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March 25, 2004

The Road To Rome

I have completely neglected to mention that Cheryl (my first nanny) is here for a three week visit! It has been great having her back, we really missed her. She is doing well in the States though, working hard and going to school fulltime for medical technician.

We had an unbelievably wicked 24 hour virus rip through our house last week. The baby barfed in my bed on Tuesday, Eli was down for the count on Wednesday and Jake and I moulded the couch on Thursday. I had a parent-teacher conference with Eli's teacher on Wednesday, where the teacher casually mentioned that the girl that shares a table with Eli, tossed her cookies all over the desk on Monday (ummm, that might have been something you should have shared with the parents of the other kids at that table, no?).

So anyway, a trip to Rome had been in the works for quite some time for Cheryl. It wouldn't be any fun if it went off without a hitch, huh? As sick as we all were, the trip had already been locked in place for Friday. So after spending all day (and I do really mean ALL DAY) puking, we got in the car on Friday and drove to Naples. This is the same drive I did back in October and it really isn't a bad drive. The countryside is just gorgeous. We left two hours late due to the fact that I had to PACK that morning because I couldn't do it the day before as I had planned (ah the best laid plans of mice and men). Cheryl brought the boys a portable DVD player from the States that made the trip go quickly for them. I am very lucky to have kids that travel well even without that.

I didn't stay at the military campground this time though. I decided to stay at the <a href="http://www.navy-lodge.com/overseas/italy/naples.html">Navy Lodge in Naples</a>. We carefully followed the directions and got severely lost. We called Monica at the front desk five times for directions. Poor Monica. We finally found it two hours later after being in the car for 10 hours to find that the Navy Lodge has a TGIFridays in the lobby. SCORE! We sat down and ordered a meal and before it could be served, Cheryl announced that she feels sick. Yes, this is my life. Although I do sometimes wish that it was less interesting hahahahahaha. We all promptly decide that the restaurant is too wildly overstimulating and take our food back to the room where no one is able to eat it anyway.

The next morning, we woke up to find, happily, that everyone feels okay (not great) and well enough to go to Rome as planned. We drive the 2 1/2 hours into Rome and ... get severely lost. The tour we were going to take was scheduled for 1:30 pm and I had built in 'got lost' time so we ended up calling the <a href="http://www.uso.org/rome/">USO in Rome</a> about five times to help straighten us out. By the time we found it, the tour was leaving in 15 minutes. No problem, although we are starving at this point, so Cheryl hopped out and got pizza for us while we waited in the middle of the road (totally normal and acceptable practice in Italy). We decide to call the USO one more time to let them know that we are seconds away from arriving, please hold the bus. The nice lady says "oh the tour just left - they had to leave a bit early because of <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18184">the peace demonstrations</a> that were planned along the tour route". WHAT?!! (insert all manner of bad words). In all the four other phone calls, was there no time to mention this wee bit important tidbit? We decide at this point that we are now just going to walk around and take our time.

We actually had a nice time - <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Rome-20-March-2004&page=1">the pictures are in my photo gallery</a> because there were too many to put on the blog entry. We were wowed by <a href="http://www.twenj.com/rometour1-3.htm">St. Peter's Basilica</a> and the <a href="http://www.romeguide.it/MONUM/STORICI/castel/castel_eng.htm">Castel St Angelo</a>. We tried damn hard to get down to the Colliseum but every single route was blocked off by the police due to the demonstration. I felt bad for Cheryl but at least I know that WE will be going back. Next time we go, we will stay right in Rome itself and we will FLY.

On Sunday we went to Pompeii. <a href="http://debcodding.com/blog/archives/000056.html">I have already been there once</a> but only got to see a tiny fraction because Jake wasn't feeling well then. Once again, that place is AMAZING! We went into a different entrance and saw so much more this time. <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Pompeii-part-two-21-March-2004&page=1">The pictures to that are also in the photo gallery</a>. Don't forget to look at the <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Pompeii-Oct-2003">first Pompeii trip photos</a> in case you haven't seen them. I was very organized the first time and titled all the pictures. This time, I still don't have much energy, so the pictures are just pictures.

We ended up leaving Pompeii two hours later than I had wanted to but we made amazing time down to the tip of the boot (I am sure I broke some major laws). I somehow missed the turn to get onto the ferry that takes you back over to Sicily and ended up getting lost in Regio-Calabria. I had been freaking out the whole way down to the ferry because I suddenly couldn't remember if the ferry had different hours on Sundays. I finally found *a* ferry but it definitely wasn't the one I have used before. It was about 7pm when we found it and the guy at the bar there (bars here refer to little fastfood type places) told me in Italian that the next ferry leaves at diece ora (ten pm). Ugh. This will put us home around one am. Did I mention that we had to get up at 6am on Monday for work and school? Oh and did I also mention that Eli had a major school assessment test on Monday morning?

It wasn't pretty but we survived it although it has literally taken us all week to feel normal again. And to make the whole event complete, Eleonora, our nanny, came down with the virus yesterday and today.

When you look at the pictures in the <a href="http://debcodding.com/gallery">photo gallery</a>, click on the individual pictures to see the normal size picture. When you do this, you will also be able to leave a comment if you want to (please do!).

Posted by DebC at March 25, 2004 02:03 PM

Comments

Posted by: HRC at March 25, 2004 02:22 PM