ENFORCED CULTURE FOR THE GRANDCHILDREN
This trip is a continuation that started last summer with taking many of John’s children and grandchildren to Africa to celebrate our 75th birthdays. But Melissa said that she wanted a trip with Enforced Culture for her kids. That is an old family joke – we have made a lot of decisions to show them various things through the years and called it Enforced Culture.
So this trip is about the beauty and culture of Italy and Paris. We were starting in Rome and moving north.
The calamities of this trip started long, long before we left. British Airlines canceled our flight to London and put us on a later flight causing us to arrive in Rome after our family! We had rented a really nice and huge place but we did want to be the first ones there….didn’t work.
Then, we left our house at 9:30 a.m. and because of flight delays, mechanical difficulties, late flights, etc., we arrived at our rental 31 ½ hours later!!! We were definitely exhausted inspite of sleeping on the Dallas-London segment for 4-5 hours.
The family ate dinner at a bistro just next to our apartment and then waited up for us. There was huge joy when we arrived and the VRBO was fabulous!
In the morning I had not set a time to start – good thing! Everyone slept until they awakened, then had some rolls, butter, salami and cheese — then off on a walking tour. First stop – Spanish Steps, then Trevi Fountain. Then a gelato stop before the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus.
We saw the Basilica di Santa Maria.
Time for a lunch stop!
Next we stopped at the Colosseum, then the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum.
We walked by the Memorial to Victor Emmanual II, the first king of Italy.
We were exhausted at the end of Day One.
The next morning began a HUGE day — a private tour of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum and St. Peters Cathedral. We ended up with a truly terrific guide whom we met next to a cafe across from the entrance. We had coffee, a huge fruit plate and some toast.
No photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel. Check your Googler. Photos of the Vatican Museum and Pope’s Residence follow.
And a final stop for gelato and a stroll through the piazza at the foot of the Spanish Steps on the way back to the hotel. The ended our visit to Rome.
In the morning we were off to Florence, by way of vineyards near Montalcino, then Siena.
First stop was Casanova di Neri:
Then a walk around Montalcino to our lunch stop — which was inexplicably closed.
And then to Fattoria dei Barbi:
Then we drove to Siena to meet John’s college roommate and his wife, Allan and Penny Hillman. She is a professor at Yale who comes to Siena every summer to teach and he is an attorney who comes along. Siena is pretty fabulous and the cathedral is stunning!
The we walked around a little in the narrow streets with Allan. A neighborhood is known as a contrada and their contrada’s symbol is the panther. Speaking of that, the Palio is a horse race held in Siena. You should look up a video with Rick Steves about the Palio on YouTube. It’s wonderful!!!!
We posed with Penny and Allan in front of the piazza where the Palio is held.
After our dinner together we were driven into Florence for a pretty late arrival. But Florence is another story 🙂
Beth
PS: Just found another bunch of pictures from John or Melissa — no order but maybe I’ll add a caption 🙂
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