Celebrazione di Amicizia

We, embarrassingly, began the day with a bottle of sweet (actually too
sweet) dessert wine that we had gotten from Carla Zenato back at the
Zenato winery near Lake Garda early into our trip. She had given it to
us in celebration of all of our birthdays. Knowing this was the last
time we'd have a chance to share it, we uncorked it.

We were shocked when the Italian women walked in the room and shook
their heads disapprovingly... not because we were sipping wine, but
because it appeared to be a sin to eat Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for
breakfast. We were determined not to leave this behind, either,
knowing very well we wouldn't be able to bring an open package back to
the States.

Apparently, some cheese in Italy must be sacred. Being the rebels we
are, we ate it anyway. The ladies didn't complain when we left behind
another half bottle of wine and the rest of the Parmigiano.

We used the same taxi service that dropped us off at Sweet Dreams 2 to
drive us back to the airport. This time our driver was one of the
owners of the taxi service. He spoke perfect English. He drove us by
the Mussolini monuments which were very plain and geometric in nature.
We learned that he was born and raised in Rome, and told us, "I am a
true Roman." Because of this, we all had to touch him just so we could
say that we had touched a Roman. He thought this was funny.

We flew on Lufthansa to Munich, appreciating the Bailey's Irish Cream
offered for our coffee. Next we were on to Chicago, then Minneapolis.
Calls were made to those waiting, which got us even more excited to
get home.

Donna's sister and her niece both drove to pick us (and all of our
goods) up at the airport. Donna's nephew, Mo Mo, was also along and
smiled with joy to see her. In the three weeks we were gone, he went
from saying "Dah Dah" to a clear "Donna."

We went back to Sharon's to get Brenda's car. Beth and Mary were
fortunate to be able to ride with her to where they were going. Beth's
parents met them on route to Hector at a major crossroad; this saved
them from having to trek all of the way to the Minneapolis
airport. Mary was dropped off at her mom's house at nearly 1 a.m.

Donna and Brenda worked the next day, while Beth prepared to drive home
to Idaho with her parents. Mary drove back to the Twin Cities with her
mom and sister to fly to NYC for her brother's surprise 60th birthday
bash.

The trip was fabulous. Even 18 days were too short. Time flies when
one's having fun. Maybe that 's why we're already 50.

May you all be blessed enough to share 50 years of friendship with
someone. Thanks for reading : )

Day 17 - Rome's Colosseum and More

Today was a wonderfully fun day! We took the guided underground tour
of the Colosseum. This is a fairly new tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed
it. It turned out to be one of Brenda and Donna's favorite things on
the entire trip.

The guide brought us to the lowest floor and described how the wild
animals were pulleyed up in an elevator to the arena above. We were
told that emperors would hold 100 days of games, open to the public.
The people were also fed for free during the games. This is how the
emperor would keep favor with the people.

Christians and criminals were often the ones that fought each other
and/or the animals. Sometimes hides would be put on the people, then
they were put into the arena with carnivores. At other times, they
were burned alive.

We saw the Arch of Constatine which was built to memorialize the first
Christian emperor in Rome. He claimed he had seen God in the sky who
told him he would be victorious in battle. After this actually
happened, he became a believer. He was the one who put a nix on
Christians being persecuted in the Colosseum in 313 and told them no
longer to bury their dead in the catacombs outside of the city.
Instead they were told to live out in the open to be examples.

We visited the Roman Forum. It was amazing how our government
replicates the ancient Roman one! They had a public governmental
square, government buildings, and a Senate. You've undoubtedly heard
of Julius Caesar (buried here) and his nephew, Caesar Augustus, from
the Bible. He's the one who required the census when Mary & Joseph had
to travel to Bethlehem. Both of them were rulers here.

We made our way to the top of Palatine Hill. This is mostly ruins now,
but is where wealthy people, including Caesar Augustus, had their
homes. The hill overlooked the Forum, the Colosseum, and Circus
Maximus (the track where they held races like in Ben Hur!)

We took a taxi across town that brought us to the steps of the Capuchin
crypt, a small chapel where monks felt it was honorable to donate their
bones after death to decorate its rooms. For example, a skull was hung
on the wall with a hip bone on either side, and it looked like the face
of an angel with wings. They even had chandeliers made completely with
bones. Since Earl (Beth's husband) likes to hunt, Mary told her he
could put all of those bones to use now in their house. Kind of like
arts and crafts for a manly man. Beth was not humored!

By the way, "cappuccino" comes from the brown color of these monks'
robes.

We walked to Rome's famous Spanish steps. The Spanish Embassy's
nearby, thus the name. We then made it to Mary's favorite spot in the
entire world: a small piazza in front of the Pantheon. It has her
favorite fountain, complete with goofy heads that spit water out of
their mouths. What makes the fountains more enjoyable is that birds
love to sit on top of the goofy heads to make them look even more
ridiculous. It takes very little to humor some people, and --
obviously-- Mary's one of them.

Brenda took notice of a gorgeous Italian man in a bright teal jacket.
We think he was a model since he was walking with a Paris Hilton-type
gal with high heeled Stilettos. She'd turn around in a crowd and
there'd be a photographer snapping away. Brenda told us tat the man in
teal looked like a younger, taller, more handsome Tom Cruise, so of
course the rest of us waddled after him to get a look. Donna did a
stealth move and even photographed him.

We popped into a wonderful little restaurant for our last dinner in
Italy. For one last hurrah, we stopped at a gelateria called Della
Palma that is known for 100 flavors of gelato. Donna was as pleased as
punch to find a flavor (pine nut) that she had fallen in love with
early into the trip and hadn't been able to find since.

We ended the late evening with a half bottle of wine, and shared the
rest with our new-found Italian friends back at the apartment. Gaia's
grandmother and aunt had joined her mom and her for the evening. The
grandmother was hysterical, even though we had to mostly understand
through facial expressions and Gaia's limited translations. It was a
fun way to end our final evening in Rome.