Roma

For this trip, we decided to meet at our destination, instead of having David fly back to New Orleans first. David arrived from Australia on Friday afternoon without any issue. He was on Emirates and had rave reviews of the dusty view of the Burj and the A380 on-board bar.

Jen's connection through Chicago was delayed 5 hours due to weather (i.e. hail hitting the plane as we were waiting to taxi out to the runway), but in the end she made other connecting flights & was only 4 hours delayed to Rome.

From the Rome airport, we took a train to the city center (about 45 minutes ride) and walked a few blocks to our accommodations at Hotel Saturnia. It was a quaint room with shared bathroom; the street was a bit noisy, but the location was ideal for seeing the historic sights.

After settling in, we walked over for a delicious dinner at Gallina Bianca where we shared a fresh mozzarella appetizer & then ordered pizzas

In the morning, we set off on foot to see the sights...Palazzo dell Esposizioni, a small hilltop park overlooking Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, Colonna di Traiano, Trajan's Column, etc...all amazing!

We checked out the market and a few stores...David was particularly excited about the wide availability and large container sizes for Nutella

The pasta styles & colors were fantastical...

Lots of tourists around Rome, many cruised around on these open-top buses.

We stopped for lunch at Obika Mozzarella Bar (yes, an entire restaurant dedicated to different varieties of Mozzarella!) Jennifer was in heaven

Here are a few pictures of Jen on her cheese-high

We also visited some roof-top bars near the Pantheon.

David's parents were arriving around dinner-time, so we started heading back towards the train station to meet them...on the way, we came across the Fontana di Trevi which was beautiful but packed full of people...and a man roasting chestnuts!

The next morning was a bit overcast & rainy but we made it out to the Colosseum in spite of the dreariness...

With the rain, we wrapped up our day a bit early...although, David & I did poke around the neighborhood for a bite to eat. We found a spot down the street that had a buffet of finger foods for a few euro, so we stopped in. The food was okay, the ambience was the most interesting...neon lights and house music going while we ate, very fun

On Monday morning, we packed up and left our bags with reception, then took the bus over to Vatican City for St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel...the place is so ornate & decorative with beautiful sculptures, architecture, and paintings that it was really hard to control our impulse to take hundreds of pictures...David went to work with the Canon & Jen used her iPhone plus photo apps to take shots. Here is a sampling of pics:

Before leaving the Vatican, Jen dropped a postcard to some of the family back-home (days later, she will learn that mail from Italy is notoriously slow & that her family can expect to receive the postcard in 1 - 3 months)...

After a quick pizza lunch near the vatican museum, we caught a train to Florence.