A wonderful day in Rome

This photo was taken at RDU yesterday just after we arrived about 10 AM by a nice lady. We had a couple of hours to wait then a 1 hr flight to Philly. In Philadelphia we had a 5 hour wait for our flight. We had a philly steak sandwich and then watched our plane get ready for the flight at 6:05PM

The flight to Rome took 8 hours I watched a movie Australia and Charlotee watched another. The Customer Rest period was cut short by a medical issue for a passenger and I never did any sleep. We got to Rome about 8:15 AM.....endured the longest passport line ever......another lenghty wait for our four suitcases but no customs inspections. Once thru customs we were very fortunate to get a airport shuttle to our hotel for "only 40 euros" we expected taxis to be more. The next picture shows me in the van..

Our drive to the hotel was about 45 minutes the staff was fine and we were in our 5th floor room by 10:15 AM We have a nice balcony, open fileds just byond and you can see St Peters at Vatican City on the horizeon.

The hotlel has a FREE shuttle downtown and we were on it at 11 AM it takes 30 minutes. We had a pizza for lunch in a sidwalk cafe you see the weather in the sun is very warm.... I found a bank across the street magically spitting our Euros so we walked a couple of blocks to the Vatican ..paid 14 of those euros apiece for entrance to the Vatican Museums and a look at the Sistine Chapel.....

We were not allowed to take pictures in the chapel but the colors of Michangelos restored frescos were vibrant. The photo at the left was of another ceiling in the museum.

At 2:30 PM we caught the hotel shuttle and came back to the room. I paid the 17 euros for a daily internet connection, uploaded these photos and Ala .. a wonderful day in Rome.

Ahh but the evening may be equally fine. We have a bottle of red Lambrusco on ice, the hotel has an nice restuarant, and the king sized bed will be much better than a cramped US Airways economy seat.....now if the Snows would just ring the buzzer.....

So far so good........more later.......