Entry for Monday, March 7, 2016, at Rome, Italy

Carla dropped Lyle and me off at Los Angeles International Airport just before noon on Saturday, March 5, 2016. From there we flew Norwegian Air to Rome, Italy. We changed planes in Copenhagen, Denmark. On both flights we had reserved seats–31A, a window seat for Lyle, and 31C, an aisle seat for me. That left us with seat 31B between us for the first leg of the flight to Copenhagen. No one sat there, so we had the row to ourselves. This scheme did not work on the flight’s last leg to Rome, because the airline filled every seat. But our traveling companion was a young man from Florida who had been in an MBA competition in Copenhagen with a team from the University of South Carolina. They had just finished competing and he was taking some time off to see Rome – like us, his first trip to Europe.

The section of the Copenhagen airport where we deplaned was lovely, with hardwood-appearing floors. We went through customs, getting a Copenhagen stamp on our passports. Beyond the terminals, the airport opened to a huge, modern shopping area, but we didn’t shop or eat there. We had a short wait before reboarding in an older terminal.

On the trip, I got through the first half of Marcia Clark’s book Beyond a Doubt that Jacque Riggs gave me – pretty interesting, and I had personally dealt with many of the lawyers mentioned in it during my time in the district attorney’s office.

Between our arriving and departing terminals was quite a walk. When we arrived at Gate A8, I couldn’t find the book in my bag so I decided to return to the C gate to see if the book was still in the plane. Fortunately on the way there, I checked with a vendor for the correct time and discovered that the time on my cellphone was an hour off and that I would have missed my flight to Rome if I had gone back all the way to the C gate. Returning to the A gate, I found the book in my bag after all.

Knowing that my old Palm Treo would not be of any use in Europe, Verizon “upgraded” me to a basic LG Terra that they said would work in Europe. It didn’t; it just kept “searching for service” throughout our whole trip. Lyle had somewhat better luck with his Verizon Samsung; he could at least receive calls on it but could only call Carla and his work, oddly enough.

Our flight touched down at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Rome airport in Fuimicino, Italy. We were eventually met there by our driver Marino, a short stocky man. He took us to the Hotel Golden in Rome, driving an older Lincoln, which was probably the largest car we saw while we were in Rome. He did not speak English but drove us through some historic areas with sites that he identified for us, including the Roman forum and aqueduct and Trajan’s Column. Marino was a fearless driver, coming within inches of tour buses and other vehicles. Narrow streets teemed with shoppers and tourists.

The small hotel was just part of a building with an old elevator that we could use to bring up our bags. Our room 104 was not large but was fine for us. We were met by Marco, one of the family members who run the hotel. Fluent in English, he gave us a city map and pointed out how to get to the sites we wanted to visit, and he suggested some local restaurants.

Lyle and I went for a walk. It was chilly outside and a light rain started, so we went back for my rain jacket, and then went out for pizza at nearby Pizzeria San Marco, one of Marco’s recommendations. I tried an anchovy pizza because I’d never had that topping before. It also had spinach and artichoke, with mozzarella cheese. It was good, but I doubt I’ll order the anchovies again.

Exploring further we found the Come il Latte gelateria. I went for a cone combining white chocolate and orange flavors. Lyle had a cup of mixed flavors. The gelato was tasty and refreshing. It was just after 7:00 when we got back to the hotel.

I did some Duolingo language study, and we went to bed early. We both slept okay but only until about 3 or 3:30 a.m. We got up about 4:30 and showered because, with the time change, we weren’t sleeping longer, even though we hadn’t slept much on the flights.

The hotel included breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and we were the first ones there this morning. It was a lovely buffet that included bacon, sausages, cheeses, fruits, juices, milk, yogurt, breads, pastries, and omelets prepared by the women in the hoteliers’ family. The weather is good for our trip — chilly temperatures, but we have beautiful clouds and plenty of greenery.

Entry for Tuesday, March 8, 2016, at Rome, Italy

After breakfast yesterday we left for the Vatican after seeing the Trevi Fountain and Lyle getting “ripped off” at a money exchanger. (I had already exchanged dollars for euros at home.) Workers at the fountain were raking out the coins. We took the Metro subway to the area of the Vatican.

Walking from there, we encountered hawkers all trying to sell us a tour with a no-wait entry ticket. Fortunately for us, Lyle had already purchased reservations so that we could avoid waiting in the huge line for the Vatican museums. But the time for our reservation had not yet arrived, so we got a quick pastry snack at a local bar before making our way into the Vatican.

The artwork in the Vatican was impressive. But the goal seems to be to end up in the Sistine Chapel. For that, they send you through a “long route” where you see the tremendous amount of paintings and statutes. The Sistine Chapel itself is most impressive but probably less so than if you took the “short route” and went there first.

After we exited the Sistine Chapel, I needed a rest from walking through the several museums and rooms. When we found a place to sit down I discovered a zipper open on the storage compartment of my camera case and that the extra camera battery I usually carry was missing. I had also forgotten to bring my camera-battery charger. At the time, my thought was that the battery had fallen out of my case or that a pickpocket – about which tour guide books had issued dire warnings – had unzipped the case and taken the battery. (When we arrived home I discovered that I had left the battery inside the battery charger that I had also forgot to bring. So far as I can tell, that was the closest we had ever gotten to having our pockets picked. I had purchased money belts for us, and I did use mine occasionally when at train stations, bus stations, or airports. Apart from that, we would just use the hotel safes for our passports and amounts of money that were larger than we wanted to carry in our wallets. Anyway, until I was able to purchase a battery charger just before we left Rome, I tried to conserve my battery by taking fewer pictures than I otherwise would have. Lyle made up for it.)

We then retraced some steps back to the Sistine Chapel so that we could take the “short route” to Saint Peter’s Basilica. It’s really big.

Tired, we took the bus back to our hotel neighborhood after visiting a fantasy magic shop we happened upon not far from the Vatican. Resting a bit at the hotel, we then walked to what we thought were the famous Spanish Steps (but weren’t), and climbed them. It’s a shopping area, but we didn’t shop. Instead, we had dinner at Osteria Barberini – a four-and-a-half-star-rated place on Yelp. It was okay. I had a rice dish that was a disappointment and an oxtail dish that was good. Lyle had spaghetti carbonara and then some lamb.

On the way home, we stopped at our gelato place – blueberry for me, with licorice; Lyle had a brownie with gelato.

Today, Tuesday, we got up early and took a taxi to Piazza Republique to meet a tour group at 6:45 a.m. to go to Pompeii. They did not have us on their list; Lyle accidentally booked it for the following week, but they took us anyway. They had three small shuttle buses. About 40 minutes out of Rome, our bus broke down. Fortunately, they were able to order up a replacement.

Our tour leader was Andrea, a nice, young man with some degrees from the big university in Rome – 600,000 students, he said. At Pompeii, he turned us over to Francesca, who was our guide there and in the town of Positano. The Pompeii tour was interesting and the excavations were much more extensive than I had anticipated.

After Pompeii, our group was driven to the beautiful town of Positano on the Amalfi Coast. We received a lesson in Italian driving on the narrow highway into the town. We parked in a private parking lot and hiked down to the beach and ate there at Chez Black. Lyle and I split a pizza and some red prawns and lemon desserts. Because of our group’s delay, they drove us all back to our individual hotels in Rome rather than dropping us off at the Piazza. The start of rain that evening prevented me, but not Lyle, from again walking to our gelato place – he loves that gelato and brownie combination.

Entry for Wednesday, March 9, 2016, at Rome, Italy

Today brought us two new favorite gelato places. But first, after our hotel’s excellent buffet breakfast, we turned in some laundry to the hotel staff and then left to catch the subway to the area of the ancient Coliseum. We bought admission tickets for the Palatine Hill, Forum, and Coliseum at the ticket booth by the Forum, and then went first to the relatively uncrowded Palatine Hill. This avoided the long lines for those buying their tickets at the Coliseum. Lyle and I were wondering why so many people don’t read up on how to avoid the lines; but if they did then there would be less ability for the rest of us to avoid the lines.

It was raining lightly but steadily until about noon, so we were damp climbing around the Palatine Hill ruins – the Roman emperors built palaces there. The one built by Diocletian was said to dwarf the Egyptian pyramids, although given the current remains, it’s hard to see how that was possible.

From the Palatine Hill, we walked down to the Roman Forum area – many interesting building relics there. By now my feet were aching and near blistering on the soles. So we stopped for pizza for lunch at a nearby pizzeria – they are all over Rome with multiples of them within several feet of another. We split a pizza and then walked to the Coliseum, where we got in with no delay, while others waited in long lines.

What can I say? If you’ve seen one Coliseum, you’ve seen them all, and I had seen the Los Angeles Coliseum. But this one in Rome was a thousand years old.

From there we tried to catch a bus to the area of the Pantheon. We waited and waited, but the buses that Google Maps said to take never came. So we hopped on another that had come by a few times, and the driver said that the others were only coming on Saturdays. And his bus didn’t go there; he gave us another bus number to catch and dropped us off at the next stop. That number finally came loaded with school kids. Lyle noticed after awhile that according to his GPS we were moving farther away from the Pantheon. So we got off. Lyle figured out that we should have got that bus going in the opposite direction. He ran the bus stop on the other side of the street just as the bus was arriving. Then I had to run to catch up. He held the bus until I could get on. And it took us within walking distance of the Pantheon.

The Roman Pantheon was impressive for its dome. It was also near Marco’s favorite gelateria Giolitti. Marco is one of the brothers who rotate through working the hotel desk with their father. So we got some gelato there and also brought back some pastries. Oh, and on the walk to the Pantheon, we passed a shop Bartolucci with all sorts of Pinocchios. I bought one I liked for €50.

From that area we visited some other shopping areas. I took a survey solicited by a young woman about what I thought of a new shopping Galleria there. I told her that my only complaint was that they did not have a camera shop there were I could purchase a battery charger for my camera.

When we got back to the hotel, I had to give my feet some air. After resting up, we walked several blocks to a camera shop suggested by the other hotel brother Guiseppe. Unfortunately, it closed two minutes before we got there. I did determine from the employees by repeatedly banging on the door that they appeared to have a battery charger that would help my camera get through the trip, but they would not reopen for me then. So we had dinner at a nearby restaurant recommended by Guiseppe – Trattoria Cadorna. Then we had gelato close by at Guiseppe’s favorite Gelateria La Romana – my favorite on our trip as well.

Entry for Thursday, March 10, 2016, at Florence, Italy

After our last breakfast at the Hotel Golden, we took a cab to the photo store where I got the battery charger. The cab then took as to the train station, where we bought tickets to Florence. Leaving at 11:20 a.m. and arriving about an hour and a half later, we passed some lovely pastoral scenes. We took a cab from the Florence station to our Hotel Relais Uffizi, another small place. We had a queen bed downstairs and twin bed upstairs. Lyle took the latter, bless his soul – the bathroom is downstairs. But the upstairs area is nicely furnished. They had given us our choice of two rooms. The other one had a bathroom upstairs from the bedroom.

After resting up a bit, we tracked to the Uffizi Gallery, bought a Firenze Card, and spent a couple of hours looking at a lot of statuary and painting, and an awful lot of penises.

After again resting at the hotel, we ate dinner at La Giostra, recommended by Lyle’s girlfriend. We thought it was okay – Lyle had a steak stuffed with bacon and lard; I had veal shank covered with a marinara -type sauce. Before that course, we had gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese and, before that, they comped us an antipasto.

There was too much food on the last course, so I didn’t eat much of the rice, potatoes, and cooked carrots provided. I mean, I had to save room; after dinner we walked to the Vivoli gelateria, recommended by Emily and Elliott. I had a cup that was half “Wasabi” and half “Amarendi”. The last had blueberries; the first had the Japanese wasabi flavor.

Back at the hotel, I noticed the wound from my recent surgery had started to puff up and bleed, so I put some anti-bacterial cream on it in bandaged it. We got word that Elizabeth was laid up with doctors testing for cancer related to her ovarian cyst. Carla will be with her in Utah when we get back, and I am praying that it will turn out for the best for our sweet daughter.

Entry for Friday, March 11, 2016, at Florence, Italy

Breakfast at our hotel was fine though not equal to that of our hotel in Rome. After we ate, we went to the Accademia to see the original David statute by Michelangelo. It was impressive under a skylight dome and cleaned up compared to the one on the grounds outside our hotel here.

We then went to the Duomo, this city’s famous cathedral. We went inside; then Lyle climbed the 483 steps to the dome. He got some great pictures from the spectacular view. While he was doing that, I bought something at a pharmacy to aid the blisters on my soles, and some bandaids. After Lyle returned, we found a camera shop where I was able to replace the spare battery. We did stop at the small church Orsanmichele, that started out as a grain mill – no pictures were allowed inside.

We lunched at a Trattoria Alfredo where Lyle had fettuccine alfredo and I had a vegetable soup made with bread Tuscan style. We followed up with tiramisu.

In the afternoon, we visited Palazzo Pitti. It houses a lot of famous Renaissance art and is a good place to see the art displayed in a real palace. That followed a visit to the Museo Galileo, which has exhibits that bring to mind the “mad scientist” concept and also has a preserved tooth, thumb, and finger of the museum’s namesake.

After the Palazzo Pitti, we took a cab to the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is across the Arno River and has a great view of the main part of the old city. It also has a bronze copy of the David statute. From there we walked down to a restaurant Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco recommended by Lyle’s boss where we had the traditional bistecca alla Fiorentina – a large T-bone steak, red rare on the inside and thick sliced to be split between us. It was very good. We had desert – mine was strawberries with a heavy cream. But then we returned to last night’s Vivoli gelateria. I had a ginger flavor.

Lyle went online, and we were shocked to hear about Ruby’s accident, attempting a back flip off a school gym bar. So our prayers will be with John and Jenny, as well as Elizabeth.

Entry for Saturday, March 12, 2016, at Siena, Italy

After breakfast at the hotel, we hiked our bags to the bus station and got a ticket that took us to Siena. When we arrived, no taxis waited at the bus stop. So we walked to our Alle Due Porte B&B. We met the owner Egisto, who showed us to our room.

It was about 2:00 p.m., so we strolled the area and then had a late lunch at Antico Tagliere – sort of an antipasto with bread and slices of local meats and cheeses. We then bought tickets to tour the Museo Civico – more statutes, paintings, and painted ceilings. The exhibits were designed mainly to show a medieval period but also a more modern, probably eighteenth and nineteenth century in Italy. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted. Lyle wanted to climb the tower, but it was closed for maintenance.

We got gelato at Grom – good – I got pear flavor. After resting my feet awhile, we headed out again and explored some nearby streets. We then had dinner at La Taverna di San Guiseppe. Lyle had pork, and I had the sliced fried duck. But the hit was the desserts; Lyle’s tiramisu was the best he’s had, and my cooked pears with ice cream were delicious. We walked uphill to our lodging and decided that we didn’t need more gelato that night.

Entry for Sunday, March 13, 2016, at Siena, Italy

We had a decent continental breakfast laid out by Egisto and his wife; we are the only ones in the B&B.

Although I had wanted to attend the LDS branch in Siena today, I decided against it because my cellphone hasn’t worked since leaving the USA, and I didn’t want Lyle and me separate without being able to communicate. So we toured parts of the Duomo (large cathedral) here – its museums, crypt, and baptistery. We had lunch at Trattoria i Barberi, which had been recommended by our B&B host. I had lasagna; Lyle had pasta with white truffle.

After lunch, we could enter the cathedral itself; it had been closed to tourists during the morning. Then we went shopping for a few small items. We got a Grom gelato, of course. We didn’t have much to do after that. We rested in our room until dinner at 7:00 at Osteria Castelvecchio – sea bass for me and wild boar for Lyle. We had arrived a bit before they were supposed to be open, but they seated and served us anyway.The desserts were good; a strawberry and lemon tart with Kiwi syrup for me, and for Lyle a chocolate thing.

Entry for Monday, March 14, 2016, at Siena, Italy

This morning, there was no hot water in the shower for me but I showered anyway as best I could. We received word that Ella was admitted to the hospital after pulling out a tooth on Laura’s way to Pasadena. So, prayers today for her, Ruby, and Elizabeth, especially–what a week for our family.

When the owner came in, he made an adjustment and Lyle got a hot shower. The owner gave us breakfast and let us defer checkout until 2:00 p.m., when he called a taxi for us to take us to the bus station on our way to the Rome airport. Before we left, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant Antica Stalloreggi – we had pasta and dessert. There, a young woman from Oregon who was a friend of the owner introduced herself (we had told the owner that we were from California). She was attending classes at the local university and seemed excited to talk to us Americans.

The bus trip took us through some pretty countryside. When we arrived at the airport in Fuimicino, we eventually found the walkway from there to the Hilton Rome Airport Hotel where we had a reserved room. We ate there and turned in. The food (pizza) was too salty, and the desserts not impressive.

Entry for Tuesday, March 15, 2016, at Pasadena, California

This was a long day. We arose at 4:30 a.m. to get ready for flights home on Turkish Airlines. At the airport, we were able to get our passports stamped in Italy. The leg from Rome to Istanbul was good; there was a lot of space between the seats, and the flight was not crowded. The Istanbul airport was an interesting place, with many nationalities on display. The final leg to Los Angeles was on a jumbo jet with less leg room. Fortunately, we had an empty seat between us, which helped us get through the trip. I finished my Marcia Clark book. I watched a couple of movies – Mad Max: Fury Road and The Big Short. We arrived at LAX at about 5:30 p.m., went through customs, and took a shuttle home to Pasadena. Joseph was here doing laundry. I called Carla and Charles. It was good to be home.