My dream trip to Italy begins!

Como Lake. Como, Italy

Italy here we come....

The Rome Italy Temple! I was hoping it would be finished or at least open for the open house, but we will still go see it in person.
It is supposed to be beautiful! They are using the stone local to the area and matching the architecture as close as possible.

     

                                                   First time to be a passport holder!

.... It's been a long day... Two days of   traveling start tomorrow morning

On the way to Vegas Baby!!!





  












Vegas Airport!!

Ready Set Go!!!!

Starting in Vegas, then off to Los Angeles then........oh my... the longest Airplane ride of my life, but it was worth it! I may not remember a lot of details, by the time we hit the sky it was about 6:00 p.m. and we settled in with dinner and a movie or two. I watched The book which I totally loved and recommend and a lot of episodes of Cheers and The Big Bang Theory. Callie had a window seat so she slept off and on because she could lay her head on the side of the plane. I was in the middle and I went crazy! I have restless legs and I was worried about getting a blood clot, so I tried to get up and walk around when I could. We were the front row in the back section, which we chose for leg space, so at least I didn't have to squish my way past someone every time I needed to move. Taking those seats means you are responsible for helping others in a emergency! Ha Ha Ha...I would be the last one capable of that! But the room leg was worth the "responsibility". We were also by the bathrooms which was a little noisy, but again it was worth the space. If I ever go on a long flight again I will choose the back center section on the front row. Although you are directly behind the bathrooms, there is tons of space and  you can lay on the floor! Live and Learn.

We flew on Norweigen (can't spell) and that in and of itself was very interesting. Our dinner was a good meal. A yummy dessert. I would say it was a basic American meal. Our breakfast however was a box meal which was basically a sandwich and a few other things I can't remember. We were pretty hungry both times, so it tasted good to us .

The Flight Attendants wore these very formal uniforms. Dresses and tights and hats, very proper clothes that reflected their origin. When it came time to land, and when we took off, they would put on these red leather gloves and sit and buckle in their seat until we were allowed to unbuckle, then they would take off their gloves and go on with their duties. I found that odd and wanted to ask why, but I didn't dare. Once we ate breakfast we were close enough to the Airport in England that we just started to prepare to land and get on our way. We had a 5 hour layover in London so we weren't excited to sit around the airport. It's not like you can go out and check out the place. Of course our luck their was some sort of oil spill on the runway and we were told we could be circling in the air for hours waiting for our turn to land. Our plane with several hundred others were sent to smaller airport which was also to busy because of what was happening there, so again we went to a smaller airport, all the while the bus to London was getting farther and farther away. At this point we were worried about catching our flight. Wasting a day we could have been in Italy. Sleeping in an airport, losing the hotel money among other things. We were reassured buses had been chartered to take us where we needed to be so that was nice. This airport was very tiny and ill equipped to handle such a large amount of passengers so passing through security was a long a tedious process. It was actually kind of scary. It was very dated and seemed like it was being run by the Gastapo. They treat you like you are a terrorist and you have to prove your not. We were questioned separately and had to give them all sorts of information and paper work. I was glad when we let through. When we finally made it, Callie went out to load on a bus, but I was so thirsty and I needed to use the bathroom so, told her I wasn't going to until I got some water bottles. I ran back in and grabbed 2 and a snack. I didn't think about the money thing, until I went to pay in Euros. There you pay in pounds and who knows what. I had to use Euros so it cost even more. Once we loaded our luggage we were on the last bus to leave. That turned out to be a HUGE blessing!! There was maybe 10 people on the whole bus. It was clean and very nice, Everyone found their own rows and I sacked out almost the full 3 hours. I was exhausted and pretty much so were we all. It was lovely. Once we got to our intended airport we barely made our flight. Only a few more hours until Italy and it has been a very long day plus ish...I won't even go into airport security, because it made me a nervous wreck. Passports, paperwork, searches not to mention actually finding your flight area. Callie was somewhat patient, but I know I made her crazy! I am no longer afraid to fly however, just afraid of airports in other countries. By the time we arrived in Rome it was close to midnight their time and we were pretty much toast. We found our driver by some miracle! He didn't speak English, more than a few words anyway. We got in the van with him and proceeded to sit in the back barley speaking. Although we had hired him through the hotel, the thought crossed our minds more than once that the guy could have taken us anywhere and done anything and nobody would have a clue where we were. It was a good 30 minute ride. Finally we got to our hotel, which looked nothing like a hotel from the outside. It was a huge stone building with big doors and no windows. He rang the bell and asked us for 50 Euro which we thought we were paying through the hotel. Luckily we had purchased 70 Euro before we left and we scrounged through our wallets and suitcase until we came up with enough to pay him. I'm not sure what he would have done to us if we didn't have the cash...

He said a few things in Italian we didn't understand opened the door and sent us in. Once inside we were a little more than nervous. There was a huge set of stone stairs and nothing else. The elevator looked sketchy and their was no signs or anything to say hey, this is a hotel. We sat on the stairs for about 10 minutes half laughing and half crying wondering where the hell we were and if we would be sleeping on those cold stone steps. Finally some guy came out of the elevator and asked us if we were Paddocks and told us to go with him. Once we got out it was the lobby of these really nice hotel. It is so weird how every hotel we saw looked like an ordinary building with a very small sign until you got inside. That night we laughed at the crazy art. Like half naked animal/man on a HUGE picture above our bed. We couldn't figure out how the lights worked and a few other things, but it was clean and quite nice and we fell into bed and conked out! We both slept like rocks and when we woke up, we both turned to each other and laughed and said we're in Italy! We got ready quickly and both of felt great! The timing of the flight and sleep that night put our body clocks just right. It was time to hit the streets! Everything looks different in daylight and our breakfast was included in our stay. We had to go outside and around the corner to a little café. First question when you go in the door is your room number and second is what drink they can make you. Each Hotel had it's own coffee bar where all the other customers were being served up specialty coffee of all kinds. I think we offended the coffee bars and servings for refusing coffee and wine. Breakfast offerings were different to say the least. Tons of cakes and pastries. Boiled eggs. There were tiny hot dogs and lots of fruit and yogurt.  We did find enough things to eat that seemed fine. Warm Salami and cheese are part of every meal offered and the milk is warm as well. YUCK! There are a few things I need in the morning so I don't get sick and that is a glass of cold milk and cereal. Some places had granola type cereal but, I had to ask for ice everywhere we went and they were very offended by it. The funny thing is when you order water it is ice cold, but no ice....So off we went to look around for a minute before we caught a train to Florence. I wish we would have stayed there another night, because we saw nothing in Rome the first day or the last...Oh well, maybe on my next trip!!??

Our first pictures of the trip in our Rome Hotel