For those who are unable to see the small slideshow that
links you to my Picasaweb Albums ( Apple Products don’t show the slideshow);
here is a link that you can save to access all of the photos:
Our travel day started early; we needed to go below the
B&B for some early morning Wi-Fi time before we left the apartment at 9:30
am. By ten o’clock we were checked out
and waiting for our bus that would take us to the train station.
We arrived in Naples two hours later and had to wait there
for our train to Rome that left at 3:15 pm.
We’d made our reservations so that we had a lag time between as one never
knows exactly when the little train from Sorrento will arrive.
The train to Rome was packed and all of our luggage had to
be put up on the racks; Mary got some help from a nice gentleman, Bonnie and
Jane stood on seats and together got their cases up. Jane came and helped me as I had to go back
to another area. We had reserved seats
and it was a newer coach in very good condition; a lovely two hour trip. Arrived in Rome to beautiful weather and only
a short walk of several blocks to the Beehive Hostel where we are all staying
in the dorm room; a new experience for both Bonnie and Jane. There are four bunk beds in the dorm room;
all the beds are full each night. Some
are staying several days like us and others are in for a night and then we
never see them again.
About seven o’clock we walked out to find some dinner in the
neighborhood; had a delicious dinner at a small restaurant only two blocks
away. Then over to the train station to
purchase seven day passes for the buses and metro before heading home for some Wi-Fi
time and early to bed.
We had trouble with the Wi-Fi in the evening; probably
because there were too many of us online using Skype and uploading photos. I finally gave up calling Jim and sent him an
email that the Skype was not working.
Left my cell phone that I’m using with Skype on when I went to bed; the Wi-Fi
started working during the night and sent the email. Jim “assumed” that I was online and called
me; it was about two o’clock in the morning; woke the whole dorm up by the time
I woke up to answer the phone. I was
whispering to him as I climbed down from my top bunk bed and hurried into the
hallway. He felt terrible and we didn’t talk long;
soon everyone was back to sleep. The
rest of the night was restless so I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep
tonight. I’ll remember to turn off my cell phone
tonight. It’s so hard with the nine hour
difference in time between Europe and California.
This morning I was awake by five o’clock. Mary woke at six and we walked to the Termini
Train Station to find some early morning breakfast. Termini Train Station never sleeps. Coffee and egg sandwiches at MacDonalds
before returning to make sure that Jane and Bonnie were up and going for our
early morning appointment at the Vatican.
We saw the secret garden, actually just a large garden in
the center of the Museum where the tour groups take their people to explain
what they are going to see when the visit the Sistine Chapel as they are not
allowed to talk while in the chapel. We
had the history of the development of the various gardens by different
popes.
We also learned that the statue of Mary that was brought
from Fatima to open a special period of devotion to Mary here in Rome has
already returned home. We’d hoped to see
the statue while we were here. But, we
did see a beautiful statue of Mary with the children of Fatima in the
park.
It was a wonderful tour and I hope that you’ll enjoy the
selection of photos that I’ve included.
After we returned to the Vatican Museum we were free to spend as much
time as we liked in the Museum and end our visit with a visit to the Sistine
Chapel. Bonnie an We left them about 11 am and enjoyed our day;
we later found out that they were in the Museum from eleven until nearly five o’clock! It had started to rain as they were leaving
so they headed for the Metro and then found a nice place to have dinner before
returning to the Hostel about 7 pm.
Mary and I made it through the Museum in about an hour and
then visited St. Peter’s Basilica before heading back to Termini and we thought
home to rest. But when we reached
Termini by bus #64 we changed our mind and found a place to eat; it was two o’clock. Once we had more coffee and a snack we were
recharged and ready to go again. Off we
went by Bus # 64 again; getting off in near Via Nazionals and Via Genova. Our goal was to walk over to pick up our
tickets for the Pope’s Audience tomorrow.
Along the way we had a serendipity experience: they were doing the changing of the guard
with the whole company plus the band in parade in Piazza del Quirinale. Lots of fun and photos before we continued
our walk.
Once we had our tickets we continued down the street to the
Pantheon and then stopped at the Jesuit Church of St. Ignazio di Loyola, there
is a very large altarpiece in a vast empty church with baroque décor. Then over to Trevi Fountain to fight the
crowds so that we could toss our coins to ensure that we’ll return to Rome and
then a gelato to enjoy as we continued our walk to Spanish Steps. I noticed that all of the love locks have
been removed on the fence of the church near Trevi; only a few new ones. And, this is the first place in Europe that I
saw the locks being attached to a fence back so many years ago; it has spread
throughout Europe now and is beginning to be something akin to graffiti in my
way of thinking.
The weather was changing rapidly and we could hear thunder
in the distance; I remembered the Metro A Line runs right at Piazza di Spagna;
so we hopped on board and were back at Termini in a few minutes. It actually did rain a bit but we stayed
dry. Back at the Termini I purchased
more time for the Italian cell phone and then we picked up some food to eat out
in the patio for our dinner.
It’s been a grand day and tomorrow we’re off to St. Peter’s
again for the Wednesday audience. Hope
you enjoy the slideshow:
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