Getting Home

More Airport madness!
We left for the airport at 4am and check in fine. There was a 45 min delay leaving Florence, which means we might miss our connection home. We have to run to the self connection kiosk in Amsterdam, which tells us its too late to check in for our connection flight to Houston through the machine, and have to check in at the flight gate. Check the big board, it's literally at the other end of the airport. Amsterdam is by far the biggest airport I've been in, bigger than D.C's (at least it feels like) also, there's no terminal train system. We run there, I'm nearly dead, check in, and....it's the wrong Houston flight....yup, there are 2 flights to Houston leaving within 10 mins of each other and we just ran 25 mins to the wrong gate. She called our gate and told them to wait and we made it, thanks to the extra security going on, we arrived just as the last people were getting padded down.
We land in Houston, 13 hours later, and our bags our still in Amsterdam.
Hopefully they will be delivered tomorrow evening...
Moral of the story: Italy was great, but try not get there without flying...

Day 12: Rome and New Year's Eve

12/31: Happy New Year's Eve! Today we had good weather and were able to get down to Rome for the day. It ended up being disappointing, but I was happy to be there. After all, Rome wasn't toured in a day, as they say.
After some tricky navigation, we drove past the Vatican City walls, which were pretty cool to see. We had thoughts of going in...until we saw the line. It had to have been a 5 hour line at least. Instead, we looked for parking close to Saint Peter's Basilica. The street parking was outrageous. People would literally just park wherever they wanted, 3-4 cars deep on a small two lane street. It was incredible and ridiculous. We luckily found garage parking and headed out to Saint Peter's.
It was also incredible, but in a much better way than the parking situation. We almost joined a last minute tour that would jump all the lines and take us on a 2.5 hour tour of the basilica, including the Sistine Chapel, but Emily vetoed the idea saying she didn't want to spend that long in the basilica. It was 1 of the 3 things I wanted to see the most in Rome. After spending some time admiring the outside and the square, we headed towards Bernini's Bridge of Angels that Mom wanted us to see. It's the bridge in Angels and Demons. Now that I've been to Rome, I should rent that movie. I had a so-so pizza for lunch.
The bridge was pretty neat, lots of beautiful angel sculptures leading up to what used to be Hadrian tomb's but is now Castel d' Angelo, which was closed. Closed attractions turned out to be the theme of the day...Next stop was the Pantheon, the 2nd attraction I was really interested in seeing, but first, we went fountain hunting.
The fountains in Rome are gorgeous, especially Bernini's work. There was another open Christmas market surrounding a square with 3 fountains, so we spend a little time there as well. I bought a witch-like figure, which is supposed to bring good luck in the Italian customs, similar to the Nissers of Scandinavia. I really liked the fountain representing the 4 major known rivers at the time. The Nile is depicted with a cloth over his head because the source of the river was unknown. Another cool fountain was Neptune killing an octopus!
The Pantheon is really incredible. It is studied by architects as the perfect dome, and it's hard to believe it was constructed 2000 years ago. Raphael's is buried in the Pantheon, so I was able to see 2 of the 4 resting places of the Ninja Turtles! (Michelagnelo is actually in Florence, but we missed that church, and Leonardo is in France). Vittorio Emanuel is also buried there.
We slowly made our way to the Coliseum, ducking in and out of small churches along the way, including one that housed Michelangelo's famous and controversial sculpture of Christ bearing the Cross in the nude, but a bronze leaf was added a century or two later. Another church we briefly stopped in was dedicated to the angels who saved Mary's house by lifting it up and taking it to France. Dad and the rest of us had a good laugh at that miracle. Along the way to the Coliseum, we also saw Michelangelo's Steps from a distance, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and a massive structure, jokingly referred to by many as the "Wedding Cake" and described as "architecture on steroids" by our guide book. It was a monumnet to Vittorio Emanuel, the first president of Italy, and really just silly in grandeur and scale.
We also saw other ruins on our way to the Coliseum. I used to be really interested in anthropology and the study of ancient cultures through ruins, but when I saw them this time around I didn't have that same spark of interest. They were still really cool to see.
We finally arrived at the Coliseum, the 3rd attraction I really wanted to explore...5 minutes after it closed! Since it was New Year's everything closed at 3:30 instead of the usual 5 or 6. We walked around the outskirts, peering in, but it was kind of a let down. I did find a port-a-potty for my picture collection, so that was a bright spot. An arch similar to the Arc to Triumph is right next to the Coliseum. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum too, it was also closed! We were able to walk up a hill and get a less than decent birds eye view of the place.
After the Coliseum excursion, we trekked back and came across perhaps the most famous of Bernini's fountains, the Fountain of Trevi. Em, Kyle, and I each threw a coin in, so legend has it we will return to Rome one day. Everywhere we went, Mom said the crowds were double the size of the crowds during their first trip to Rome in June. If I do come back, it will not be during the Christmas holiday again.
For dinner, we stopped at an outdoor covered restaurant, which was good since it started pouring. Swordfish pasta was my first course, and it was good. Nothing great, but it was worth trying. For my second course, I ordered a mixed meat plate, with sausage, beef, lamb, and chicken. The sausage and lamb were good, the beef was alright, and the chicken was horrible. The meal ended up being our most expensive meal, and one of our worst. The dinner in Civitella was the best meal, and definitely worth the high price. I was disappointed in general with Rome's food.
We had an exciting adventure trying to find our covered parking before 9PM, or else we would have to park overnight. We trekked all over in the rain, but luckily found it with about 10 minutes to spare.
We got back to the Villa a little after 11, and turned on the TV to see if we could find an Italian celebration. Well, we did, and I wish we didn't, because it was just a horrible and miserable concert. Closer to midnight, we started hearing fireworks outside, so we went upstairs to the balcony to see what was going on....
What a great view! We could see for miles, even in the fog, and could see fireworks shooting up from all the small nearby towns and Arezzo. It was really something else.

That just about wraps up my Italian vacation. Our last day will be spent cleaning, packing, and chilling, so not much going on there. Happy New Year and stay tuned when I travel again! :-)

Day 11: Arezzo

12/30: Weather in Rome was a no go, so we slept in a little and trekked off to nearby Arezzo for a proper tour of the town. Arezzo is the closest "major" town to the villa, and was only 20 min away or so.
We wandered in and out of a few churches, including Sant Francesco, full of frescoes and neat architecture.
We stopped for lunch in a nice family owned, or "trattoria" restaurant overlooking the town's major square. We had a complimentary soup, served in a flask like mason jar that was neat, but actually hard to get the spoon into. For the main course, I ordered veal cutlets served in a bone marrow sauce. It was quite delicious.
After lunch we wandered the square a bit and just walked the street, popping in and out of small stores on our way to Arezzo's duomo.
This duomo was different than all the other duomos we had seen because it was actually completed in 1919! It overlooked a nice fountain that had been defaced by graffiti on one side, which was a shame. The view of the valleys covered in vinyards was also neat. There was even the body of Pope Gregory X on display in a glass coffin. He was gilded too, it was spooky looking.
By this time it was getting dark, so we trekked back to the city center and stopped for snacks at a cafe across from the first church we investigated. It turned out to be the famous cafe seen in the award winning 1997 movie Life is Beautiful. I tried to order a cannoli, but got some other type of pastry filled with cream. It was good, but I was looking forward to the cannoli.
After our brief rest, we headed down into the major pedestrian shopping district. I really like small streets lined with shops and small crowds going to and fro. After walking the streets, we ended up in a more open Christmas market. I considered buying a cannoli, but thought better of it. I also considered buying a knockoff Arezzo Hard Rock Cafe sweatshirt (there isn't a Hard Rock in Arezzo). If it was a tshirt I would have bought it, but I left it hanging in the stall. A weird theme I've been seeing all over these Italian markets Simpson merchandise. The characters, probably knockoffs, are on everything, including leaning tower of Pisa shirts, Duff beer sweatshirts, and a shirt of Homer as the Vitruvian man. It's just strange.
After shopping we headed back home to the villa. I liked Arezzo, it was a neat city.