Bella Roma!




Bret, me, and Chris in front of the Colosseum.

 

When Chris and I first moved to England we made a list of about twenty places we really wanted to visit in Europe, and Rome was in the top three.   Bret was keen as well, so we waited to go with him this past Memorial Day long weekend.   We had good weather for most of the trip (minus one afternoon that had us on our toes as thunderstorms swept through!) and between the excellent navigation skills of Chris and Bret, I just had to pay enough attention to not trip as I ate my gelato! 

We traveled on Friday after Chris was off work, so only arrived to Rome in time to split a couple (wood-fired, piled with crazy ingredients) pizzas and absolutely CRASH.  Saturday morning we had booked a guided tour of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel because we heard getting in to the Vatican Museum was next to impossible.  Now having done it, I wonder if we should’ve just arrived 45 minutes before the museum opened and taken a chance, but that’s not important.  Our tour was… okay.  We seemed to spend a lot of time perusing items we weren’t all that interested in (the collection of Pope Mobiles, for instance, was worth a minute but not half an hour) but then not have enough time at some of the more fascinating rooms of art.

We half hoped to have our passports stamped as we crossed the border from Italy to the smallest nation in the world, but instead were just herded through metal detectors and to the ticket line for the Vatican Museum. We explored the massive museum for a few hours, admiring the Rafael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel of course, but also trying to not be overwhelmed by the millions of other works of art along the way. The most regrettable bit for me anyway was spending far too short a time in the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica. By this time, though, we had been walking through the Vatican for five hours, it was 1:30, and we were all a little desperate for lunch and a beer!

Chris and Bret walking through the Vatican Museum looking at some of the hand-drawn maps lining the walls.

Raphael's The School of Athens, one of the many frescoes in Raphael's Rooms of the Vatican Museum.

Raphael's The School of Athens, one of the many frescoes in Raphael's Rooms of the Vatican Museum.

Michelangelo's Pieta (~1500 AD).

 

Stunning tile floor.

Laocoön and His Sons marble statue in the Vatican Museum (~100 BC)

 

Laocoön and His Sons marble statue in the Vatican Museum (~100 BC)

Bret and me standing in the Piazza San Marco with St. Mark's Basilica in the background.

 

Saturday evening involved a free walking tour of the city.  For us, the best part was learning about Bernini’s works and his ingenuity in ‘hiding’ the Sant’Ignazio Church with its gorgeous ceiling painted by Andrea Pozzo.  Our guide also gave us a great dinner recommendation, suggested a café in a working class neighborhood where each of us ordered a pasta dish and an appetizer, and each thought the others’ food was great but loved our own the most.  My pasta with porcini mushrooms and broccoli raab side was delicious!  Poor Bret was forced to share bites of everything… LOL.  

Bernini designed these three buildings opposite the Sant'Ignazio church, which from the back side appear to be one solid structure, a very convincing optical illusion!



Bernini designed the Sant'Ignazio Church, one of our very favorites of the trip.

Bernini designed the Sant'Ignazio Church, one of our very favorites of the trip.

The church ceiling was filled with an amazing fresco by Andrea Pozzo.

I should mention our hotel.  It was outside Rome’s city walls but extremely comfortable and really inexpensive.  For €60/night the hotel staff even started our day with a cappuccino and croissant!  It took us about thirty minutes by train to get to the city center.  Through most of the trip Bret acted more like a seasoned traveler than the absolute travel virgin he was, but the conditions on the train shocked him.  “I started the day clean and already feel so dirty” he’d say about two minutes into the trip.  “Wait, is there a hand in my pocket?!”  Hahaha.   We tended to catch trams and trains during typical commute times and as the PACKED vehicles arrived we’d channel the comedian Brian Regan and remind each other to “push and shove, folks.  Push and shove.”  The tram doors would pop open and we were usually faced with a wall of people, held in place only by the pressure exerted on them from their neighbors.  Once one of us committed, the other two just sort of pushed into the wall of humanity enough for the doors to close.  We felt bad the first time but a few stops later, no one having exited, we realized we were almost in the middle of the tram and people were still pushing their way in at every stop!  Bret was in his own little stratosphere up there and if stinky air didn’t rise, he would’ve been in a better position than we were.  I swear, every time someone coughed or sneezed I wondered again how we weren’t all dead from communicable disease.  It really is a wonder that we aren’t sick more often.  Touch wood.  (That’s British for ‘knock on wood’.)   Bret was getting pretty comfortable navigating through the subway by the end of the weekend – a skill that will get him through just about any other city he may travel to in the future.  Doors, however, gave him trouble from start to finish of the trip.  Chris and I would purposely hang back just to see what would happen at each door Bret encountered.  Push or Pull?  Wrong handle? Unable to unlock or open?  It never failed to amuse. 

There is room on the train today!

 

Wait, what?! Hehehe, love this picture!

Moped gang honking in unison... awesome.

 

We walked SO MANY MILES over the course of the weekend and luckily all of us seemed to wear out at the same time, in need of a recharge via gelato or coffee.   Amongst the snacking we did learn a lot about Rome, for example that Romulus and Remus are fabled to have founded the city.  Another tidbit that will stick with me was that the Roman Empire grew for 500 years, was on top for 200 years, and then on the decline for about 300 years, conveniently for memory reasons from about 500 BC to 500 AD. 

The best gelato of the trip.

 

We marked our walking paths for the past three days...

Throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain.

As a city, Rome has a disproportionate amount of incredible buildings, sights, and art.  The Romans pretty much invented architecture… columns and concrete were both their idea!  It’s hard to say what we were most impressed with.  Rome is full of absolute gems but the Pantheon reigns king in my book.  Well, that and the incredible Trevi Fountain.  And Bernini’s Piazza de San Marco.  Oh dear.   

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi on Piazza Navona. You'd think we were obsessed with Bernini.

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi on Piazza Navona. You'd think we were obsessed with Bernini.

Chris fought long and hard to find us this farmer's market for lunch on Sunday and to his credit, the food was great!

We were fortunate to be inside the Pantheon while it was raining, allowing us to witness the tunnel of water as it came through the open ceiling and swirled around the floor into discrete drains. 

Bret and Chris in front of the Pantheon which has been in continuous use since, you know, before Jesus. Wow.

 

Vast, open interior of the Pantheon.

The oculus - a source of natural light in the huge concrete dome.

The oculus - a source of natural light in the huge concrete dome.

 

The Spanish Steps didn’t impress us as much, but the number of high street shops around them was mind boggling.  The whole weekend seemed to involve a lot of shopping, but let’s be clear:  I was the one holding bags and waiting while Bret and Chris tried things on.  In what world does that happen?  I swear Bret may originally have been ‘my’ friend, but somewhere in the past few years I’ve lost him to Chris… they get along so well, share the same style, can talk sports and stocks for hours, and seem to find joy in giving me a hard time. 

Sitting at the base of the Spanish Steps is the Fontana della Barcaccia by guess who? Bernini!

Sitting at the base of the Spanish Steps is the Fontana della Barcaccia by guess who? Bernini!

 

The best decision we made all trip was to spring €34 for the Roma Pass.  We not only made our money back (even just using one of the two free admissions included in the pass), but it allowed us to skip multiple-hour-long lines many times during the weekend.  Picture a line wrapping around the famous Coliseum.  Now picture us walking right to the front of it.  We felt a little like rock stars. 

Inside the Colosseum.

Looking down on the Roman Forum

The altar where Julius Caesar was cremated... or place he was buried depending on which guide you listened to.

 

We visited a couple lesser known sights as well, the most intriguing of which was Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappaccino.   The church contains an ossuary that displays the bones of thousands of Capucian friars, collected between the 1500 and 1800’s.    The bones are arranged in patterns and geometric shapes and are really quite striking!  I borrowed some pictures from the internet as we all three were rule-followers and didn’t take our own. 

 

Skull art.

Patterns from skulls, pelvises, clavicles, femurs, and vertebrae.

 All in all, I’d say our trip to Rome was an incredible success.  It was great getting to share that experience with such a great friend and excellent travel partner, too!

Bret's first trip abroad!

B Wise in front of the Parliament Building on a rainy day in London.

 

Bret is one of my first and dearest friends from optometry school.  We once spent all our time studying but since graduating, Bret now just uses me and Chris as an excuse to travel!  In the past years we’ve met in Little Rock, Kansas City, Tucson, and Mooresville (where he walked my grandma down the aisle at our wedding).

Bret knew some of what he wanted to see on his trip: the Dover cliffs, Liverpool, and a quick trip to Rome… the rest was up to us.   He arrived on an overnight flight, sleeping for only a couple hours (6’6” doesn’t fit well on a plane) but was chipper and awake on our drive straight from the airport to Dover.  The drive seemed short with all the chatting and catching up.  Bret wanted to see Dover’s white cliffs and the impressive castle atop them.  Chris and I had only passed through the city once (to catch the ferry to France) and were glad for the excuse to spend some more time there.  Our first stop was the Dover Castle and even more impressively, its new Secret Wartime Tunnels exhibit.   The Castle was built around the 1200’s and the tunnels, dug fifteen meters into the chalk cliff, were added in the 1800’s to house up to two thousand troops during the Napoleanic wars. The tunnels fell into disuse for more than a century before being expanded in the 2^nd World War when they were used as an air raid shelter, hospital, and command center.  The war wasn’t going well for the Allies in 1941 when Admiral Ramsay crafted Operation Dynamo in the tunnels and rescued more than 300,000 British and French soldiers from Dunkirk as they were pushed to the coast by Hitler's army.  The Wartime Tunnels exhibit was creative and entertaining, exactly what a jet-lagged visitor needs to stay awake during their first day of sightseeing!

 

The entrance to Dover Castle.

 

The day was so clear that we could actually see France 22 miles off in the distance.

 

After exploring the castle we took a trail along the cliff-top and were blessed with sunshine and some good views.  Dover itself is, we’ll say, lacking charm.  The hike along the top of the 100+ meter white cliffs was pleasant but slightly overshadowed by the huge, noisy port below.  Live and learn… next time I’d go to the Seven Sisters or other chalk cliffs instead.

Me and Chris at the cliffs.

Bret and Chris near the edge of the Dover cliffs.

The very next day, Chris, Bret and I all hopped a train to London.  Chris was meeting our friend Vic to go to  a Premier League game at West Ham, so Bret and I rode with him to Liverpool Street and explored a new (for us) area of London.  The guys shopped a bit for clothes and bought a feta- and spinach- filled croissant (that they talked about for days).  We sat down for a good lunch, then Chris left for the game and Bret and I wandered around some indoor/outdoor markets selling ANYTHING you could think of.  We kept wandering, farther and farther away from our planned route and into the heart of the labyrinth of market stalls, the most memorable of which was a huge hall filled with maybe fifty food stalls. Each represented a nation and was decorated with flags and playing traditional music.  The smells were incredible and didn’t mix into a nasty jumble but seemed to respect each stall’s 'air space'.  Every few steps we'd be hit with another reason we shouldn't have eaten lunch fifteen minutes before!  People of the stall's ethnicity were  actively cooking and serving heaping plates of incredible looking traditional food for £5.  Bret’s eyes widened as we passed the Ethiopian, Korean, Turkish, Mexican, Israeli, Moroccan, and Italian stalls… just to name a few.  Our 'great' lunch suddenly seemed REALLY lame.

Food market near Liverpool St., London

We tore ourselves away from the food before justifying a second lunch and made our way out of the markets through a business district and all the way to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  I’d never taken a Beefeater (aka Yeoman Warder) tour of the Tower of London and was pleasantly surprised at how funny and informative our guide was.  We meandered around for a while, snapped a photo of the Tower Bridge, and then started our way back to King’s Cross with a quick detour to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Bret inside the Tower of London, with the Tower Bridge in the background.

Our guide.  Mom, do you recognize him?  We had our photo with him last year :)

Me and Bret in front of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Front door of St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

Bret and I made it back to Kings Cross just a couple minutes after Chris, so we all rode the train back home together.  I swear, Chris and Bret can chat like two old men. Between basketball (Bret played at Wichita State), stocks (what are you buying these days?), and business they talked the whole way back, letting me grab a nap.   We were famished from a day’s worth of walking and really enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding and beef roast I threw together for dinner. 

On Monday, poor Chris had to work, so Bret and I took care of some planning work for the rest of the trip and then made our way to Cambridge for the afternoon.  Bret said “this is the England I expected and pictured.”  Cambridge really is just a gorgeous and quaint town with its amazing university, wonderful gardens, and good shops.  We ate fish & chips at (yes, predictably) the Eagle Pub, again where Watson and Crick declared to the world they had figured out the double-helix structure of DNA.  From there we went to Kings College Chapel to have a look around and wandered through a few other shops. As much as I would’ve loved to see Bret fall into the River Cam, he declined a chance to try his hand at punting and we made it dry and happy back to base around five to run some errands (aka: grab some wine) and get back home just as Chris got home from work. 

Clare College gardens, Cambridge University.

Inside Kings College Chapel, Cambridge.

Chris took a couple days off work and on Tuesday we drove to the Peak district to do a hike that Katherine and I enjoyed last summer.  The weather held out for a while but then the fog rolled in and the last hour or so of walking didn’t offer any of the views we hoped for.  Bailey didn’t care one bit that it was foggy, she was so happy to not have been left at home!   

Bret, Chris, and Bailey at the start of the hike.

9 years old and still running circles around us!

The Roaches (Rocks), Peak District, England.

Love this!  Bret, me, Chris, and Bailey in the Peak District, England.

I promise, the views are amazing...

From the hike we drove to Liverpool to drop Bret off on a couple-day adventure by himself.  He did some Beatles-related activities, wandered through a few art galleries, and retuned with lots of stories. We were proud of the travel virgin getting around a new city and managing to make his way by train back to us!    

Friday was a total washout of a day.  We dropped Bailey off to be boarded and went to my favorite farm shop (Johnsons in Old Hurst), then went to base where I showed Bret the eye lane I have managed to get completely set up in the new clinic.   (I’m days away from being able to see patients!)  We were in and out of the car all morning and it cracked me up see Bret walk to the wrong side of the car at least half the time.  The whole afternoon was spent driving to Gatwick (thank you Chris for being the world's best driver), catching a flight to Rome, and getting settled in to our hotel.  We had a great long weekend in Rome which will be its own entry.  

Upon returning from Rome, Bret had one last day with us before flying home.  He and I headed to London to see a few things we had missed the first time around.   It absolutely poured the entire time we were there which made (as it does) everything a little less pretty and fun.  That said, we managed to catch a glimpse of Buckingham Palace through a sea of umbrellas, spent a great hour in the National Gallery, ate Pret sandwiches for lunch, and snapped some rainy photos of Big Ben and the Parliament Building. Bret spent an hour or so wandering through Westminster Abbey, “it’s basically a big crypt”, and then said “can we go?”  Haha, YES.  London just doesn’t compare to a warm house and dry clothes!  It's great to have those friends that can walk into your home after years apart and be able to chat for ten days straight.  We really had a great visit with Bret and are so glad he was able to make a trip out here!   

Bret in front of the Parliament Buildings on a rainy day in London.

Bret with Big Ben in rainy London. 

Katherine's 26.2 miles at the Belfast Marathon!

At the start of the Belfast Marathon.  Great signs, Aunt Mary Ellen!

I spent this past Bank Holiday Monday in Belfast, cheering on Katherine as she ran her first ever marathon.  We stayed with the parents of her friend Olivia and were so thankful for their gracious hosting.   Mr. and Mrs. Reilly live in Belfast and not only let us stay at theirs, but also drive us around and fed us homemade cake!  Katherine, Olivia, and (surprise!) Caroline arrived early and spent a few days at the Giant’s Causeway before heading back into Belfast the day before the marathon to get me from the airport.  We spent a relaxing evening eating dinner, planning the next day’s route, and watching the great film Made in Dagenham before getting to bed. 

Katherine woke before her alarm Monday morning, ready to run.  She stuffed her race belt full of goos and gels and dealt with her surprisingly mellow pre-race jitters while I silently praised the Lord that all I had to do was watch and cheer.  We had some breakfast and Mr. Reilly dropped us into the city center with a big “good luck!” to Katherine.  

Pre-race prep.

It's too early for this! Caroline, Katherine, and Olivia by the start.

It’s fun to watch everyone on race morning… the stretches and nervous laughs and last minute freak outs.  We chatted about how colorful running shoes and running clothes in general have become.  I love Caroline’s idea that instead of setting the race start up in corrals by estimated finishing time, it should be done by predominant color of outfit so the race start would look like a rainbow that slowly spread out from the start. 

 The course was set up in an irregular cloverleaf pattern so Caroline, Olivia and I were able to see Katherine before the start and then four times through the course of the race.  That said, thank goodness for Olivia and Caroline’s sharp eyes!  They were the first to point Katherine out of the crowd so we could yell and cheer.  We tried to set up early at most of our viewing spots but inevitable worried that we had arrived too late and missed her.  Then someone familiar would run by “Oh! It’s the fake mustache and wig man.  Katherine was behind him!” “Yep, that’s tutu guy without tattoos, she was really close to him before!”  I thought her gray t-shirt would be a hard shirt to spot but she actually stood out well from all the hot pink and bright blue.

Surrounded by men!

 

Looking great!

Waving hello from the pack!

The runners as they went past.

The first two times she ran by, Katherine was smiling and looked strong.   The third time we saw, around mile 22, was different.  The runners had thinned significantly by that point so we could see her coming for a while.   She saw us, too, and her lip started quivering.  As is the case 20+ miles into running, I think she just needed a hug and reassurance that we were still rooting for her and that yes, she was doing amazingly well!  We saw her one last time with less than a mile to go and not only had her smile returned but she instantly processed the bag in Caroline’s hand and exclaimed “you went shopping!”

You went shopping!  Smiling at mile 25.

Marathons seem long when you’re running them but WOW they’re just as long when you watch.  We saw Katherine, snuck in a coffee, saw Katherine, snuck in two+ hours of shopping and lunch, saw Katherine, and then worked our way to the finish.  When we found her amongst the crowd she was looking quite pleased and energetic! 

VICTORY!

That said, we did have to make a wee trip to the medical tent to take care of some major blisters on both feet, but Katherine finished in good spirits and without any major injury. 

Blister care at the med tent.

Mummy toes!

At this point, she isn't committing to running another marathon but also didn’t rule it out in the future.  We’re so proud of you, Katherine!

Hitching a ride back to the car.