September 19-20, 2008 – Bermuda, London, Rome

After dinner at the airport and a relaxing wait in the lounge, we boarded BA for London. We commented to each other how nice it was to fly on a larger plane. We settled in for the night to a movie (Kung Fu Panda for Aidan and the Helen Hunt/Colin Firth movie for me). Dinner wasn’t as good as it could have been but since we ate before hand it wasn’t that bad. Thankfully we did sleep for a few hours because before you knew it we were landing in London. Since we landed at 6.20am and our flight to Rome was at 8pm, we were able to rest a bit and pick up some stuff at Boots. The Rome flight was packed. We left late due to the fog at the airport earlier, which had delayed everything by about 40 minutes. We ate cheese sandwiches and ended up napping until we landed. The airport was a madhouse. We managed to get our bags easily though because the baggage claim area was timed – it told us when the bags would be loaded onto the carousel and when it would stop. And you know what, that’s exactly how it happened. Finding an ATM and our driver was more difficult. Eventually we were loaded into our private car and headed into Rome.The drive in was crazy because the drivers were… well, crazy. There were many times when we were surprised that we weren’t hit by other drivers. Even in the midst of this we enjoyed the mix of eclectic architecture and old ruins as we neared the city. And then we entered Rome and were not disappointed by what we saw. Perhaps the most amazing site was the Colosseum. It was breathtaking as we approached and drove past it. We decided then that we must visit it in person!Our hotel is located in a small residential area. We have a spacious room by European standards. We freshened up before catching a taxi to Vatican City. Our tour was to begin on the steps outside of the Vatican Museum. I grabbed us some lunch while Aidan waited in line to check us in. Our guide was an Italian historian who had a passion for Michelangelo and Raphael. He took us through the Vatican Museum and gave us detailed descriptions of many of the frescos and artifacts. We were really impressed by Raphael’s frescos in the Papal apartments. We got to the Sistine Chapel about 2 hours into the tour. Talk about blown away! We sat in a corner and just marveled at the magnitude of what Michelangelo created. We then went to St. Peter’s Basilica. I don’t even have words for the beauty and artistry of the place. We wandered in awe and witnessed a portion of the mass. We didn’t stay long as we wanted to send some post cards from Vatican City before heading back to the hotel.We dined at a little restaurant around the corner from our hotel. We started with fresh made pasta – I had spaghetti and Aidan had lasagna – and it was unlike anything we’ve had before. Aidan then had roast chicken and potatoes and I had scaloppini in wine sauce. We didn’t stay out long as the last few days caught up with us. I think we were asleep by 9.30pm.