post of her own on another night.

No post is complete without a little snaffu. As I was typing this, I managed to set the electric plug converter on fire which caused quite a bit of excitement with the kids and caused me to have to run frantically with the smoking thing to the sink to put out the smokey action. I tell you this because I fear that my laptop will surely run out of juice if I cannot charge it at least once more. Thus, I will not enter a blog again until we are in Sorrento, which according to Carmen is the shoppers Mecca. I heard groups negotiating a new piece of luggage and sharing the charge at the airline to have extra room for more Italian swag. You should start sweating now if you are sharing a bank account with any of us here.

Buona Notte (good night),
Lisa