Day 15 - Travel

Good morning Rome. We are so excited to be heading home and almost there. Today is the long day though as the first of our two flights is 9 hours long. We headed to breakfast, where we learned the night before the breakfast buffet is not included with our room and would cost 16 euros a person. The receptionist also told us we could just pick out a few things and pay for those. We got seated at breakfast and no one explained to us the rules so we just got our breakfast and ate. We waited a couple of minutes to see if anyone would come give us a bill or anything but no one did so we left. We even walked by the folks at the cash register but they didn't say anything either. I guess we could now be wanted in Rome for stealing breakfast, if anyone goes there and sees our wanted poster let us know.

We took the free shuttle to the airport. Since we are flying to the US the check in procedure is a little different. We had our own area of the check in counters where before you can get to the counter your passport gets checked and then you go find the appropriate airline counter. Once at United our passport get checked again while we waited in line. Further into the line we also get our boarding passes. When we receive our tickets we notice that we are not sitting together, we ask the woman if she can correct it and she said no we have to ask when we get to the counter. If there wasn't a problem the only purpose of the counter is to check your bags. We ask the woman if she can change our seats and she says she can for $99 USD, as we would need to upgrade to economy plus. That was not acceptable to Danielle as there was no reason we shouldn't be able to sit together let alone have to pay extra. The supervisor got involved and the outcome was that we would be placed on the stand by list with a note saying we were together. We were told that they would work on the seating with the stand by list. We went through security etc., stopped at a few shops and by the time we got to the gate Danielle went to ask them about moving our seats. We were greatful that we got our seats together. On the flight we learned that other families were not sitting together on the flight, our of the 3 others in the row 2 were not with their families.

We received the usual custom form on the plane and were told only one per a family needs to be filled out. This caused a little questioning for us. We are family even though federally it is not recognized. We asked one of the flight attendants what to do, we told her we live in the same house, and we have the same last name. She said just fill out one form, so we did.

Customs in DC is not always the funnest thing as the lines are normally long. However, this trip was a rare occasion, our flight was the only one in the customs hall. We got our luggage fairly quickly and made it through customs and security without a problem. Customs didn't question us about our one form.

While at the airport we met Phoenix a min pin and his owner Anthony. Anthony is a dancer and is moving to NYC from Kansas City. We have met some very kind and interesting people our trip. We are very glad to be home.

We would we do it again....

Rome - Yes, if we had new people to share it with. We did everything we wanted to do in Rome and the sites have been there a very long time and not going to change anytime soon. Highly recommend the view from the cupola atop of St. Peter's Basilica.

Malta - Possibly. We had fun there despite the hotel experience. However, if you are looking for the an island vacation with lots of beaches etc, then Malta is not the best choice. The country is building up and trying to be more appealing to the tourist so possibly in 5 - 10 years it will be a hot spot.

Santorini, Greece - Oh yea we would go back. Even though we have done pretty much everything you could on the island we had so much fun. We would actual like to tour the Greek Islands spending a few days on each.

Day 14 - Travel

This morning we spent just hanging around the hostel as we had to leave at noon for the airport. We finally were able to sleep in as we got smart and closed the shutters so the sun would not wake us up. We went swimming in the infinity pool that the hostel had and just hung out and read waiting for time to go by. After swimming we headed back into our room and got ready to travel to Rome. We packed up and headed downstairs to see Poppy and her husband. Poppy's husband acts as the driver for the hostel and we had to wait for him to get back from a pick up at the airport. So again we waited. Finally he was back and ready to head back to the airport for our journey. We arrived at the tiny airport and were so surprised by how full it was and how small it was. We walk in the door and they scan our luggage even before we can get 5 feet in the door. Then we took our luggage to the check in counter. We couldn't check in because all of the agents that worked for our airline, were at the gate sending off the 12:35 flight to Athens. Once we could check in it was amazing at how many people were squished in this little airport. There are 7 "gates". Each gate was a door to the outside, no jet ways. We headed upstairs to the open air "cafe". This would be a terrace next to a typical airport snack stand. It was fine though because it was away from all of the people in the airport. We watched as two large planes boarded and took off, and figured it was safe to head downstairs. We headed downstairs and even though many of the people had gone, we still didn't have a place to sit. We waited and waited until it was finally our turn. We finally boarded the bus and headed to the plane. We climbed on board and were off to Athens. The trip to Athens is only 30 minutes so you get a drink take a sip and they are about to take it away again. Anyway, the flight was uneventful. We got to Athens and got our luggage (we had flights on different airlines because many of the small airlines in Europe only have a few routes that they fly). We headed to the next airline to see if we could check in because we had 5 hours between planes and did not want to lug our luggage around for that long. Well it turns out we had to because we were not allowed to check in for an hour and a half. We headed to the shopping area and Danielle bought a book to keep her busy and we got a snack....and waited, while we watched 6 boys from the country of Georgia (they had shirts on that told us this) use the luggage trolley's as race cars with a set course and a switch point where people went from the pusher to the rider. Anyway, we also saw them get caught and stop. We went and sat a the check in area until they let us check in. Then we found our gate and decided to get some real food, knowing it would be too late when we got to Rome to try and find food. After dinner we headed to the gate and waited some more. We hopped on the plan and were off to Rome. We got our luggage and headed to the bus (which we had to call and ask him to wait for us since our luggage was a little slow getting to us). We got to the hotel and crashed. We were excited about the hotel as it had a few things we were missing like a big bed, wash clothes and a tub! It wasn't long before we were snoozing.

Tomorrow, we head home! YAY!

Day 13 - Santorini

Today was our island excursion, we got picked up at the hotel at 10:45 AM by a bus. After all the pickups we headed to the port, where the bus drove down to the ferry by following a series of switchbacks. The road was not very wide, and took about 5 switchbacks to get to the bottom. Once at the bottom it was chaos. We had no direction as to what to do next besides what we obviously knew and that was to get on the ferry. The question was which one. The boat captains are good about telling you that you are not allowed on their boat. We eventually found where we were supposed to be and headed to the volcano. This excursion again was a multi-language excursion, one tour guide, three languages: English, French and Spanish.

The actual volcano has not erupted since 1950, however it has created all of Santorini as well as its sister islands where the Volcano is as well as where the Old Burnt Island and Thiressia (the small island). It was pretty interesting and we got to see a vent up close. It was supposedly quite warm, but we were hot enough we figured we didn't need to be any hotter.

After the Volcano we headed to The Old Burnt island where there is a small port and you can swim to a hot spring. It was weird because the water around the hot spring is orange and actually gets on your skin. It was like a natural rub on tan! Anyway, you don't realize how warm it is until you head back into the regular water and see just how cold that is. There is only one human resident on the island, a fisherman. About 20 years back he asked, and they said yes, so he has lived there ever since. When they turned the island into a geological preserve about 5 years ago, he was grandfathered in. His neighbors are mountain goats. They are all over this tiny little island. It was very cool. Also in the bay where the hot spring is, there is pumice stone all over the place (being on a volcano, that makes sense) but pumice stone floats, so we looked for a few decent sized pieces and brought them home. There is also a church on the island, it is for Saint Nicholas, the saint for the sailors. Danielle asked if Saint Nicholas is the saint for the sailors then why does santa ride in a sleigh not a boat?

After the hot springs we stopped at Thirissa. This is known as the daughter of the big island. Only about 500 people live on this island. There is a small port at the bottom of the island with several restaurants on it for the tourists on the boats that come on the tours. To get to the top is only by donkey or walking. Since we hadn't eaten lunch yet, we ate and did not go up to the Village on the top of the island. After we ate, we walked a bit, got an ice cream and headed back toward the boat. We didn't get on right away because we had a awhile to wait so we laid in the shade where Jimmy's restaurant used to be, at this point it is more like a boat dock than a restaurant. While laying there we were checked out by other lesbians. They were topless we were not.

Once we got on the boat we headed back to the main island (referred to as Thira but the locals), to the village of Oia (not OY-A as we had thought but EE-A). Oia is the village where they filmed the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants (which is why we thought that we might want to come to Greece in the first place). Also in Oia is the sunset. Ok, so the sunset is everywhere, but is Oia it sets over the sea and just behind another island with mountains. It looks as thought it has fallen off the end of the earth.

But long before the sunset was getting up the hill. Again two options, on foot or on donkey. We opted not to take the donkey, because we are not big fans of working animals just for the sake of saving humans and as it turns out the donkey does not go all the way to the top so you still end up climbing. The climb is about a million stairs that are long and STEEP. The difference between these stairs and the Cuppola at St. Peters is that they are not even and they are MUCH STEEPER. On our way up the donkeys were being trotted down by their human handlers. This is kind of like the running of the bulls but much smaller. Everyone who was walking had to get out of the way and quickly. We were fortunate and stood next to a big guy who used his backpack to push the donkeys away from us. We were afraid our toes were going to get crunched. Anyway, after our million steps we made it to Oia village.

It is the cutest little village. The whole village is built into the side of a mountain. Every house had to be dug into the hill. All of the spaces are small but beautiful. Also the village is paved in white marble tile in many places. Where it is not paved in marble it is cobble stone steps. The village of Oia gives new meaning to the term flatlander. This is because to go any where in Oia you need to climb steps, some places more than others, but there is no avoiding the steps. We had to stop to get another bottle of water because we had exhausted our supply. We wandered around Oia for a while looking at all of the shops, restaurants and such. While looking in one shop, we met a dalmatian named Beethoven. He was cute and very used to the sunset crowd. At the end of the day before it got too crowded, his owner chained him outside to keep people from sitting on the wall of his shop. After we wandered for a bit, we found a nice place to sit, that would be perfect to watch the sunset from. We sat for about an hour and a half and talked to each other as well as the girls next to us who were from Montreal. As the sunset got closer our perfect spot was perfect for so many others as well, we got crowded in, but it was ok because the place we were sitting was uphill from the place many were standing so we just stood up. We watched the sunset and then walked back to the buses to get back to the hotel. We got to be the first ones off the bus which was nice since the bus was very full. Riding home was pretty cool because we got to see the island from up high at night which was very pretty. The one thing we barely got to see were the stars, because the moon was so bright that the stars were hard to see.

Overall, this Excursion has restored our faith in tours at least for a bit anyway! Tomorrow we head to Athens and then Rome. We have a 5 hour lay over in Athens so we may take a taxi out to the Acropolis to at least say that we did that too! Then on to Rome and we leave on Tuesday from Rome to come home! YAY! We are ready to get home!
Ciao!

Day 12 - Santorini

Wow - what a fun day. First off our luggage showed up. The airline called the hotel at 6:30 AM to bring our luggage over. We did not learn about this until 9:30 when Danielle called the airline for an update on our luggage. They told us that it had been delivered to our hotel 45 minutes ago. We got dressed and went to the office for the reunion with our luggage. (we missed it!).

Once ready for the day we stopped by the office to book a tour/excursion (yes tomorrow we might be reminded again that we are not tour people), and to rent a four wheeler for the day because they are street legal here as well. The hotel called the bike place and they came over and picked us up. We got there and decided on a four wheeler because it looked like more fun. They gave us a map of the island, and it looked pretty sparse. Danielle mentioned this to Alison and she thought we would be ok. (We later learned that the map was not sparse it was actually very accurate, there are just few roads on Santorini. Santorini also did very well with their road signage, perhaps Malta could take note.) They showed us how to drive and told us where the gas station was and we were off. We headed to the gas station and then to Perissa Beach.

Perissa ia a black sand beach. The sand actually looks like the granules that are on shingles. We wanted to walk in it because it didn't look like it would feel the same, so we took our shoes off. Bad move....black sand=hot sand. Anyway, we spent a bit of time there and swam in the Aegean Sea which is really just the lower part of the Mediterranean Sea. The water was cool and again there weren't really waves, just wake from the boats. It was weird because it doesn't slope into the water like it does at home, it kind of drops off up to our waists and then when we dove in to go under we were up to our necks. We learned at this beach that it is optional top wear. There were several ladies that once they hit the beach their top was off, all the rest were tourist like us. People also walked along the beach trying to sell stuff from massages to trinkets. We hung out at Perissa for about an hour or so. We had planned to beach hop all over the island. Needless to say Perissa was the last beach we stepped foot on today, but its ok...we had fun.

We left Perissa and headed toward the Red Beach. The parking for the red beach was crazy, but because we were on the four wheeler, it was not too bad. We parked and began the hike. And it was a hike. We hiked up to where we could see the beach (it was far below us still) and realized that it was very packed (hence the parking problem) so we decided to take pictures of the sand and of the beach and headed out of there.

After the Red Beach we headed to Faros. Santorini looks kind of like a backward C, and Faros is at the end of the bottom of the C. At Faros there is a lighthouse that is still in use by the Navy. We hiked past the light house onto the point. There was an absolutely gorgeous view. Santorini is not lacking in the view department, that is for sure. We took some photos and headed for lunch. We didn't really know what we were going to find, but we stopped at a small restaurant on the side of the road. They were all over the place, so it seemed that this was where we would find some good food. We were excited to see Tzatziki on the menu. Tzatziki is a dip that has cucumbers, dill and garlic with a base of plain Greek yogurt. It might sound gross, but it is really yummmy! We got that and bread and then ordered lunch. Alison order Gyros (like in the states, but here they don't roll it up) Danielle ordered vegetable salad. Normally when it says vegetable salad, there is more than one vegetable, but not for her. She ended up with a plate of steamed spinach. She did say however that it was surprisingly filling. During lunch we asked the waitress about schools in the area as we had not seen any on our adventure. She said a few towns have primary schools, but the high school was in Fira. She was not certain though because she is only here during the summer, we learned this is true of most of the people here. We only found one person of all the people that we asked if they live here year around, and that was Poppy, the women who owns the hostel we are staying in.
After lunch we headed to the Monistary at the top of the hill. It appears to be the highest point on Santorini. We aren't sure if there is still a functional monistary up there because to get all the way there you needed to walk up a very steep hill and since our really goal was to see the view... where we stopped was just fine. We took some photos and headed down the hill. We headed back to the hotel to get our geocaching stuff because we had hauled it all the way over hear, might as well use it and now we were feeling like we had a decent idea of where we were and what we needed to do. The first cache we did was back up to where the monistary is. We had actually driven by it twice. It didn't take long to find. Then second was back down the hill in the Village of Kamari behind the Panagia Episikopi Church. We encountered a hill on the second cache that the four wheeler could not make up with both of us on it. So Alison got off to walk, it was not an easy walk either. One step at a time with both her calves and thighs screaming. We headed for a third cache after that, but decided to abandon it when we were a little confused as to how to find it and we were running out of time with the four wheeler.We made our way back to Fira the big capital city on the island where we had rented the bike. On the way we stopped for petrol (gas) and got right back to the rental shop with no problems. We returned our bike and then asked the bike shop guy where we might find some good food. He told us right next store, go up into the roof balcony and the food is good and not too expensive. We listened to his suggestion and he was right. We also got to people watch and no one knew that we were watching. After dinner we began our walk back to Katerados (or as Alison heard Danielle say "cut potatoes") where our hotel is. It isn't a very long walk. Anyway, we shopped a bit and found a free sport exhibition put on by the local bank to get kids excited about sports. We were walking by when Alison saw Ergs (the rowing machine that she uses) and made a B-line for them. We talked to one of the boys running the rowing section and he explained what was going on. We continued back to our hotel meandering in and out of shops and bakeries.

Tomorrow: Our island excursion. Oh one note, Santorini is kind of like a wedge of cheese, one side of the island is up on a cliff and the other side is at water level. The port for the ferry tomorrow is on the cliff side, there are only one way to get to the boat at this port and that is drive. At the other ports you have the option of walking or riding a donkey, and one the ports offers a cable car.

If you ever come to Santorini do not rent a car, rent either a four wheeler or a scooter, there is not matter way to explore this island!

Day 11 - Santorini

Mostly a travel day. Joey our new best friend taxi driver picked us up at 8:30am and took us to the Malta International Airport. It has to be an international airport because you can't leave the island without going to another country. Anyway, the airport is well tiny. We had been told to get to the airport 2 hours ahead of time in order to be ready. We were obedient and got there just before 9 and our flight was at 11:05. She was wrong, when we got there they were just finishing checking in a flight that left at 9:30, so we could have slept a little later, but oh well. The nice airport agent lady offered to check our luggage all the way to Santorini....this made us happy because then we didn't have to worry about picking it up at our two airport stops today. We got in and found our gate and spent our last Maltese money on European Chocolate. We sat just outside our gate and read for over an hour. Then we headed to inside our gate and waited to board. We boarded and had a nice flight. Again on Air Malta they offered us a full meal which at lunch is just a sandwich and a dessert but that is more than many American Flights offer during much longer flights. Alison had been dying to try Kinnie all week. We thought it was a Maltese Beer, but it was soda. They happened to have it on the plane. It was like a lighter thinner version of Moxie, with the same bad after taste.
We landed in Rome and headed to find the Alitalia Transfer Counter. We found it and our gate for Athens and waited to board. While waiting we met two college aged kids from the states and chatted with them for a few minutes. It turns out one of them has spent time in Amherst...it was kind of funny. We were surprised that out of all the towns in NH, and for a kid to goes to University of Hawaii to have spent time in Amherst. Anyway, we headed from Rome to Athens with little problem...except that we left late. All because a woman sitting in front of us was complaining about her luggage and wouldn't stop complaining long enough to let all of the attendants sit down so we could not taxi until she stopped arguing. Once she stopped, we were off and the pilot made up some time.

We landed in Athens and had to figure out where to pick up our last flight to Santorini. We got all the way to the gate and the lady there told us that we needed to go check in, so we headed back out of security and back to the ticket counter. We checked in and all was fine.

We land in Santorini and the airport is well more than tiny. It is so small they only have one baggage claim and no incoming passport control. We waited at the baggage claim while all of the other passengers picked up their luggage. We waited and waited, except ours did not come. We went to the ticket counter to make a claim and now we wait. We got to our hotel and they were very nice. They got us into our room very quickly, after complimentary wine that was smooth, so that we could get to the supermarket before they closed so that we had some toiletries to get us through the night. After the supermarket we headed to dinner at the Pizzeria next to the store. There we acted like locals and watched the Greece Soccer team play the Spain Soccer team. When we left, Spain was winning 1-0. They say we should have an update about our luggage by noon tomorrow. We shall see.

We are anxious to see Santorini in the day light, it feels beautiful. The houses on the cliffs look awesome during the night. Again four wheelers are street legal, we may rent one of them or a scooter tomorrow. Also on our walk we passed a cemetery very small but cool with some of the graves having lights that last all night.

Day 10 - Malta

Day 10...

Short and sweet.

Alison has not been feeling well, so today, the day she was feeling the worst we took it easy. We got up and went to breakfast in the hotel. We then walked down the street to the pharmacy to get some cold medicine. When we got there, it wasn't open even though it was close to 10am. We went to a small grocery store and asked when the pharmacy would open as well as bought some lemon tea. The clerk in the store told us that they should be open by now but it depended on who was opening. They also told us how to find another pharmacy that was around the corner. We headed to that one. The pharmacist was very nice and gave us several choices of brands. I chose the one that seemed the most like something we would get at home. The thing that is different is that with the cold medicine here, they also include a 300mg tablet of vitamin C. So if you took it every 4 hours if you needed it, then you would also get 1200mg of Vitamin C helping to boost your immune system. I thought that was smart. The other thing that is different is that all cold medicine is behind the counter in a cabinet, the pharmacist had to get it for us. After we got the medicine we headed back to the room. The plan for the day was just to get Alison better. So we read and watched TV and ordered lunch to the room and Alison did some sleeping. In the afternoon, we tried to get internet in the lobby of our hotel, but it wasn't working out so we trucked ourselves back out to the Radisson. Our bus passes expired today at 12:18 but we figured if they didn't work we would just pay for them. Both bus drivers wanted to look at them but they let us on with them anyway, it was strange. We got to the Radisson and updated our blog and then headed back to the hotel. We decided rather then truck out and find food we would eat in as we knew there were not many choices on the street our hotel is on. So we ordered from the Pizzeria in the hotel. Then spent the evening reading and wathcing TV and headed to bed. Tomorrow....we head to Santorini!

Day 9 - Malta

Day 9: Gozo Tour
We learned today that we are not tour people. We like to be on our own time table and do what we want to do. Today we went on a guided tour of Gozo, Malta's 2nd largest island. We chose this tour because there is alot to see on Gozo and having the guide we thought would teach us the history. We read our tour book on the way over and it turns out the guide must have read the same book. Ok just kidding about that part, but she did tell us alot of what we read in the book. Our tour picked us up at our hotel and then we picked up a bunch of others at other hotels. We got to the Ferry stop and found our language speaking guides. Those who spoke English and French were with one tour guide because she spoke both languages. We took the ferry and then hopped on another bus that took us around Gozo. Our first stop was Ggantija (Giantess) Temples. These are the oldest known free standing temples, built 7000 years ago. They are freestanding because they do not have any cement between the limestones just the rock less. They believe that these temples were temples of Goddess worship, most likely around the Goddess of Fertility based on the type of statues that they found holding the rocks. Anyway, it was not what we expected but cool none the as well as symbols that symbolize fertility. Next it was on to the Citidel. This is much like Mdina on Malta. It is a fortified city that the residents of Gozo went behind when under attack. They are getting ready for the Feast of the Assumption (on August 15th) and are already beginning to put up the decorations. The Citidel is not as pretty as Mdina and did the exact same thing, so we were not truly excited by it. A few interesting things we saw there is a hill from afar (we later saw it up close) that on Good Friday people walk up and stop at statues of the Stations of The Cross and have mini services at each one. At the top of the hill are several crosses where the crucifixion is recreated. Also we saw an ancient olive pitter. There was a machine that took the pit out and a different machine was used to press out the oil. After the Citidel we watched a movie on Gozo's history. It was lame. It was like going to the Hall of Presidents in Disney. We both wished we had realized how lame it was going to be, we would have tried to fall asleep. The good news, it was cool in there so that felt good.

After the Movie we headed to lunch. The lunch was salad (coleslaw), peas, potatoes roasted with olives and carrots, chicken on the bone or beef floating in fat. Needless to say, Danielle needed a special meal. She got a cheese salad with about a pound of cheese and a tomato as well as some coleslaw. Alison tried to eat the food they put on the buffet but it really wasn't good at all. The dessert however was yummy!

After lunch we headed to the Bay of Xlendi (pronounced Shlendy). We had 30 minutes to walk around and see it. It was a very small beach town. There were maybe 5 restaurants and a few stores and a scuba dive outlet. There was not enough time to swim and it was too hot to take the cliff hike, so we did some shopping and watched some people jump in the water for scuba and then we got on the bus. The area is so small that the bus that was coming up the hill toward us had to back down again for us to go by.

After this bay, we headed to the Bay of Dwerja. We can't give you a pronunciation... we have no idea. Here we saw the Azzure Window, Blue Window. This used to be a cliff that jutted out into the sea, however the sea has eroded almost 100 meters high and wide out of the middle of it, so that the sea gets through on the bottom. It is beautiful. Although it didn't make the trip worth it, it was very cool. The water in this area was very rough, and waves would hit rocks causing splashes easily 10 feet high, there was no swimming here.

Next we headed back to the Ferry and then to buses that brought us back to our hotel. We raced up to the pool before it closed because we were so hot and smelly from sweating all day. We also thought that we would have longer times at the bays and that we might be able to go swimming...however that did not work out. So we were already for the pool already. From the roof (where the pool is) we took some photos of the bay and island that we can see from our room.

We had no set plan for dinner so we just started walking down the street until we came to something that we both would enjoy. Most of the places we passed were either bars or shops. We had no set plan for dinner so we just started walking down the street until we came to We eventually came to a sign that said "Del Capo on top of the car park". They were not kidding, inside the car park was a supermarket and on the roof of the car park was a beautiful sciliano restaurant, with a terrace. You would have never thought you were on top of car park. The food was excellent and for dessert we had kanollies (they spelled it with a K), they were much sweeter then what we have back home!

Interesting Malta Note: When the elevator goes below the ground, they use negative numbers to denote their floor. Also, the ground floor is called floor 0, not 1.
Also we keep meaning to point this out, as it is very interesting. In our hotel room when you enter you have to put your key in a little card reader. When your key is in this reader you have power, if you pull the key out you lose your power. Very smart and means that people do not waste energy by leaving unnecessary lights on all day.

Tomorrow: At this point in time it looks like we are going to the Three Cities separated by a little bit of water. We aren't sure what we are going to find, but we will let you know.

Ciao!

Day 8 - Malta

Today we ventured out to the Blue Lagoon on the island of Comino. Malta is made up of basically 3 islands; Malta, Gozo and Comino. Comino is the smallest and only 4 people live on the island, two brothers, a cousin and an aunt. We took the bus to the northeastern point of Malta and got on a ferry to Comino. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes and we were not setting any speed records. We were heading to a popular swimming spot on the island called Blue Lagoon. We knew once we arrived there as the water was crystal clear like a swimming pool, the only difference is this lagoon had white sand on the bottom. There were no sandy beaches we had to find a spot on the shore on rock. Real estate was at a premium where as soon as someone left there were people standing to fill the spot. We quickly went in the water and while standing talking some little fish decided our toes were lunch. It tickled and freaked us out, so we then begun to make sure that we were always moving in the water. We vegged in the sun most of the day. We did overhear a tour leader talking about a cave. On our next venture in the water we decided to swim and check out the cave. It was cool and eerie. We swam only a little ways into it as we didn't know how deep the water was, or how deep the cave was. Today was a beach day.... We didn't go into the water much after Danielle saw the results of a jelly fish sting on someone's arm. It was several long slashes of welts did not look pleasant. During our ferry ride back the driver took us to several of the caves that were along the coast line.

On our bus ride back to our hotel we decided to stop at Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream. It is so hot here that the ice cream is mushy in the freezers.

Tomorrow is our guided tour of the second largest island making up Malta, Gozo.

Malta note: If you ever travel to Malta bring goggles and a snorkel. You can rent them while here but that is kind of gross. You can also purchase them here as well at a premium.

Day 7 - Malta

We love this hotel. Today we had the best breakfast on the whole trip thus far. The hotel has a free breakfast buffet. The buffet included hot food as well as the traditional European breakfast of pastries and sandwich meat. We were happy and full!

We decided to head to Valletta, the capital of Malta, this morning. We made it there all by ourselves using the bus system...no Maltese help at all. Valletta is the absolute opposite of Mdina. Valletta is the shopping center. Its entire area encompasses probably no more that the large malls at home including the parking lot as well. The difference is the hills in this city. There are some serious hills. Some of the streets are so steep that they require steps in lieu of sidewalks. We walked down Malta's busiest street. It is lined with banks, stores, mall type complexes and what we would call Cafes. Here it is only a cafe if they serve coffee. Otherwise it is a bar or a restaurant or pizzeria. Mostly they name what they sell in the type of restaurant. Anyway, we walked all the way to the end of Republic Street (that is a grossly American version of the spelling but the point is the same) finding Fort St. Elmo. Yes really, Elmo was a saint...at least according to the Maltese. Anyway, Ft. St. Elmo is still a working Army base and Police Academy. Because it is working, it is only open for tours on the weekend. When the Knights of Malta built Valletta, they built it with 3 sides facing the see, with the wall at the end to protect them from the many many attacks on their land. At the end of Republic street is also a World War Two Memorial Bell. This was the biggest bell that I have ever seen. My guess is that it is probably between 10-15 feet tall. The klinger in the bell was probably a foot wide. There are several signs just under the bell to not been standing there are noon time, because as the picture showed it might vibrate you to death. Ok, maybe just because the bell was loud, but the picture was funny. It said noon and showed the bell ringing and a man vibrating below the bell. It was funny. Anyway, we took some photos of both the bell as well as the effigy of the Knight lying on his death bed which is also a memorial to the ancient Knights. After that we headed toward Merchant Street, aptly named for its open air market. It was mostly clothing. Now, we have already had this discussion, but would you buy your underwear on the street? We say no! But lets take a poll...leave a comment and let us know. Just so you are aware these are individual undies with a thin cardboard package on the top. We walked most of the way of Merchant St. where we happened up St. John's Co-Cathedral. We don't understand why it is a co-cathedral. Anyway, our guide book was published in 2003 and stated that entry to the Cathedral itself was free but that you would pay 1lm (Maltese Lira) to enter. The prices have increased to 2.50 and you can no longer see the Cathedral for free. Since we just came from Italy seeing some of the most beautiful churches, we figured we could skip it. Also, it was about 38 degrees celcius here, the rough estimate puts it at about 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Needless to say, we were ready to head out of the city. We picked up some gifts on our way out and we were on our way back to the hotel.

We made it back to our hotel again with no Maltese help on the buses. We got back and immediately headed for the pool. After an hour or so we decided to face the music or the underwear...however you choose to look at it. We had planned for 7 days or so of clothing....today being day 7 we had to do laundry. We had scoped out the closest laundry mat and had already found where it was. Now we had to go and do it. The woman thought that we were very odd to want to stay and do our own laundry since the price was the same, but she dealt with us, as odd as she thought we were. After 2 hours of laundry and sweating our hineys off we were done. We headed back to the hotel...with Alison standing on the steps of a very FULL bus. After returning to the hotel, we hung up our clothes that could not be dried and hustled to the pool for the last hour it was open. We were hungry for dinner, but also sweating and in need of cooling off.

After our second pool visit of the day we got ready for dinner. Danielle had scoped out an Indian restaurant on the way back from the laundry mat, so we attempted to go there. Unfortunately their menu was old and they didn't open at 6:30 so we headed just a few doors down to another Indian restaurant. We ate dinner and spend a quiet evening in the room.....where Alison was able to finish The DaVinci Code. It was a very good book. We have decided that between the two of us we should be able to write 5 hotel reviews, several book reviews as well as many restaurant reviews before we are done with our trip. For now we sleep because tomorrow we will be attempting to reach Comino's blue lagoon (Comino is the third largest island of the Maltese Archipeligo and one of three inhabited islands here...Malta, Gozo and Comino.).

Ciao!

Day 6 - Malta

Yea we are in a nice hotel! This morning we woke up excited to leave our current lodging facility. We were ready and packed 30 minutes before our car was going to pick us up. We headed down to the lobby since we figured it could take us this long to check out, it didn't only 10 minutes. Joey, our original driver that took us from the airport to the first hotel, was driving us this morning to our new hotel, The Waterfront. As we pulled up right in front was the Turkish Kabob restaurant. I guess it was a good landmark after all.
Wow what a 180 this place is. We checked in at 10 AM (normal check in is at 2 PM), the staff told us our room would not be ready for another 45 minutes so we asked if we could use the pool. We grabbed our towels and anxiously headed off to the pool. The pool is fun, it isn't that large and about 7 feet deep but it had little whirlpool areas you could sit in. You just pushed a button and voila you had jets of water spraying at you. We were only at the pool about 25 minutes when the luggage guy told us our room was ready. Danielle headed down to the front desk to get our bags and drop off our pack backs only to learn that the man was already at our room with the luggage.An interesting feature of this hotel is the key card. Similar to the key cards in America they let you into your room. However, in this hotel, they also turn on all of the electricity. So if you can't figure out where the light switch is for that light, make sure you put the key card into the slot. It also serves as a place for your to put your key, you won't forget the key or to turn out the lights! The rooms are clean, we have a shower curtain, still no face cloth though. Apparently face clothes are an American thing. We lounged by the pool most of the day with only a break to get lunch and ask about setting up a tour. We decided that at 4 we would venture out onto Malta. With some direction from the front desk and our handy bus map we decided to head to Mosta to the dome and Mdina.

Buses in Malta are interesting, the stops do not give an indication where you are. You just have to learn the areas by sight. We stood at a bus stop for 30 minutes before realizing we were at the wrong stop. Once on bus #65 we asked the driver to tell us when we were at Mosta Dome. On our ride we passed some American chains: Pizza Hut, KFC, Ben & Jerry's, McDonald's and Burger King. The bus driver started shouting "Mosta Church, Mosta Church" we figured that had to be our stop. We got off the bus and walked to a very large dome, according to our tour book it is the third largest in Europe as of 2003. (Number 1 and 2 are the Pantheon and St. Peter's Basilica both in Rome and visited by us recently.) There was a baptism going on in the church so we peaked in looking for a large hole in the church. We then walked over to the bus stop to continue our journey to Mdina. While at the bus stop we talked to a woman about the bomb at the church as we were expecting to see a large hole. The church was bombed during WWII on April 9th 1942 at 4:30 PM. There were 300 parishioners in the church when a bomb hit the ceiling of the church and came falling down to the church floor. Surprisingly the bomb did not go off and no one was hurt. It was a miracle. Today the hole in the ceiling has been repaired and there is a replica of the bomb inside the church. The original bomb was rolled out of the church onto the street.

Mdina, the silent city, was amazing. It is a small city with four large walls and only 3 entrances in to the city. The whole city is about 0.8 miles long. We walked from to the far end of the city to Basition Square. Just before we were about to see a beautiful view an old man said hello to us. Being the "talk to strangers" Americans we are we said hello back. He then asked us to sit with him and look at his book. Alison sat down and Danielle stayed standing. His book was interesting he told us he was a soldier and pointed to a magazine clipping in his book that he told us was him. He pointed to another clipping and told us that was his daughter. He had many stories and asked us to sign his book. So we followed the other pages in the book and drew the flag from the country we were from, and then wrote a short note. He had flags from all over the world drawn by people - he supplied the crayons. He was cute and creepy at the same time. We continued to our magnificent view and took several pictures of the northern part of the island (check out the almost 180 panoramic.) We then walked around the little city looking for a restaurant to eat at. There were only 3, 1 was closed for another 30 minutes, one had no Danielle food, so that left just one that we could eat at. The food was ok, not our best meal on the island or best service. Since it is festa season (more on this in a moment), we tried a traditional dessert called a pastizzi. It is basically a ricotta filled pastry. We then asked the wait staff if Mdina celebrated their festa last night, and she said no tonight at 8. We decided to stay in the city to experience a festa. Festas are town events held over three days to celebrate the patron saint of that town. When we went into the restaurant there was only a handful of people on the street, when we went back out on the street after eating it was packed. Tonight was the celebration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The "parade" was interesting, it was lead by the clergy of the church, including the cardinal, followed by a brass band and then the children's choir. Finally the reason for this whole celebration the statue of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. 8 volunteers from the church were carrying a large statute of the saint, They were taking her to the Cathedral in Mdina and then back to her church. About every 10 feet the men would take a break. This was accomplished by one of the men walking beside the statue knocking on the platform. Then 4 men who were walking beside her would put up braces for the platform to rest on. To begin movement again someone would knock on the platform and the 8 men would pick her up. It was interesting but slow. We watched as the statue passed us and took many pictures and then headed to the bus to get back to our hotel.

While on the bus we realized that one of the two people in front of us was from the States. We began asking them questions. The other person was from Brussels, Belgium. Both live on Malta and have for several years. The girl from the states is 1/2 American and 1/2 Maltese, but does not speak any Maltese. The other person is a guy who has lived here for 5 years and teaches English in one of the many English schools on the island. Actually that is what they both do for work, teach English to people of other countries, mainly European. Anyway, we had a nice conversation. We asked many questions about Malta and they asked us some about American. It was fun to compare and see both similarities and differences. We made it to Valletta, the capital of Malta and headed toward another bus in order to get back to the hotel. The man we had been talking to was also going to that bus so we followed him. It turns out so was the girl. Anyway, we continued our conversation for a while until the bus was so full that it was no longer an option. We passed through several other towns that are also having their Festas. The churches in these towns are lit up like Christmas trees and can be seen from miles around. It was beautiful to drive through them and see them all lit up. It turns out one is quite close to the hotel. Luckily, Danielle has eagle eyes and spied exactly where we needed to get off and rang the bell just in time for us to get off at the perfect spot. We walked back to our hotel and looked off of the balcony to see if there were any fireworks to be seen tonight. Unfortunately, not tonight so we retreated to our room to veg out and get some sleep! Ciao!


Malta fun facts - on the diagonal Malta is approximately 42 miles long, East to West the country is 22.6 miles wide.

Day 5 - Malta

As we write this we are sitting on our Balcony watching fireworks shows from three Festas or religious festivals. Sounds great right? Not so much. We woke up and packed our things for the time share that Alison's parents so generously gave us as our wedding gift. (Mom and Dad I am not being rude, I am being honest.) Anyway, we got there with our things but knew that we could not check in until 5pm so we asked to place our things in the luggage room in order to go out and see some more of Malta. After asking some questions like where to get the bus (the only public transport in Malta) and how to get around we began walking down the hill toward the bus stop. However we chose to bypass the closest bus stop and see what we could find, and look for a map of the island as well as of the bus routes. We happened upon Ye Olde Ink Shop...We are not kidding you that was the name of this place. It was a kind of convenience store, with no snacks and they were an authorized HP dealer...kind of strange really. Anyway, we asked the sales woman if she had a map and how is it that we get around this place. She was very very nice. She not only held the map for us when we didn't have any money (Alison left her wallet in the other bag and had to hike up the hill to get it), but she also drew us a map and gave us detailed directions to the Hard Rock Cafe. This has become a bit of a mission at this point. When we discovered they had one here we decided to find it. We followed her directions and happily headed on our way. We got to The Hard Rock and had a great lunch. The Hard Rock is located in Paceville however it is pronounced pa-ch-a-ville....we find this funny. Then we walked up a hill to the Radisson Hotel, where we borrowed internet. We will not say steal because well we didn't. Danielle's work account allows her to log onto certain networks like hotels that have wireless, so that is what we did. We spent quite a while there updating this blog so that we could connect with you all who are reading it. We learned the hotel trick from Heidi, as she showed us that you can walk into any hotel and use their bathroom as long as you walk with confidence, as if you are staying there. Then we began our journey back to our hotel. We were able to experience the busses in Malta for the first time and let me tell you....they are an adventure. We weren't really sure of what stop to get off as the stop that we got on at was much further away than we knew we wanted to be, so we guessed at where to get off. We weren't right because the bus past us going the other way before we got to where we wanted to go. Oh well...its an adventure.

Anyway, we got back to to hotel and were so ready to check in and drop our stuff and hop in the pool. We tried to check in right at 5 but we had to wait for 20 minutes for them to check the room. Finally we got our key and headed toward the room. The lifts and the hallways were beautiful. We walked in to the room and it seemed to be ok. We began walking around and discovered that it really was not. Lets start with the air conditioning. There wasn't any. Today it was well into the 90's and there was no air conditioning. There were AC units, but the switches they were on were not turned on. When we jumped up to turn them on (they were near the ceiling), against the strict sign near the switch, the power would come on, but it would not turn on the unit, just open and close the flap. We called the front desk and it took 45 minutes to an hour to have some one come up and fix it and that was only after Danielle went to get a phone book and ask about it that they sent someone. Also, that pool we wanted to hop into, it closes as 5pm too, so we could not go swimming. So we decide we are going to call the resort place and see if there is anything that they can do for us. Unfortunately all they can do is to refund the money and Alison's parents week but they can't find us a better hotel. So we began looking. As I said, Danielle tried to find a phone book, when she asked the girl at the front desk she had no idea what that was. Danielle had to explain what that was to the girl at the front desk and she told Danielle that only homes have those. She asked Danielle why she wanted it and Danielle explained that she needed to find other hotel numbers. The girl said, Oh you are not happy here? Danielle said no and explained why. The girl said there was nothing she could do about any of it but the air conditioning. While Danielle was down stairs Alison began to look around. Here are all the things that we found that are not good in our room:

1. The bathroom has holes in the wall where the toilet used to be but was moved with no attempt to cover them.
2. There is no shower curtain.
3. The bathroom mirror is being held up with duct tape.
4. The bedspreads are a flower print from the eighties (in itself not that big of a deal) and are so old that they are a dingy brown.
5. There is someone elses hair on the floor.
6. There is mold under the soap dish in the shower.
7. The bathtub has brown stains all over it.

Also at this hotel in order to use the remote control for the ancient TV (again not a problem all by itself) you have to pay 3Lm (lira Malta) which is equivalent to just over 10 US Dollars for the week. Also, to get an extra towel you need to pay .50lm or almost 2 US Dollars. We were appalled. Both Alison's parents and Alison have stayed at the resorts that are held by their time shares. This is the first time that any of us have been remotely disappointed. The good news is that we found another hotel on the Island for the rest of the week, which is an amazing feat because it is Holiday season. But we found one recommended by the book that we got out of the library and with ALOT of help from Laura and Danielle's parents. Laura is currently staying at the house keeping our animals safe and was looking for hotel numbers on the internet for us for the better part of her afternoon. We couldn't find any alternate accommodations for tonight, so we will suck it up for tonight. However we did find a room starting tomorrow. The man at the desk who gave us directions to the hotel told us, Just before the Turkish Ka-Bob, you can't miss it. What a landmark huh?

After we fixed the hotel problem we decided we needed food (it was about 8pm here) so we headed down the road for some exploring. We found a Pizza place, a Chinese food place and a sports bar. We settled on Pizza. It was a good thing too. We had great food (with plenty left over for breakfast) and we met nice people. The glass that Alison drank out of had the name of a local beer on it and since that is something we wanted to bring home (glasses to have and use at home) we asked if we could by the glass. Not only did we end up with two glasses from two different local beers, but they gave them to us. Anyway, we hiked up the hill back to the resort and now we are still watching the fireworks...about 30 minutes of writing. If you don't hear from us, the Cockroaches might have taken us away!

Interesting Malta notes:
Four wheelers can drive on the road with regular vehicles. It seems that the only modifications that are made to the four wheelers are blinkers. Not that they are always used effectively. For example,non-effective light use seems to be ok in Europe though as we saw a man hang out of an ambulance that had its lights on to indicate to traffic which way it was turning.

Also we noticed this yesterday but forgot to write about it. "Humped zebra crossing" sign - what do you think it could mean? Alison was looking for some new animal that she has never heard of, who crossed a camel with a zebra? What we have figured out is that a humped zebra crossing is a speed bump with lines, just a regular zebra crossing sign is a painted crosswalk.

Italian Food - update

Pizza - no idea, we skipped it, it looked funny: square with odd toppings.
Lasagna - veggie lasagna was excellent, cream sauce not a red
Gelato - same as in America
Cannolli - ah hear is the problem, Cannolli is not really an Italian food, but a Sicilian food. We had a very difficult time finding them in Rome. It became a mission. On the last night we finally succeeded. Here they use ricotta cheese instead of marcscapone cheese. Also there is candied fruit, ala cherry, on the edge. No chocolate chips or nuts.

Latte - is just warm or cold milk, Alison says yucky milk. Order a caffe latte if you are looking for the American latte.

Day 4 - Malta

Travel day. There are no pictures but we had a nice day. So we got up EARLY and headed to the airport. We got there in plenty of time and headed to the gate. We had another Italian breakfast with Cappuccino and pastries and got on our plane. On the plane they fed us breakfast (on a 1 hour and 25 minute flight), we were surprised by it. We then asked the woman who was sitting next to us if she spoken any English. Of course with our luck, the answer was no, but we had a fantastic conversation with her using body language as well as a map of Malta and Italy and the phrase book we have in Italian. It was so amazing to see how universal body language is. Once in Malta we landed at the smallest airport ever. It has no jet ways. You get off the plane and take a bus to a building that could be any building and inside is all of the typical airport stuff, just not very big. We went through the passport control and customs and then found our driver, Joey. He was very nice. He was born in Malta and has only left once to go to England at one time a long time ago. Once at the hotel (this one is only for tonight, tomorrow we head to the time share resort.) we had to wait well over an hour for our room to be ready, which stunk because all we wanted to do was change and go swimming. Finally they let us into our room. We did change and checked out the pool but directly across the street was the Mediterranean Sea...so we decided to eat at a small restaurant and head to the pubic gardens which allows swimming. We swam in the Mediterranean. It is warm, very warm with no waves. The area we swam in had some litter in it but I think that is because it is a bay. Then we headed up to the rooftop hotel pool and read and hung out for a bit. We went back to our room, showered and headed to dinner. We ate at The Kitchen (a restaurant not the kitchen here). The food was fantastic and although we had been warned that it would be difficult for Danielle to find food, we have found plenty of vegetarian options (at least this far). Tomorrow we will head to the resort and have them hold our bags. Then we will explore up in that area and figure our the rest of the plan. For now, Ciao!

Day 3 - Rome

Day 3: Roaming Rome
We went pretty much everywhere... so here goes.

Ok.... first I am an ignorant American. I ordered a latte at breakfast, what I got was milk. Yucky milk at that. So I realized that what I wanted was Cafe Latte...but I got Cappuccino because Cafe Latte is tiny....and I wanted more. It was very yummy once I got something that I was looking for!

Our first stop after breakfast was the Spanish steps. There are 136 steps from bottom to top and at the top is a church, at the bottom a fountain. We got there and were at the top, so we didn't get our workout from the steps two days in a row, but trust me....we got a work out during the day.

Here we go!

Next we came across a farmer's market in a Piazza so we looked at the fruit and got some strawberries (fragola). We used our free water from the fountains to rinse them because they still had dirt on them from being picked. We walked to Trevi Fountain and found a shady spot to eat them. The tradition in Rome is that you throw a coin over your left shoulder to guarantee your return to Rome someday. So, we ate, took photos and threw coins. We happened back that way later in the day and it was absolutely jam packed...go early it isn't as bad. Also while at the fountain we saw a man with wand, like a magnetic wand reaching into the fountain and stealing people's money...so we made sure to throw our coin in the fountain really far so that he couldn't steal it later. We also found several small streets near the fountain that are not often traveled by the tourists. It was nice, it was quiet and it was calm. These are the streets we were expecting to see in Rome. We happened upon what we thought was a small wooden toy store, but it turned out to also be in the airport...so not so small. We also happened upon an interesting pair of boxers. The shorts were of Michelangelo's David, but only the part the would in the shorts, minus the fig leaf. Anyway, outside sitting on the bench was a wooden Pinocchio, so Danielle took Alison's picture with him, both from the front and profile. Alison may have a Riggs nose...but he can really do the big nose salute. After the store, we headed to the Pantheon. Did you know that it was church...like a current working church? We had no idea. To be brutally honest, I had no idea what it was, I certainly knew what it looked like on the outside...but had no real idea what was going on inside. Also, it is totally lit by natural light, from a big ole' hole in the roof. It is crazy. Also it is crazy that it has been there for thousands of years...how did they get it there? Also...in the square around the Pantheon is a McDonalds, with seating Al Fresco (outside) as if it was a real restaurant.

After The Pantheon, we walked to the Trastervere Section of the City. Our waitress from the Hard Rock Cafe had told us about Meo Patacca restaurant. She said it was fun and they had a show during dinner. We headed out during lunch. We had to walk across the river (which has an enormous amount of trash in it....it was GROSS) and then had to ask people in Italian where exactly we were going. It was fun....and I finally used some of the Italian that I learned on the CD's. I was nervous about it before that, but I just jumped in and after an older Italian woman told us that she didn't speak any English...we did our best to ask her and her husband how to get to Meo Pattaca. After she repeatedly yelled CHIN EE MAAA (Cinema) and gestured to take a right after the Cinema, we parted and followed their directions. We actually had to ask two other groups to help, but it was fun. We arrived at Meo Pattaca at 12:30, unfortunately they don't open until 19:30 or 7:30....we were early. So we took photos of our small victory. At least we got there and used our Italian. We walked back to the Pantheon and found a place to eat lunch.

Pretty typical Roman lunch. However, after we ordered our Bruschetta (we kind of made ourselves the unofficial Bruschetta tasters), Danielle asked where the toilet was. Unfortunately the waitress only heard her say toilet and thought that she had ordered the toilet. Then at our expense, thinking that we didn't understand them, she told all of the other wait staff. Oh well it was funny. Lunch was yummy. Danielle had veggie lasagna and Alison had a caprese salad. I am used to having the tomato and mozzarella mixed together with some olive oil and salt and pepper and basil. I just cut it up and put it together the way that I wanted it...it worked. We also learned that rochella=rocket=arrugula. Some how the translation didn't work...but it is printed everywhere...even in the book that we have on Malta.

After lunch we went shopping on Via Del Corso. Italian shopping and Saldi season. Saldi=sale. Although it is still outrageously expensive. We had fun in a bookstore looking at all of our favorite books and their different covers. We also found a store somewhat like Spencers with some very interesting pen holders. We saw a postcard with a cat on the big foot. Danielle wanted to find the big foot so we sent off on another trek across the city. On our trek we came across the Italian Tomb of the unknown soldier. Just behind that we were outside of ancient ruins that just kind of appeared. They were the ruins of the Church of St. Rita. Then we walked around the National Museum outside and the bookstore, so that we could find the BIG FOOT that we have seen in so many pictures. However, the foot is inside...and we didn't want to pay admission to a museum for one piece. We did follow a walk way down and ended up on the back side of Ancient Rome from where we were on Tuesday. It was fun to see it from above. It is certainly very interesting that these ruins have been here for so long and that people like Julius Cesear and Marc Anthony walked and lived there. After that we ended up with our feet in a fountain for a few to cool off. It was nice and cool and very fun.

After the ruins, we headed toward Hard Rock again. Don't worry we aren't that lame. We just forgot a coupon to get our free souvenir the day before, so we walked there to get it using our receipt. Then we walked a bit further up the street to Villa Borghese. This is like the Roman Central park. It was beautiful. We saw a lake with ducks and swans and turtles in it, ok so that sounds lame...but in the middle of this very dirty city it was somewhat amazing to us. We also ran into a man with 5 dogs who were all very cute. They seemed to be all mutts but each showed parts of some breeds that we knew.

We walked by another fountain in the park and spent yet some more time with our feet in the water. We also saw a man come up and draw part of the fountain and he was incredible as was his art and he drew his picture with only a bic pen. After the park we were heading toward our hotel and ran across a Ferrari and Masserati dealership as well as a Harley Store and dealership. It is interesting here because all of the dealerships and garages are part of a block and inside not outside. So at home where you would drive onto the lot, here you walk into an air conditioned room and order your car and not see it before hand.

So we finally made it back to our room. We dropped off our things and headed down to dinner. There were 3 restaurants just outside the hotel so on the first night we ate across the street. Tonight we went to the one right next door. It turns out they have a nice coupon sitting right under their menu that you can read on the street, so I grabbed one...and they let us use it. We also met a boy from Russia. He had been spending one day here and there throughout Italy before he ended up going to a conference in Rome on Architecture. It was interesting because he had never heard of Saint Peters or the Vatican and we told him to go there if not for the spritual place, just for the architecture. He ordered anti pasta from the menu because it said pasta, he expected spaghetti and got Salami and Ham with cheese on a plate. Oh by the way this restaurant ended up winning the Bruschetta contest because it was by far the best and it was free. Also....a free shot at the end of dinner. It tasted somewhat like a lemon drop, but I think that it was limoncello which is a lemon flavored liquor. They had canoli in the menu, but we learned that they don't always have them because they are not an all over Italy food. They are Sicilian. On the mainland they are actually called Canoli Siciliano. The owner of the restaurant was able to tell us where to get one though. We went "sans mappa" thats Italian for without map (ok that's Alison's Italian for without map :) ). We ordered our two canolies porta via (to go). Then it was back to our room to pack for Malta. The canoli lived up to our expectation and used ricotta cheese instead of marscapone cheese....tomorrow we will be spending some time submersed in water. OUr hope is to be swimming by the time you all wake up.

Day 2 - Rome

Late start. Needless to say we were tired....very tired. Our room is near the stair case for the breakfast room so we heard everyone going up or looking for it. Also the people who are staying in the next room must have left Rome today because they were partying it up last night and the housekeeper was in their room right at 10 this morning. Anyway when the alarm went off at 7:20 we couldn't drag ourselves out of bed....so we didn't. We ended up sleeping until about 9:30 because here they have shutters on the window so the room stayed very dark and allowed us to sleep late. Anyway, we got up and got ready. Alison went up to the breakfast room and got us breakfast that we ate on our balcony. There is no beautiful view from the balcony, it looks out onto the center of the building which apparently is also part apartment building because we can see some tenants laundry hanging out.

After breakfast we headed to Vaticani or the Vatican City. We thought that our first stop would be the Vatican museums to see the Sistene Chapel, however that line was LONG (more on how long later). So we continued walking and went to Piazza di St. Pietro....St. Peter's Square and into St. Peter's Basilica. Guess what...two lesbians can walk into the Basilica and it doesn't fall down! Also the warnings about what is ok and is not ok to wear, were true. They were turning people away who had on short shorts or were showing shoulders (men and women). We knew this so we both had on linen shirts over our tank tops, which was perfectly acceptable.

The Basilica was absolutely gorgeous. There were several different things to look at. At first, there was the Pieta, that we looked at and admired but because there were so many people, we couldn't get close enough to read what it was. After talking to Starr (Alison's mom) we figured out that we needed to go and take a picture of it now that we knew what it was. We also called Gary (Danielle's Dad) to tell him where we were. When he relayed it to Cindy (Danielle's Mom) all he managed to tell her was that all of the TV's in Vatican city are Panasonics. (For those of you who don't know Danielle's parents own a television and appliance store and sell Panasonic electronics.) Anyway, after the Basilica we got in line for the Tombs of the Pope. This was interesting and a little strange. The strange part is not that you are walking through a museum of dead Pontifs Maxiumus'(the Pope's Latin Title) but really that it is essentially a museum to see a bunch of dead guys. There is minimal history on each of the Popes and there are so many people that even stopping to see them causes a bit of a ruckus. We also found it strange as to how the tombs are set up. Because you would think that it is set up in a chronological way....but no. John Paul II, who died in 2005, is buried about 1/2 way through. Where as St. Peter is right in the middle. There are these beautiful steps in the middle of the Basilica that we took pictures of and wondered where they went....they lead to his tomb. I understand putting him in the middle but how do they determine where others go. Also....was St. Peter cremated because his tomb is a tiny little box. There are some others who are little as well, but they are much older and we are guessing that they were just short people because for a long time the average height was only 4'6" like I wrote yesterday. We also wondered how they determined what kind of tomb the popes received. Some had beautiful crypts, others had whole rooms, like St. Peter and John Paul II, and then there were some that were tucked in a marble box in the corner. Anyway, after the Tombs we stood in a long hot line for the Cuppola, which at first we didn't know what it was, but after reading the sign that warns you that after the elevator there are 320 steps, we figured that it was the top of the Basilica. Since we are active young women, we decided to forgo the elevator and save ourselves about $6 and take the stairs. It only added 231 stairs to our journey. They also turned out to be long flat deep steps that didn't really feel like steps more like a long hill. It didn't save us any time either because there were many people we had been in line with that got to the rest of the stairs at the same time we did. Anyway, we began climbing steps and our first stop was inside the Basilica dome. Up close to the artwork...it was amazing. Worth the price of admission by far. We took a few photos and then continued to climb the stairs. These were the hardest ones. They were LONG and very small and also in some spots they spiraled for a VERY long time. It became dizzying at times to look up and walk. Also because we were in the dome some of the walls curved in toward us...kind of creepy. Finally however we made it to the top.....the very top of the dome, where we could go out and look at all of Rome from above. It was beautiful and we have some great pictures to show as well. We hiked down to where the wimpy people took the elevator and found some fountains as well as a souvenir shop and refreshment stand with ice cream and soda. We walked around and looked at the souvenirs and then began our journey back down. This too was the long hill only going down...a bit scary.

We reached the bottom and went to take the picture of Pieta for Mom, now that we knew what it was.

We left St. Peter's square and headed to the Vatican Museums. Those Pontiff's are smart. They know that many people only want to see the Sistine Chapel....so they use the museum as a way to queue the guests. So earlier I told you that the line was LONG. It is so long that it covered two city blocks along the edge of Vatican city walls. When we got out there to go to the Museum we were ecstatic to see how short the line was and then we began walking toward the entrance. We were walking and walking and walking and walking and feeling very bad for the people who actually waited in that line, because we did not. We walked into the museum and got out tickets and began following the signs for the Sistine chapel. It is good and bad that they snake you through the museum to get there because you see tons of great art that is very cool.....but because the signs for them are in Italian and because again there are so many people, by the time you get to the Sistine Chapel you almost feel like once you have seen one painted ceiling....you've seen them all. Except that when you walk in there, it is amazing. There are no photos to show because you are not allowed to take photos. Although some people did, I felt that it was an honor to be able to be in the room never mind to break their rules. It is all that people say that it is and if you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend it. Just go later in the day so as to avoid the lines. We walked right into the museum about an hour before they stopped letting people in and were able to see all of the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel and the Modern Religious Art which was also very cool.

After the Museum we headed toward the Hard Rock Cafe. Yes it sounds like a crazy thing to do....but in Rome the restaurants close from 3-7pm after lunch and before dinner. Last night because of our long nap that we took, we ate a very late dinner. We knew that if we came back to the room before going to dinner, this would most likely happen again, so to avoid it, we ate some American food and headed to the hotel. We also got some souvenir glasses to add to our collection. We took the Metro back to the main station...Statzione Termini and walked the 4 or so blocks back to the hotel. Hopefully tonight we get a better nights sleep and get up at a more normal time.

Tomorrow: Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon.

Day 1 Rome

Took a train from the airport to the main train/bus terminal, equivalent of Grand Central Station but smaller. Then we walked about 5 minutes to our hotel, Hotel Corallo. We got on the smallest elevator. It would only fit Alison, myself and one piece of luggage. The hotel bellhop had to come up separately with Alison's bag. It was tight!

After a shower and viewing our small room and very interesting shower, We then walked about 15 minutes to the Colosseum. We were in city, city, city and then all of sudden there was the colosseum. We elected to take a guided tour through the colosseum and palatino. We entered the colosseum through the entrance that the VIPs and emperors would have. The tour person inside the collesseum lacked some originality and story telling skills. We did learn that the collesseum we see today is about 1/3 of the original. The marble was "recycled" for other buildings, read the Vatican here. The floor of the colosseum was impressive as you could see all of the rooms that the trap doors led to. We had no idea what the palatino was until the tour. It is essentially the palace and village that Romulus built. We saw an ancient bathroom, with gutter and basin. We learned how the saying "Wrong end of the stick" came about. Apparently the Romans were very advanced and had a sponge on the end of a stick instead of toilet paper. Since there was no electricity unexpecting people would attempt to use a stick that the sponge had fallen off of. Ouch! And there was born the saying "Wrong end of the stick" or "short end of the stick". The tour guide inside the Palatino had many more stories like this one. He also told us that there are several fountains around the city where water just runs out of them. They are somewhat like small thin fire hydrants. This water is fresh spring water that is brought into the city from a spring that is 16 km outside the city, but the Ancient Romans built a faraway aqueduct thinking that the ones near and inside the city would get destroyed. They were right....and now they have fresh spring water in many parts of the city. Unfortunately the tour guide told us this right after we had thrown out a bottle because we finished the water....but we got smart and won't buy anymore water...since we have one of these fountains right near our hotel! We learned that the Romans were short people (average height of 4'6") as the doors leading around the palace ruins were very small. We walked through the ancient Rodeo Drive. We also learned that salt (spelled sales in Italian) was a currency here in ancient Rome. That was why the wives were happy when the husbands recieved their salary (coming from the word sales for salt). So that they could go spend it. This is where the modern English word sales comes from because the stores would print sales on the window telling people that salt was an acceptable currency. Apparently it stuck....just the sale, not the salt.

After an exhausting day we walked back to our hotel and accidentally took a 3.5 hour nap. We woke up and had our first Italian meal. Scrumptious! Danielle had penne aribata and Alison had spaghetti with mushrooms and shrimp.

Oh we have already ruled out renting scooters and driving around like maniacs....at least in Rome. They are CRAZY already...we don't need to add to it! The first time we saw them at a light and they took off it was like they were off to the races. It was scary. They also are not nice drivers. They are always honking at people who get remotely in their way!

Tomorrow: Vatican City

Finally Internet

We are currently in Malta and sitting in a Radisson hotel "borrowing" internet. Here comes all our posts....

Italian food - yummy!

Most people know that Chinese food here in America is much different then what you would get in China. We are wondering how has our favorite Italian food been "Americanized"? TJ informed us that pizza in Italy is not worth it. Was this just drunk TJ talking or is he correct? We plan on sampling some of our Italian favorites; pizza, lasagna, gelato and cannolli. Check back to see how our food review goes.

If you have any Italian food you are curious about drop us a comment.

Malta?

When people ask us where we are going on our trip they have heard of Rome, Italy and most have heard of Santorini, Greece; however Malta we get the 'where is that? '. We wondered that ourselves when we stumbled across the little country in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily. I do not recall any geography lesson that had anything between Sicily and Africa.....

My favorite quote about Malta right now is this
"The only thing I know about Malta is that is where everyone on Guiding Light went on vacation."