Blogs from Rome, Lazio, Italy, Europe - page 299

We stayed up packing late last night. Then Katherine got up at 2 a.m. to play with her birthday balloons. And we still had to get up at 6:00 a.m. so that we could drive back to Stansted to catch our flight. Katherine’s feeling much better, but I’m still very worried about her. She’s been snoring very loudly, like she’s congested, but at least she doesn’t have a fever anymore. We stopped by Grandma’s house to drop off Karen’s cell phone (which Katherine’s doctor was using to call us, b/c our room didn’t have a phone), and say bye-bye one more time. We also stopped by the co-op to get Katherine (a British version of) vick’s vapor-rub. Then we drove back to Stansted to drop off the rental car and catch our flight to Rome. The ... read more

Partly due to overall tiredness, and in good part because of my gastrointestinal issues (courtesy of that camp in Venice that I'm never going back to), I decided to take it easy in Today. I didn't get to sleep in though. Got woken up at 6:15 by garbage trucks and motorcycles. On the upside, that got me to the Flavian Amphitheatre (AKA the Colosseum) quite a bit before 10am. We (went with travelling acquaintences Nicole and Charlie) only waited 10 minutes in line. The structure is quite impressive, even half collapsed. The "touristy" additions detract from the feeling though. The authentic Italian heat I could have done without on the other hand. It was 34 degrees, at 65% humidity. Exacerbaed by my stomach issues, I was seriously worried about dehydration. I've been drinking gatorade non-stop today. ... read more

Geo: 41.8955, 12.4823We were lucky enough to have very good friends (Valentina and Lorenzo) living in Rome. New Year was the perfect occasion for a bit of a China reunion so Moira, Nathan, Vicki and I made our way over. We benefited greatly from being in with the locals! the food was amazing, especially breakfast at the local bakery. Lorenzo and Valentina were far better than any tour guide, even providing drives through the red light district! New Year was fantastic, having a lovely meal in Valentina's Mum's gorgeous appartment, looking down at the honking cars, fireworks and chaos down below. Vicki and I were most satisfied in our hunt for 'Italian Stalians.' Rome is beautiful! Getting a lift back was quite an experience as everyone seems to drink drive in Rome. But somehow it seems ... read more

First, to finish off Prague. We visited the Jewish quarter, which is the City's second major tourist attraction, after Prague Castle. It was once the center of Jewish life in the city, and its beautiful synagogues have become a museum. We took a tour through the same company that took us to Terezin, and I knew I was in the right place when I started talking to a fellow tourist, a guy from New Jersey about my Dad's age. He looked at my block-M hat. "Hey, did you go to Michigan?" I nodded. "At my children's high school, which is in , anyone with a 1200 or higher on the SAT can go to Michigan." His tone made his thoughts on people with a 1200 or higher on the SAT pretty obvious. In case you were ... read more

This is my final entry into this travel blog, although I am actually writing this one before I publish the one from Corsica which I suppose I will get around to tomorrow. We got into port at 7:00AM and we were on the road to the Airport by 8:30. Our travels ended some 21 hours later when we left the St. Louis airport picked up by all three of our children. Everyone was ok and the house was intact. They seemed to have gotten along fine due to good leadership from Chad and good behavior from the other two along with some close supervision from a number of our friends and neighbors. Hope you enjoyed this diary of our travels and I would encourage any of you to give it a try and include us in ... read more