Rome, Coliseum (Oct 26)

We got up at 4:30 am to catch the bus at 6 am from Siena to Rome. It poured rain the last part of the trip and there was an accident on the freeway so the bus driver had to take back roads to get to the train station. We wanted to buy a Roma Pass which gave us entrance into Coliseum, Forum and Palantine and unlimited public transportation for 3 days, but they were sold out at the bus station. We took Metro to a bigger station and after trying two places we got the pass. We used the pass a lot until we left Rome until we went home. We were back in Rome early and went back to the Downtown Accomodation, it felt like coming home the owner is so friendly and helpful. We went to the Coliseum, Forum and Palantine which was huge and awesome. We shopped for souvenirs.

Palantine

Palantine

outside Coliseum

Palantine

Palantine

Palantine

Palantine

Palantine

Palantine

Palantine

Coliseum

Palantine

Coliseum

Coliseum

Coliseum

Palantine

Palantine

Coliseum

Coliseum

statue at Coliseum

drawing of how Coliseum was originally

drawing of Coliseum, showing how gladiators and animals came up

Coliseum

Palantine

Rome, Borghese Museum (Oct 27)

We took the bus to Borghese Museum, which was tricky again because we did not know where to get off. We got off too early and had to get on another bus. A lady told us where to get off and to walk through the park. The Museum is in a huge beautiful park. The Borghese museum was wonderful, it was not huge but the paintings and statues were fantastic and the reservation system means it was not crowded and you could really enjoy everything. This was our last museum and was one of the best.

Borghese Museum

Borghese Museum

Borghese

Borghese Museum

Mounted Police at Borghese

Borghese Museum

Elephants in Milan

There are 20 elephant statues which are part of Elephant Parade, whose mission is to be the largest support organization for Asian elephants. The elephants are a unique art object, hand painted by world class artists. The replicas are hand painted, limited editions of varying sizes. Part of purchase money goes to support the elephants. I bought one caught Nami to go with my collection of hundreds of elephants.

this is the elephant I bought

Rome-Frankfurt-Vancouver (Oct 28-29)

We took Metro to train station and took train to FCO airport. We had booked the Welcome Airport hotel 3 1/2 kilometres from the airport. We booked this hotel because they said they had a 24 hour shuttle. The hotel was supposed to pick us up and did not show up. I asked a man to call the hotel and the hotel sent a taxi and told us where to meet the taxi (they do not have a shuttle, just use taxis). After we got to the hotel we asked for a taxi to be booked for 3:45 am the next morning and confirmed the reservation a couple of times. We did not know that although the hotel was close to the airport it was very isolated. After we got settled into the hotel we took a bus back into Rome, a 2 hour ride. The ride into Rome was very enjoyable going through beautiful farming country and small towns. In Rome we had lunch and did some shopping and then took the bus back to our hotel. The driver going back drove so fast that we had to hang on and it was not that enjoyable.

The next morning we got up and waited for our taxi and no one came. There was no public phone and no one around. Fortunately there was internet and I called the taxi company on my IPod. They said they had no reservation and wanted to send someone out at 4:30 but I managed to get them to send someone right away. It was a scary standing in the dark with no one around worrying about getting to the airport. The check in for our flight opened at 4 am and we needed to reserve seats (could not reserve ahead). We did manage to get some good seats. We had a 6 hour lay over in Frankfurt (it was $300 each cheaper). We looked at the shops and had something to eat and visited with other people so it was okay. We had a long 10 hour flight to Vancouver and were glad to get there. I stayed overnight and took 4 hour bus ride home the next day. Unfortunately my husband had a fire in the kitchen (see blog "fire at home") so we are still coping with repairs.