Italy with the Campbells - Rome Day 1

After a rainy night at the campground, we awoke to a dry morning for our first day in Rome.  We took the campground bus to the train station and then got on a train that to us to the main station in Rome.  We then figured out the Metro and got ourselves nearer to Vatican City where we were going to spend the day.

We headed to the Vatican Museum first.  My favorite part of this was the temporary display of Faberge eggs that were on display.  The storied behind them all was fascinating as well as looking at all the tiny pieces of each one.  Never in my life did I think I would see things so delicate!

The other part of the Vatican Museum that was pretty cool was the Sistine Chapel, but we weren't allowed to talk or take pictures in there.  It was bigger than I had expected, but I was hoping that we could take some pictures in it.

After seeing the Vatican Museum, we headed to St. Peter's Square where we had lunch and people-watched for a bit.

We then went into St. Peter's Basilica and walked around it for a while.  This is definitely the biggest church we've been in so far!  I sent a postcard from the Vatican to my former boss which was interesting because Vatican City has it's own post office.  We then had to take some pictures with St. Peter's in the background.

From St. Peter's, we headed down the road to look at a few other buildings and some squares.  The thing that struck me the most was the amount of Egyptian obelisks decorating various squares throughout the city.  We took pictures of every one we saw so that we could show them to my mom's class since they study Egypt in 3rd grade. 

After a full day in Rome, we headed back to the campground by Metro, train, and bus.  We ate dinner at the campground restaurant and it was excellent!  Who knew that a campground could have such good food!  We all enjoyed our food and then took the rest of the evening to relax before heading out to another full day in Rome.

Italy with the Campbells - Venice to Rome

Now that we have no more guests in the foreseeable future, I have time to update the blog again!  Since the Campbells were here, we've had 4 groups of visitors, but I'll keep things going in order so that I don't jump around too much and forget something!

On Wednesday, after a day in Venice, we made our way to Rome by way of Florence.  The car rides were pretty uneventful and it was nice to be able to stop in Florence around lunch time.  We had to eat at McDonald's so that we could count Italy into our list of countries where we have eaten in McDonald's.  Laura had been to Florence before, so she knew what were the most impressive things to see and became our tour guide for the day.  We first went to the Duomo which is a big church with a tower in the center of town.  This church was quite impressive!

After going inside the Duomo and deciding that the line to go up in the dome was too long for the amount of time we had in Florence, we decided to check out a few more churches.  We then went to the Medici church and library.  Of course, I had to take a picture by the library sign!  This church was fun for me because I had listened to a history podcast of the Medici family and could now picture where the things had happened that were talked about in the podcast.  We then saw another church, but I don't remember which one it was.

After a quick tour of Florence, we headed the rest of the way to Rome, but by the time we arrived it was raining quite hard.  We were supposed to be camping in a tent while we were in Rome, but none of us wanted to set up the tent in the rain and then sleep on the wet ground.  Brian went to talk to the guy in charge of the campground and discovered that they have trailers that you can rent out to stay in.  We ended up getting 2 rooms each with a bathroom to stay in while we were in Rome.  It was nice to be inside out of the rain and to have our own bathrooms.  The campground was very nice complete with its own restaurant! 

Congratulations Mike and Lisa! & Happy Birthday Jamie!

Today is a double celebration and we get to celebrate with my parents!!

My cousin Lisa is getting married today and since we can't be there, we're celebrating with cake (for Lisa) and beer (for Mike).  We wish we could be there, but are glad that Katie can stand in for our whole family.

Today is also Brian's youngest sister's birthday so she had to be part of the celebration!  Happy birthday Jamie!!

The cake lineup:

Dad - fruit cake
Mom - cherry kuchen
Brian - Black Forest cake
Beth - raspberry chocolate cake

Bike ride - GPS view via Garmin Connect

If you click on the link below you will be linked to my last bike ride.
This is the first time I (Brian) have used this so you might say I am trying it out.
Depending on how well it works may depend on how may others I will put on in the future.
Bike ride - GPS view via Garmin Connect - Details

So If you followed the link and you like it please comment on the post and I will try to put more exciting tips on this as well.