ROME!!! Our first day!

The Pantheon! This was one of my favorite places. This was built in 125AD and everything is original. The dome, the marble floors and the colums are all orginal. The colums are all one piece of marble and came from Egypt. This is such an amazing building! Raphael the Roman Renaissance artist is buried here (as in one of the Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles).

Our first day in Rome was so much fun! When we arrived we went first to Piazza Navona for lunch. It is this lovely pedestrian squares with Bernini's famous Fountain of the Rivers. We stopped here for lunch at a fun cafe and this is where we purchased our paintins! So many painters come and this is where they sell their paintings etc. After lunch we went on a walking tour of Rome and this is what we saw & learned.

Pompeii

Ever since Mr. Alston's social studies, grade 6 class I've been fascinated with Pompeii. Well, I got the chance to go and convinced my hubby to come along. We set off with Kyle & Allison, Brady & Andrea, Bob Hall and his wife Jill. Pompeii is an hour from Rome so we went to the train station and the first six bought train tickets on a less expensive train and when it was our turn to pay the train had sold out, so we had to up-grade to a train that was $40/person one way to Pompeii and it was leaving in 5 min. So we hurried and bought our tickets, ran to find our train and jumped on the train as it was leaving the station. The whole trip was to hurry and catch the train from here to there etc. But we arrived in Pompeii and started our 4 hour walk on rock and stone. I always thought Pompeii was a little village, but it was a huge city and they still haven't dug a portion of it up yet. You could see the original tile and paintings. Down the streets you could see where they would have driven their carts. I enjoyed it so much because I learned so much about it before and how they had built everything was simply amazing.

The Colosseum

The first night we arrived in Rome our group of six went out to dinner and then walked to the

Colosseum at night. It was so beautiful with all the lights on at night. This amphitheatre at one time was completely covered in white marble, the outside and inside. While walking with our tour it was so neat to see the original marble that had once covered the seats, stairs etc. The original numbers still can be seen from the outside to indicate which "doorway" to enter according to class. Our tour guide said that Gladiator(the movie) depicted the Colosseum the best of any Hollywood movie. The Arch of Constantine is right next to the Colosseum.

The Vatican City & Castel Sant'Angelo

The Castel Sant'Angelo (as seen on Angels and Demons, that is one of the reasons why we went there because Blake said it was on the movie) was fortified in 271 AD.

The Vatican City & St. Peter's Basilica

This is the Famous La Pieta' of Michelangelo. St. Peter's Basilica was amazing with how big it was and its beautiful architecture.

The Most Amazing Night of My Life...well maybe just one

Our final night in Rome ended with a lot of emotion as it was the last night that Beneficial Financial Group would ever be together. They gave us a private tour of the Sistine Chapel and Museum. This was my favorite day and night of the whole trip. The Sistine Chapel was amazing! I had seen so many pictures of all the art and the ceiling that Michelangelo painted was unbelievable! It is smaller then I imagined, our pictures did not turn out so well as we could not use our flash. After the tour, they took us up to a Villa that looks over all of Rome. It was a beautiful white marble home that they had turned into a hotel. Our dinner was so good, as the food in Italy is very different then "American Italian". Not like our favorite Macaroni Grill. Very healthy and plain as our pizzas were just fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, a slice of ham and some cheese. But the bruschetta was the best I'd ever had. Anyways, while we eat the 3 teners from the Rome Opra sang to us, all the classics. They were wonerful and soooo talented! After everything they had us go out on to the balcany and from below they let off fireworks. They were the best fireworks I had ever seen. (I know that doesn't sound like much coming from Magrath Days, but being almost level with the firework and so close, it really was amazing!).

Summer Vacations

The Road to Hana!

Blake and I rented a jeep for a day to drive the "Road to Hana". It is this two lane (sometimes one single lane road over the bridges) road up to the village of Hana. It is such a beautiful and relaxing place! We stopped and walked down to the black beach and cave, bought a fresh coconut and drank right out of it. So does not taste like the yummy coconut that I eat back home in Utah.

Aloha! We enjoyed a wonderful Luau, thanks to Errol and Joanne. The food was amazing and so was the entertainment, I was just sad that I didn't get to see any of the Nelson boys up there hula dancing!