Italy Adventures-Arriving in Rome

Disclaimer: These Italy entries will most likely be long and "rambly".  I am trying to record all memories, mostly so I remember them. 

I am trying to limit the posts themselves to only 10 pictures, but the accompanying video in most posts will have all the pictures and video taken during the day's adventure. Do NOT feel you have to wade through everything or to comment on these posts, they are mostly for my benefit. Thanks so much to all of you, and to the girls,  for giving up their Tuesdays (and a couple of Nature Fridays) for a bit.

Out ime in Italy went by in a blur and has taken me a week just to put the 87 million pictures in some kind of order. What I can say without a doubt is this was definitely a trip worth the wait. As some of you know, I spent a lot of my life in a part of New Jersey surrounded with heavy Italian influences. Italy is always a place I dreamed of visiting and I am so happy to report it was everything I thought it would be and more!

Our trip started with an early airport arrival. Amazingly enough we kept our luggage under weight and, with the exception of a small boarding pass issue the day before, were lucky to have a very smooth travel day.

Travel was smooth, but also long. An hour flight to Denver,  a four hour flight to Montreal where we were lucky enough to board a flight with "lay flat" seats for the eight hour flight to Rome. We left Albuquerque at 7:30am on Saturday, and arrived in Rome on Sunday at around 9:30am (Rome is ahead of us here in MST by 8 hours).  We breezed through customs. Did you know they don't stamp passports anymore?  It's all pictures and fingerprints now, very different from the last time we traveled out of the country.

After a little wait at the Rome airport, we were picked up by our tour bus. 

No time to think about jet lag. We dropped our suitcases off at the hotel then met the rest of our tour group and left to explore Rome.

As you can imagine, the ancient architecture is just beautiful! This is the Temple of Portunus, originally built in the 3rd or 4th century BC and rebuilt somewhere between 120 and 80 BC. How amazing to be standing in the same space as something over 2000 years old. Especially when your own country is only 250 years old. Needless to say, from that point on, I was in awe of all the architecture I had the pleasure of seeing.

Our first stop of the trip was hyped as visiting the Mouth of Truth, an ancient Roman mask rumored to bite the hand, placed in its mouth,  of anyone who tells a lie. This mask was made famous in the movie, Roman Holiday.

Ed and I found the Basilica a bunch more interesting than the silly mask though.

A beautiful structure, originally finished in 795 AD, it has been renovated as late at 1899.

It was the first of many churches to "Wow" us with its ornate decor. 

St. Valentine's bones are said to be scattered around Europe. According to the Basilica (and I confirmed with Nat'l Geographic records) this is supposed to be his skull.

Gorgeous incense burners...

As tired as we were, the Basilica really impressed upon us just how historical Italy was going to be. 

 

Day one was impressive and the sights only got better! 

Stay tuned for Vatican City next week!

We are joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the 

Happy Tuesday Blog Hop this week!