When in Rome . . .

Our trip to Italy was fantastic. Huge thanks to our niece, Sara Markham, who came from Oregon to watch the kids for us so Todd and I could go. While we were relaxing she was dealing with dishes, diaper rashes, potty accidents (I think Nic senses another big move as she regressed during our move from SLC to Kuwait as well), barfing in the middle of the night, cockroaches, a mouse (which I've never seen here), piles of laundry, and all the other things that go with running a household of 7 children. She did a fantastic job with help from Arfan and Marwa (co-workers of Todd's) who brought in meals like McDonalds that will make any kid happy.

These are some of the pics from the trip. The first couple of days we spent in Taurmino Sicily. One of the days Todd spent in business meetings so I wandered the streets alone. It's a touristy town. Lots of cruise ships make a stop here. It was the quaint little Italian city you'd imagine with expensive shops to take the tourist's money. It was here in Taurmino that I did one of the scariest things I've ever done. I was walking along the street and noticed there were several hair salons. I had meant to get my hair cut before I left but I couldn't get a hold of the lady who usually does it. I had time to kill. So yes, right off the street I walked into a salon and asked how much for a haircut. The price was about the same I've been paying here in Kuwait so I said I wanted one but they couldn't do it right then but I could come back later. I went into another salon. Again a reasonable price but couldn't do it til later. Third time's a charm. I went in and got my hair cut by an Italian man who spoke very little English. It was so brave of me. Not the best haircut I've ever had--not the worst either though.

We had a great time in Taurmino though much of Todd's time there was spent as I said in business meetings. The "big boss" Toni Tasca grew up in this area. He sponsored this trip. One night he took us all out to dinner at a restaurant on the roof of a building so you could look down at the streets and sights and out to the sea for a great view. After dinner he took us to a Cannoli making shop and we ate the most delicious cannolis. Who knew they were so good?

The streets of Taurmino are so narrow. There's a picture in the slide show I took of a row of scooters as they have them for rent there and this also seems to be the way most of the locals get around. The whole time we were in Italy we didn't see even one SUV. They had buses in Rome but the people drive very small cars. Gas is very expensive there--we figured close to $8/gallon so it's no wonder. In the slide show are a couple of pictures of Smart Cars we saw in Rome. They are so tiny. It reminded us of something you'd see on the Flinstones. Their length is barely longer than the width of the other smaller cars you see on the streets. One of the pics in the slide show is to show you that the smart car is parked vertically in a very small space while the two cars around it are parallel parked and the smart car barely even pokes out into the street.

Back to Taurmino--we had the most amazing view off the balcony of our hotel. One of the things you could see was Mount Etna, an active volcano. I can't believe we didn't get a picture of it the first night we were there because you could see red hot lava flowing down the side of the mountain. The second day and night we were there the top was covered by clouds so we never got a picture of the "volcano" part of it. Too bad.

After Taurmino Todd and I went to Rome. No coworkers or spouses. Just us. We walked around the streets of Rome and saw the ancient sites and Vatican City. Those ancient Romans/Italians sure took their artwork/architecture pretty darn seriously.

We went to see the Sistine Chapel. To get to it you have to walk through miles of other hallways and rooms (I've heard it has about 7 1/2 miles of staircases/hallways). I don't think we went quite that far but it did take a good long time to finally get to the Sistine Chapel. And not taking anything away from Michaelangelo, but we were more impressed with some of the artwork we saw leading to the Sistine Chapel. Somehow though Michaelangelo gets all the credit.

We also went to the Coliseum and Palatine Hill and the Forum which all had some amazing Roman ruins. Todd could've spent all day exploring Palatine Hill. We went to Navona Plaza and did a little souvenir shopping. Basically we saw Rome in a day. We certainly didn't get to see everything Rome has to offer but we were able to see most of the things we wanted to see.

We ran across some sister missionaries on their way to an appointment and stopped to visit with them for a few minutes. One is from Sacramento. The other was a sister from Rexburg, ID. Fun to find someone from so close to home so far away from home.