Day 16 - Friday June 5th, 2013 - Sorrento

Today we had to set an alarm to wake up so that we wouldn't miss the driver. We quickly ate then the driver took us to the airport so we could rent our car. The car rental terminal was huge and slightly confusing but we found our way to the desk. They gave us another Fiat 500 and we just hoped the cigarette lighter worked so we could charge the GPS. Luckily it worked and we thought we were good to go. In a hurry to get on the road we left the airport even though the air in the car hadn't seemed to cool down too much. About 5 minutes after we had left the airport we decided the air condition was broken. It was 90+ degrees outside and humid. We knew it would be a long 3.5 hour ride to Sorrento. Luckily, we took the highway for most of the drive. This meant plenty of time to listen to our book. We can't put it down, can you tell? We were warned that driving in the Amalfi coast area would be scary. However, after driving the sharp cliffs of Cinque Terra (which had no guard rails or lines on the road) without a GPS, the drive to our hotel was relatively easy. There aren't a lot of traffic lights or stops so you just have to make room for yourself and go. There are several mopeds that are confident they own the road. They weave in and out of traffic like no one else's business but I guess they're so small they can. Upon arrival at our hotel we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. Seriously, this hotel was wonderful! Our room overlooked the water and we had a nice balcony. They had champagne waiting in our room for us. It's always so awkward when we have to tell them we don't drink. This time I pulled the pregnancy card which he actually seemed to understand. After we got situated in our room we went to the pool bar to have lunch. We order a turkey club sand which and a salad. Again the salad was not what I was hoping for. The lettuce leaves were all the really bitter ones that almost seem to burn when you swallow them. Yuck! The club sandwich was fantastic thought and was big enough to feed both of us. After lunch we relaxed by the beautiful pool and soaked up all the time we had to relax and enjoy. We also went to check out the beach by the hotel but it wasn't fantastic, to many topless tweens. So we just decided to stay poolside. We were really excited for dinner that night. We had reserved a romantic dinner on the patio restaurant at sunset. So we anxiously went back to our room to get ready. I had first shower rights since I take longer to do my hair than mike does. While I was in the shower he face timed his mom who was at Jared's house. Apparently he wanted to show them a little of the hotel so he took the room key and left. The room key just happened to be the power source to the room. As I  stared to shave my legs the power went out and the bathroom went black. We were only given one room key so I knew I just had to power through it. The funnier part is, Mike can't make the hotel key open the door. So he just had to wait in the hall till I was done. Sucker. Once we were finished getting ready we went to the 5th floor for dinner. When they seated us it was inside and not on the balcony. Normally I would just sit down and not cause problems but I had been waiting for this sunset dinner on the balcony for a few months. So I asked up be seated on the balcony. The host said you had to reserve those seats in advance with the receptionist. I assured him that I had spoken to her as soon as we checked in today. He went and talked to his boss then lead us to the balcony but to the only table that was not actually overlooking the water. He asked if that would be ok, again I was more persistent and asked to be seated at another table that was actually overlooking the view. He told me again I had to make a reservation and my exact words were "I did make a reservation. I reserved this dinner several months ago and I also reserved this seat with the front desk upon check in. I was assured seating on the balcony so I'm not sure why I can't sit there." I think we were all surprised how forward I was with where I wanted to sit. I've never acted like that before. I think it was the east coaster coming out in me. With that we were seated where I wanted to be sat and apologized to for the miscommunication. (And still after all of that, one seat on the balcony remained open all night.) The dinner was fantastic! The sun set while we ate and it caught the landscape on fire. I couldn't imagine a more beautiful backdrop to a wonderful meal and company. We had great food and talked about all the placed we have been lucky to see together. We each picked our top 5 favorite places and then named some places we would like to go in the future. It was a very romantic, beautiful evening that I'm sure we will remember for a long time. After dinner we went back to the room and took some pictures from our balcony. Then we listened to a little of our book on the balcony then it was time for bed!

Day 15 -Thursday July 4th, 2013 - Rome

Happy 4th of July! This is my second Independence Day away from America in a row. I am going to try really hard to be in America next July 4th. I was really missing the BBQ food (especially an all-American beef hot dog and baked beans,) family/friend gatherings, red, white and blue, parades, American flags and fireworks! But we had a nice relaxing day in Rome. We woke up just in time to make if to breakfast before it closed. Then we took our time getting ready and didn't leave the room till close to noon. We easily navigated our way to the Trevi Fount. We felt like two locals with how well we remembered how to get around. We enjoyed looking in at the shops and people watching. Then we went down to check out this new tourist activity called the time elevator. It was a 5D film that incorporated 3D viewing, moving, feeling and smelling. There were three film options and since we didn't have anything else to do we decided to do all three. The first was a haunted house film. It was really dumb and pointless. The only thing it did was make me motion sick. For the next film I exiled myself to a cart that did not move. The second film was called the evolution of time. It covered the beginning of the planet and how life was started. It was interesting and a little better than the haunted mansion one. The final film was on the history or Rome. That one was really neat and the main attraction. It covered several historical events important to the nearly 3,000 year old city. I enjoyed it. Mike choose to stay in the moving cart and ended up motion sick by the end. I was so glad I switched, even though it meant I sat by myself in the corner I much preferred that to motion sickness. After the movie ended we continued on down the street to see the Colosseum again. Mike was kinda of the "been there, done that" attitude  with a lot of the things in Rome and since it was so hot I didn't care to walk around too much. So we found a good shady spot and listened to our book for a good half hour or so. Then we decided to go find some place for a late lunch/ early dinner. It's always hard to find a place to eat. There are so many restaurants claiming they are wonderful and begging you to sit down, but how do you know if they are any good. My body was in need of some veggies. I wanted a green salad with lettuce and veggies. A lot of places we pasted didn't have salads on the menu. I found only a few along our way but for one reason or another passed them up. We finally came to one that looked really nice by the Trevi fountain. It had a salad that sounded good on the menu, so we decided to stay. The ambiance was nice, but the servers were a little rude, and rushed us. We decided on the salad and a pasta dish. When it finally came the salad was not at all what I had expected and tasted terrible. The pasta was about the same, way to salty and very under cooked. It was so terrible. Then of course when we got the bill they had added there service charge to it, which just ticked me off because all they did to "serve" me was take my order and bring the food to me. I was so annoyed. We left them a terrible review on trip advisor but it seems everyone else hates them too. That's the problem with those places they feed on tourist passing by who don't have the mind to check on trip advisor to see what kind of reviews they go. Mike and I will be doing that from now on, regardless of international data charges. After our very disappointing lunch we walked over to the Pantheon. On our way over we passed the government building. There were tons of cars and camera there, so we stuck around to see what the fuss was all about. Of course we didn't recognize anyone and even after 8 min of watching still weren't sure what we were looking at. When we got to the pantheon we went inside, sat on the pews and listened to our book. I'm not sure if that was disrespectful or not, I don't know how often they actually use it (if at all) for church services so we figured it wasn't to bad. While we were there not one but two high school choirs came in to sing. They both were very good and sang in Latin. It made me miss my days in Delphian. The second choir was huge and to loud to hear over them, even with our ear buds in so we went outside. We saw some African dudes (in Brazilian clothes) fighting with an accordion player for the space to perform. Unfortunately, the three of them beat the one of him and the Africans took over with their banging and off key chanting. So we decided it was time to go get gelato. We went to Gioletti's and ordered a sundae with chocolate and Oreo gelato, divine! We also had passed a place on the way to the pantheon that advertised 150 flavors so we went back to check that out. There selection was impressive, everything but chocolate chip cookie dough ;( I was thinking maybe their focus was quantity over quality and almost said no when I saw the 4.5 trip advisor rating posted and decided to give it a go. I was glad I did, heavenly! I shared a giant cone with Mike, we got peanut butter, kit-kat, Biscotto and mars bar flavors. So good! Then we headed back to the Trevi Fountain so I could toss my coin in. As soon as we got there is started raining. Of course it was the one day I was not carrying the umbrella and ponchos. We huddled under a building ledge to stay dry. The rain really came down hard at some points scaring a lot of people away. I decided it wasn't terrible and snuck a peek at the fountain. No one was there! Everyone one had run for cover. I ran up to get some pictures. I guess I signaled everyone else. I snapped 2 or 3 pictures before it got packed again. It was cool while it lasted. Mike came over and took a few pictures of me and I threw my coin in. Unfortunately, it was over the wrong shoulder, so I hope it still works. Then we started back for the hotel. We passed a Burger King and decided our sweet gelato over load made us hungry for something salty. We went in and orders a few nuggets and fries to balance it out. That's what I call a well balanced diet, sweet and salty. Lol. I can't wait to stop eating out when I get home! Then we walked up the Spanish Steps to our hotel. We pack up our things, facetimed with family, reminisced about the Fourth of July and eventually listened to one more chapter before bed. We are addicted!

Day 14 - Wednesday July 3rd, 2013 - Venice

We had another fantastic breakfast today! Probably the best one yet. The seat we sat in overlooked the canal our hotel was on. The hotel served eggs, bacon, mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, several cereals, fresh fruits, cheeses, pastries, breads and yogurt. The jam for the toast even came in mini jars. We were seriously impressed. It was again, a great way to start the day. We took our time getting ready and relaxing in our awesome room. When we were finally ready for the day we had the hotel hold our luggage and we went off to do a little more exploring. We made our was to the Rigoleti  bridge and I hated how many people were crowded into one area. I don't do to great with crowds. Then we looked at our Rick Steve's book to see if there was anything else we wanted to see. Mike said he wanted to see what their casino was like so we headed that direction. It took us a good while to find it and when we did it wasn't that interesting. Just a bunch of slot machines. We found some steps in the shade and sat down. We wanted to find someplace good to eat but the only place in the RS book that sounded close, good and in our price range we couldn't locate on the map. Mike took advantage of all the pigeons on the ground and started feeding them pieces of his granola bar. He loves feeding wild animals. We noticed one pigeon in particular was very mean and picking on the other birds. I decided I didn't want a bully pigeon eating all our granola pieces so I chased it away. It was pretty funny though because it took a solid minute for it to leave and not just fly a few feet away from me. After it left I felt very accomplished. We decided to leave and just find something to eat along the way. I decided I would let Mike pick where we ate. After about 35 min of walking and wondering he decided on something. The pictures on the menu looked like the food would be good and Wimbledon was on the TV. The food turned out to be gross. We got a chicken sandwich which I'm pretty sure was not made with real chicken. We also ordered a bruschetta and it wasn't even close to being what we thought it would be. We paid quickly and left. We walked back to the hotel and did some window shopping/people watching along the way. One thing I like about Venice was it had a lot of water fountains that you could drink from. We just kept refilling our bottle with water and didn't have to buy any. Yay! We watched lots of people pay €80 to €100 for a gondola ride. Made me glad we did it with our tour group. I was still hungry since I let mike eat most of the gross food. Next to our hotel was a pizza shop and a gelato place. Mike stopped and got a gelato and I ordered a pizza. Thankfully, it was delicious! Mikes gelato was called cherry cheesecake and was exceptionally good. As we sat and ate the pizza we noticed the place where he got it had about 10 awards posted on the window. It turned out this place was the real deal. The owner makes it fresh every morning and even local Italians rave about it. I decided I needed to try some. I got cherry and grapefruit. The grapefruit was actually really good even thought it was a little bitter. I was impressed with my gelato. We relaxed in the hotel lobby for a while enjoying the free Internet while we could. We were able to Skype with Mikes mom which was fun. Then we hauled or luggage back to the boat. We took the public boat system to the train station. The ride took about 45 min because of all the stops it made. We double checked with information that we didn't need anything else to board our train and were able to get on quickly. We rode in first class which wasn't very crowded. Our seats were just single seats that faced each other so we didn't have anyone next  to us. Much better than the Eurostar. The ride was 4 hours long. We listened to our book to help pass the time. We were hungry so we went to the bar and got some overpriced, mediocre sandwiches and water. When we got to Rome I figured we were close enough to get a cab and only pay maybe €15. Our hotel directions said it was only a 20 minute walk on foot, but I didn't want to walk with all our luggage. So we found a cab driver and asked him how much when he told us €30. We decided to take the metro system instead. We hadn't used it last time we were here but I was confident I could figure it out. We bought our tickets and only paid €3 total, much better than €30. While we were getting our tickets this women kept trying to talk to me. I have become so weary and untrusting of people like that and wouldn't give her the time of day. I overheard her talking to someone else asking to help them get tickets. My guess is then they watch where you keep your money and try to get it from you.  Anyways, we easily found our train and took it to the right stop. We used a map to find our hotel. It is seriously straight out of the movie/game clue. Creepy doesn't begin to describe it. It has a huge old wardrobe with a giant mirror on it. High ceilings with an ancient chandelier and 1930's curtains with matching bedspread. We were waiting for the ghosts to appear. Don't worry I got plenty of pictures. We face timed a little with both of our families then fell asleep listening to our book!!