Two Kids in Europe...
Come Along!
ROME
From Chicago to Rome by air; by taxi to our hotel.
We've arrived in Rome a day early for our tour.
It's Sunday.
We're in for a surprise.
A group of girls from Korea, about our age, will be singing and playing traditional musical instruments in a concert at 4:00 pm in the Korean Methodist Church located on the first floor of our hotel building.
They are as surprised and delighted to see Americans in the audience as we are to see them. It's a first for them on their tour of Europe and a first for us on ours. We visit with them and their music director after the concert. It's a pleasant time for all of us.
What happens next?
Food!
We're off to dinner.
Ooops!
Any chicken nuggets on that list?
Maybe - this being our first day and all - a McDonalds would be OK.
We go in. Nobody there! It's 6 pm. Too early for the natives but they are ready for us.
I'm glad we came here.
What's that we
see before us?
MMM!
Let's get in line.
Hot! Hot! Hot!
It's Monday. In the morning we take a taxi to Vatican City. Vespas everywhere -
in lots of colors. A woman on a bicycle cuts in front of us and keeps up in the flow of traffic.
This is a fun ride.
We attend Mass in St. Joseph Chapel in St. Peter's Basilica.
We fill up our bottles with what must be "holy" water and ....
....spot a pigeon on the hat of this statue with the best view in town.
What's next: PIZZA!
Ice in a bowl for our sodas.
A hug after
lunch and then back to our hotel.
This is the door to our hotel's
super cute 3 person elevator. We call it "the little elevator
that could."
Here we are getting ready to sing an aria based on our trip this morning. Its refrain: "We were chasing the pigeons in Vatican City".
It's Tuesday afternoon and we take a walking tour of our area of Rome. We climb down the Spanish Steps and throw our coins in the Trevi Fountain.
On Wednesday morning we visit the Colosseum then the Forum.
Jet lag is beginning to take hold! It's a really, really hot July day, too
Are we done for?
Not on your life! Look at us now!
Jumping
Jumping
Jumping
Then time for a coooooool drink.
After a visit to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, we get on the bus and head toward Venice with a dip in the pool at our hotel in Tuscany and a stop in Florence.
This is our cool pool.
We bat the beach ball around
for an hour. It's great to play together.
We have a lot of fun.
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I look kind of dazed here but Ellie is beyond dazed. She's sleeping standing up!
We leave the Chicago beach ball for the next group to enjoy.
That ball looks a little lonely now all by itself.
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Meet Rozanne, our tour guide. She's really
friendly and knows where the good gelato stands are.
The bus ride takes us past fields of sunflowers nodding at us as we speed by.
After all that exercise we are really hungry !