Trips, Pics, and Tales

It’s Thursday morning and it’s starting to hit me hard that we only have today and tomorrow left of this vacation. I have loved every minute of this trip and am so sad that it’s coming to an end. I’ve traveled a lot, not as much as some, but more than others and I’ve never felt so comfortable in a place as I’ve felt here in Italy. I’ve loved Europe, but Italy itself has pulled me in. Is it some part of my heritage? Or is it something else? I just don’t know. There are places I’ve been to that I keep returning to, Mexico has been one, Costa Rica another. But that’s different – I go back to those places for a vacation and for the tranquility.  But here, well I feel like I belong here – like it’s natural to be here! And while the rest of my family has enjoyed this trip immensely, they are at that point in their vacation where they are ready to go home. Me, I’m feeling rather down. After three weeks, I’m not ready to go home at all. So, today and tomorrow I know are going to be very ha

We had just left the Roman Forum and the wind was kicking up.  Dust was blowing everywhere and the sky was quite dark!  We made it inside the Colosseum just in time! The rain started just as we got undercover! Once again we were thankful to be there with a guided tour where we had previously arranged tickets. The line looked long and it was now raining! We walked right in! We started our tour at the arena level. Juvita told us about the  Colosseum and its history. Walking out onto that platform was just phenomenal! You can just imagine the crowds and the battles! We had time for pictures and to just take it all in. And wouldn't you know - our luck continued...just as we walked out onto the platform, the rain let up! This the the area where the elevator shafts were (or maybe are??) where they would have brought the Gladiators up from the underground area. Alex is really "feeling" that Gladiator aura here! He's ready for battle!!

So, we wrapped up our tour of the apartment, and now that we had the lay of the land so to speak, on where we were staying, we knew we didn’t have enough time to walk to the Colosseum for our 12:30 tour with Walks of Italy. So, lucky enough our apartment is right at a taxi stand area. We jumped in a taxi big enough for six and off we went! We found our meeting spot and our guide right on time! Again – I love when a plan comes together! We chose their VIP All Access Tour which includes the Underground Access of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.  Our guide’s name was Juvita and she was originally from Poland. She moved to Italy 13 years ago. She was fantastic! We started the tour with a brief overview of the outside of the Colosseum and the surrounding area. Then we walked to the Roman Forum. On the way there we passed some current excavations in progress! We walked into the Forum and she told us about many of the buildings and what life would