First Day in Roma

Today started badly. It was raining like crazy this morning. In fact the weather reports for the entire week are 60% rain, 80% rain, 60% rain and 50% rain SO…. However, if it’s like today it rained in the morning and then cleared off beautifully by noon and was on the warm side in the afternoon and evening. Now it’s going on 6:30 and it’s gorgeous. We’re back at the apartment and since I have to write in Word and then copy into the blog, I’m sitting outside in the kids’ play area. Right now they’ve gone off to look at the donkeys which is nice because I can get in more than 2 words without an interruption. LOL

So far, our warnings about the water being off today have not held true for our part of the city or if they were, it was while we were gone and we weren’t bothered by it. We went to the Callisto Catacombs which happened to be the set of catacombs which were open on Sunday. They weren’t too far from our house and it only took us 20 minutes to get there. Finding things that are open on Sunday and Monday is entertaining. You definitely have to turn to the antiquities.

The catacombs were very interesting. Mostly now it’s a big hole in the ground with crypts carved out. There are still a lot of pieces of early carvings and paintings though and the occasional statue. Of course, you only get to explore a tiny bit of the known 33 acres worth of the complex. It’s at least 4 stories deep too. We had a really nice priest lead us through. I’m ASSUMING that most of the guides are priests although I really didn’t pay attention. All of the known Christian catacombs are owned and being explored and have been restored by the catholic church. The jewish ones are owned by the jewish community and he stated, no one has gone into the pagan ones. INTERESTING.

After the catacombs the boys were STARVING again, as usual, so we went for dinner even though it was a bit early. We decided that we couldn’t stand another pizza or pasta meal so we stopped at McDonald that was in a Servicio area beside the road. It’s official. McDonalds is dismal on this side of the world too. The only bright spot was that the servicio also had a pastry shop that served canoli that were very good. John didn’t like them but I did. Too much ricotta for him.

Yesterday we stopped in Orvieto on the way to Roma. Wow! I really want to go back there and spend the night and get a chance to really explore. The medieval duomo is more magnificent on the outside than the inside but both are something to behold. It was impossible to get a photo of the whole thing as usual and photos weren’t allowed inside. I picked up postcards Totally worth the drive and hike though.

We didn’t get to do anything other than the duomo. John fell on the stairs in Florence taking one of our big suitcases down. He whacked his little toe on one food and the suitcase landed on his ankle of the other foot. He was really limping so we didn’t walk too much. So Orvieto is on my TO DO list for next trip.

Tomorrow is supposed to be hideously rainy here but mostly sunny south and it’s the last day we’ll have the car so it’s off to Pompeii. Then on the way back we’ll swing by the airport and turn in the car. Then comes the challenge of getting back home. LOL Actually it’s pretty easy. Commuter train to the metro. Metro B to the terminal and the 797 Bus home. It comes right up to the apartment complex behind us and then we just take a little goat (ok here it’s a donkey) path to the house. On Tuesday morning we’ll reverse that only skip the commuter train and take the Metro A after B to get to the Vatican for our tour. At first we were told that the 797 bus only came every 55 minutes but John and I went up to the apartment complex this morning to let the kids play in the park. We were there 45 minutes and the 797 bus came in twice about 25 minutes apart and that was on a Sunday. The sign shows it running on the 30’s which is a much better schedule.

It isn’t convenient being out this far. We certainly would have crammed more into today if we had been downtown. However, it’s been kind of nice to have a down day and the kids are enjoying being out here even if it still isn’t like home. We still have to share everything with 7 other families.

I still hope to get through the collosseum, forum, Spanish steps and several other things over the three days we have left after Pompeii.