Ciao Bella!

ROME

FLORENCE

Our final "big" trip before returning home was to Italia.  

We toured Rome and Florence for five days and our travel companions were Abe's brother Roger, his wife Allie and daughter Marissa.

The Italian architecture and art are truly impressive.  We were in awe of the art of Michelangelo, Da Vinci and so many others as well as the beauty of the buildings and the gelato...WOW!  We picked that up twice a day.  

There were Vespas, smart cars and Motorcycles everywhere because there is no where to park.

We really enjoyed the markets filled with leather handbags, wallets and jackets and the silk scarfs and ties. 

We were however, not enjoying the filth.  Why is it none of the money brought in from tourism seems to go to cleaning the streets? I have never seen so much dirt and grafitti.

Also, you know how in American culture if you are caught staring at someone you immediately look away and act like you are doing something important? The Italians take another approach and don't look away.  In fact they stand about a foot in front of you and stare to their heart's content.  I think we were quite the novelty with our four children as we saw very few Italian children at all. 

We stayed in convents in both cities.  The nuns were very nice and the place was clean and it was a good way to get a place near the heart of town for a good price (in Rome we were 200 Meters from St. Peter's) but, we had uncomfortable beds and our room in Florence was a little creepy with a very bloody picture of Christ's feet on the cross, creeky doors leading down a corridor to the bathroom.  We also had five single beds and twenty foot ceilings with paintings covering them.  McKay asked one afternoon when he was getting tired, "Can we go back to our "Sisteen Chapel" now?"