April 3, 2012
Our friends, Michelle and Susan Petersen, came out to Italy to visit us. We decided to take the train down to Rome and meet them there. We woke up at 5:00 a.m. and left the apartment by 5:20 a.m. so that we could walk down to the train station and catch the 5:54 train to Rome. We were so excited when we found out that it went straight through, so we didn’t have to make any changes.
When we reached Rome, we had a quick bite to eat at the train station before walking over to the Colosseum where we were to meet Michelle and Susan. We arrived early, and knowing Michelle, she would be early too. That was great, because we were able to get out tickets quickly and go on inside J
It was really crowded, but we managed to get a few shots without the throngs of people closing in…
Michelle and Susan...
Where the gladiators waited before their fights...
I just had to take a picture of the ancient oil lamps… they reminded me of the story of the ten virgins.
We went around the entire place before moving on to our next adventure…
Then it was off to the Forum… It was amazing to walk the same cobbled walks that Caesar Augustus walked.
The wisteria was in bloom, so fragrant...
This is the garden where the vestal virgins spent much of their time. I was also surprised to find out that those arches in the background were only a third of what was originally there.
We were blessed with incredible weather, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect.
This is Severus’ Arch… David just had to get his picture with it because he thinks he IS Severus Snape…
After the Forum it was off to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I was impressed by the tile floor in the museum J
Unfortunately there were mobs of people as it was Holy Week and everybody and their mother had time off to visit the Vatican. We were herded through, but I was still able to get some great pictures.
This is one of my favorites... I took it when I was stuck behind a crowd...
There were all sorts of wonderful carvings...
Again we were herded through. No pictures were allowed, and it was supposed to be quiet, but the most disturbing thing was the guy yelling SILENCIO, NO FOTOS. I have to say, I was underwhelmed by the whole thing. I think I was expecting Michelangelo’s The Hand of God painting to be massive...
From there we went straight into St. Peter's Basilica. I was able to get much closer to Michelangelo's Pieta this time.
We were so surprised when we got to the station and saw our train posted all the way through to Perugia because we thought we would have to change trains on the way as we had done before. But, it was the correct time train, and both the main station board and the platform board showed the destination as Perugia, so we felt fabulous that we were able to get a train straight there as well as finding six seats together. It had been a long, busy, exciting day, and we were all tired.
About an hour and a half into the train ride I noticed something strange. The entire way the sun had been on my left as we were traveling North and I was on the East side of the train. Then I noticed that the sun was on my side of the train… it didn’t make sense. We didn’t feel the train turn around… About ten minutes later, the train stopped in some place (still have no idea where we were), a very small station out in the middle of nowhere!
WHAT??? How can that be, it said the train went to Perugia… Some friendly people on the platform told us we needed to get on the next train going back the way we had come to Orte and we would be able to get to another train to Perugia from there. So, we got on the next train to Orte, wondering what our chances were for actually catching a Perugia train as we watched the last light of the day disappear beyond the horizon. Hey, at least the sun was on the left side of the train…
Once in Orte, we saw that in ten minutes there was a train to Perugia, how lucky was that??? So, we jumped on board, and then we realized that it was an entirely first class train. We only had second class tickets, so we got off. We quickly found the conductor and asked him what to do. He confirmed that we did not have tickets for this train. When we explained that we had missed a connection somewhere, he felt really bad for us. He knew if we didn’t get on that train then we probably wouldn’t make it to Perugia that night as this was the last train. He told us to go ahead and get on board. So it was that we travelled to Perugia in first class. It was very nice, and we were very tired.
When we got to the station, David took Michelle and Susan in a taxi up to the apartment while I walked with the kids. It is usually a 25 minute walk. However, it was just starting to rain and I was really tired and wanted to get home, so I pushed those kids up that hill and 350 steps and we made it in 17 minutes. I was never so glad to be home… It was just after 11:00 p.m. when we got in the door. A good night sleep was definitely in order…
~Mary
Wow - great pictures!
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