Winning Strategies for Life & Travel

The Pantheon in Rome

We take our next taxi to land at the Pantheon.  Just when we think that we have seen it all in Rome, you round another corner and see another amazing view.  Scattered throughout the city is a host of amazing fountains, buildings, ruins, pillars, and statues.  It is like a buffet for the eyes.

You don’t want to look down for fear that you will miss one iota of a view.  I point out ruins and fountains to Caleb and watch his eyes dart around, soaking up all that a 13 year old can absorb for his young years. 

Our visit to Rome has been amazing.  It is like walking through the pages of a history book, eagerly reviewing its treasures and walking through its pages.  We cross centuries, cultures, people, and places, discovering a new world to us.  We ventured out and discovered Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome on our 10 day tour.  We enjoyed each of the cities and our walk through their sites.  Every trip to Europe has been a time of great discovery.

I feel blessed that each of my children have now seen Europe.  They add to their experiences a chance to understand just how big the world is, and the amazing variety of its people, cultures, food, lands, and surroundings.   I hope that you take the chance to go on similar discoveries to the locations that beckon you.

Visiting the Coliseum in Rome

We awake excited about a tour of the ancient city of Rome Italy.  We are anxious to see the Coliseum and the Pantheon today and we set out in anxious anticipation.  The day is sunny and bright.  Our entire tour of Paris and Italy has been sunny with great weather for almost every day.  We take a taxi to the Coliseum and then must walk the last few blocks due to the streets being closed to cars.  Pedestrians flood the streets, all walking in the direction of the famous Coliseum. 

As the Coliseum comes into view, we are overwhelmed (again) by its pure size.  It is gigantic.  We walk past a few ruins on the way to the giant stadium and our eyes dart to the peripheral areas, eager to see all that surrounds us.    We try to take it all in.  It overwhelms the senses.  You really can’t grasp the whole picture in mere photographs.  It is a panoramic buffet of views.  There are lots of people here, but I think that it is less crowded then when we last visited 10  years ago.  We near the large structure and fall into a medium size line to wait to purchase tickets to see the inside.

The exchange rate is about 76 Euros for every 100 dollars, so, better than it has been on a few of our trips, but expensive nonetheless.  The tickets to enter the Coliseum are about 12 Euros a piece.  We buy three tickets and walk through the entrance to meander along the halls that have stood for hundreds of years. 

As we walk through the walks, I envision kings and queens that have walked these same steps.  I feel like I am touching history, viewing into a time machine that is showing me a far distant past.  We have ventured far into the past to see the famed sites.  The grandiosity of the size of the structures makes us feel small in comparison.  Maybe the men of old were 17 feet tall, their archways stand for hundreds of feet and some of the pillars that we walked by seemed to be 3-5 foot in diameter.  It is like walking through the land that Jack in the beanstalk entered upon when he climbed the beanstalk.  It feels like we are walking where giants have lived.

We look down upon what was the floor of the Coliseum.  The stage floor has worn away and we can see the maze of cages that sat beneath the floor.  We peer down into the crevices and, in my mind, I can see warriors and lions trapped behind the walls, eagerly waiting to fight in the giant stadium.

Once around the giant loop we climb the stairs to get an even higher view.  The steps are tall and very worn.  The stone is slippery from years and years of feet prodding past.  I hold onto the iron railing and pull myself up the stairs to the platform above.  There are definitely some photo opportunities here.  We stop for pictures and saunter around, soaking up both the sun and the view.

We are in the Coliseum in Rome.  It is a bit surreal.  We are walking on something that I have read about and seen pictures of my whole life.  The history books come alive as I feel the stadium beneath my feet.  History class would have been so much more interesting had I walked here prior to trying to read about the events of the past.  The words in the books seemed lifeless and lacking meaning until you see the ruins and walk the path.

We climb down the steps and walk to the back of the building to get a few family pictures. 

I suddenly miss my daughter terribly, thinking about the trip her and I experienced here together and realizing that she is grown, and now a mother herself.  I mourn those years, thankful for them, yet missing the days of her childhood and the long years I spent daily interacting with my amazing daughter.   Someday I will look back on these days, longing for Caleb’s childhood and missing our daily interactions.  A lump forms in my throat and it is as if I am in a time machine and I can see the date being set forward and the world turning right before my eyes. 

Life is short.  We make a long list of “Somedays” and we find ourselves living few of our hopes and dreams.  We get caught up in ‘today’ and we don’t make ‘tomorrow’ what it should be.  We believe that there are hundreds of tomorrows, and there may not be.  I think on all this as I am in the midst of writing my next book, meant to inspire YOU to live the life you are dreaming of.  I wonder what motivating words I can put down on paper to spark light in the lives of so many living in monotony and mundane existences.  I pray, seeking guidance, as I sit on the steps of the Coliseum and think about the next year of my life.  Where will it take me, where will I end up one year from now, what adventures await me?

What adventures are awaiting you?  Where do your dreams take you?  What would it take for you to plan to ‘live’ one of your dreams?  I challenge you to dig deep, to read and understand your innermost thoughts and to find within yourself the dreams that you have left lay stagnant.

Rome- The Spanish Steps & The Trevi Fountain

Once refreshed, we walk for about 10 minutes to the famous Spanish Steps.  People are milling about and snapping pictures of the view.  The sun is starting to wane in the sky, yet the temperature is still warm.  I think back to 10 years ago when I was here.  I think about all that has transpired in the last 10 years and have a moment  to ponder about life, the speed in which it is passing, and the handsome baby boy in front of me that is now 13 years old.  Soon he will be off to college and these moments will be in the past.  I have but only a short amount of time with him left and I spend these moments savoring the minutes as if they were hours.

Just down the street from the Spanish Steps is the Trevi Fountain.  It never fails to take my breath away.  What a glorious fountain it is.  Even though they have created a small replica of this fountain in Las Vegas, it pales in comparison to the Italian work of art before us.

Metal benches surround the front of the fountain and lovers, families, and people sit in awe, staring at the famous fountain.  Some throw coins into its expansive waters, making a wish for a dream that they’d like to come true.  I think of my 3 beautiful children and realize that God has blessed me with more than I could have ever hoped or dreamed for.

The sky is the bluest of blue and it seems to draw constrast to the white of the fountain before me.  The horses look so real, it is as if they could come alive and bound out of the fountain, running off to fight a battle.  I walk back and forth in front of the fountain and, yes, from every vantage point it is amazingly beautiful.  I suppose I should look up beautiful in the thesaurus, because I feel that I must find more words to describe the beauty before me.

We decide that dining next to these world renown destinations is as much fun as seeing them, so we sit down to have dinner right next to the Trevi Fountain and order course 1.  There is a definitive ‘course’ for pasta, it is course 1, and the meat then follows in course 2.  We struggle to get use to the defined courses, learning to slowly consume our dinner one slow course at a time.  I think we are so use to rushing in the states, that it is a dramatic shift in both thinking and actions.

Everywhere you look in Rome there is a sight to see.  It is as if they are sprinkled throughout this great city.  A walk around Rome is like an archeological exploration.  Views of ruins surround us, and it is so drastically different than what we have come to expect in the states, we stare in every direction, absorbing the views and soaking it all in.

We retreat back to the Westin Excelsior to relax, and plan for our touring the following day.  We stop by the concierge desk to ask for opening times and specifics.  We are disappointed to learn that the Sistine Chapel is closed on Sundays and we realize that we will not get to see Michael Angelo’s greatest work while in Rome.  I found it to be a highlight of my trip when I was last in Rome. 

We carefully map out our plan for the following day and drift off to sleep in the comfort of our beds at the Westin Excelsior.

Driving to Rome and Arriving at the Westin Excelsior

We pack our suitcases into the rental car and stare at the map, looking for a good route from Florence (Firenze in Italian) to Rome (Roma in Italian).  The trip is calculating online to be about 3 hours drive from Florence to Rome, starting out on the Autostrada A1 South.  We follow a combination of our iphone map and the physical map and follow the green signs to the A1 Autostrada.

We pass pedestrians and motorcycles.  Motorcycles are still the predominate means of transportation in these European cities, along with an usually large percentage of the tiniest Smart cars that I have ever seen.

Soon we are on the Autostrada and heading south on A1.  The landscapes quickly turns from city views to lush green pastures and mountains.  We pass horses grazing and grape field after grape field.  We are going about 140 Kilometers an hour and the time passes quicly.

Once into Rome we revert to our iphone map to find the Westin Excelsior Resort (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=70).  

We drive into the resort and breath a sigh of relief at our safe and successful drive from Florence.  The hotel is beautiful.  It is like covering ourselves in a blanket of luxury and comfort.  The staff is amazing, right from the front desk, to the concierge desk, to the luggage porters- all are full of smiles and eager to welcome us to Rome.

We saunter up the steps to get a little exercise after our car ride and put our key into a 1 bedroom suite on the 4^th floor.  It is beautifully decorated, and contains a comfortable living room and bedroom.  On the table is a welcome bottle of champaign and a bountiful basket of fruit. 

We sit down, put our feet up- and let the excitement sink in.  We are at our final destination on our tour prior to heading back to Dallas.

Florence Tour of the Statue of David

The line to the famous Ufizzi Gallary is long.  10 years ago, we walked it's halls with Heather as a teenager.  The line wraps around the building.  Caleb is not interested in the extremely long line, so we pause a moment, sitting on the steps and laughing at a very amusing mime.  He is walking behind people, mimicking their walk and movements and they do not know that someone is behind them.

He saunters around, kissing girls on the cheeks (and leaving them smothered in white makeup) and generally making us all laugh.  We enjoy his comedy and then saunter off to walk to the Academia Gallery where the original statue of David is kept.  When we were last in Florence, we did not get to see the original statue of David.

(edited for family friendly viewing)

The line to the Accademia Gallery (http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-museums/accademia-gallery.html) is not long.  We buy tickets for 11 euros each begin our walk through the Gallery.   The statue of David (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)) is quite large.  It is 17 feet in height, and it sits on a pedestal that is 5 or 6 feet in height.  I tried to take a picture of the statue and a lady was yelling at me in Italian.  I thought she was trying to tell me not to use a flash, but apparently she was telling me that there are no photos allowed within the gallery.

in 1464, the Operai contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David. A block of marble was provided, from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet and the torso, roughing out some drapery and probably gouging a hole between the legs. His association with the project ceased, for reasons unknown, with the death of Donatello in 1466, and ten years later Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off.

The block of marble that is now the statue of David, was neglected for twenty-five years, started and worked on briefly, then deserted for unknown reasons.  In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine." A year later, the Operai was determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art. Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, but it was Michelangelo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelangelo), who was only twenty-six years old, who convinced the Operai that he deserved to do the job. On August 16, 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task. He began carving the statue and worked on the massive biblical hero for more than two years and completed it in 1504.

We stare at the statue, unable to fully appreciate the two years of work that went into it.  I laugh at what my mom would say about the naked statue, and wonder if David would have ever wanted his naked body in display for all to see, I think not.

Laugh....onwards towards more exploration.

Exploring Florence Italy

We wake up and walk to the deck of the Grand Baglioni hotel for breakfast.  The day is sunny and bright and the view from the deck atop the hotel is beautiful.  We walk up the steps to the highest point high atop the city and the view from this vantage point is simply amazing.

Breakfast is a buffet served in the restaurant.  We have a choice of inside or outside and we choose a vine covered seat on the deck.

I sit here quietly while Michael is walking around getting a little cardio in the morning, and I contemplate all that is life.  I am reading a book, titled, To Heaven and Back, and I think about life and the shortness of it.  I think everyone needs to ask themselves regularly, "am I living a full and rich life full of the things that I enjoy and living a life of no regrets?"    I ponder life, consider my purpose, and enjoy the incredible views.  A soft breeze is blowing and I'm enjoying the comfortable climate.

We then set off to explore the city.  Our first stop is the Tower.  We buy tickets to the museum and the tower and begin climbing the steps to the tower to enjoy the view.  The building has been here for hundreds of years, and the climb up the staircases feels a bit medieval.  One has visions of dungeons and fair madens locked away at the top. 

We climb away on staircase after staircase until we need to stop and rest.  Whew, can you imagine climbing these every day to 'stand watch' over the city?  It would be quite a daily cardio workout.

We keep climbing upwards to what seems like an endless number of stairs until we reach the top and the view. 

We sit for a moment, enjoying the cool breeze and walking around the top of the tower to get a view from each corner. 

Now the walk downwards is much easier and we sail down the stairs to explore the museum and see all its treasures.

We walk into a room with a globe that is at least 7 foot width and bredth.  The room is laden with maps and looks as if it could have been the office for an explorer.  It could inspire even the most timid traveler to take to the seas.  I visualize a famous Italian explorer, like Christopher Columbus sitting in this room and contemplating his next voyage.

We enjoy lunch by the Ufizzi Gallery and sit quietly, relaxing after our long trek to the tower's heights.

.....more to come..... (I break to enjoy Italy)

From Venice to Florence by Car

Today we take a water taxi to the Marco Polo Airport in Venice to rent a car from Hertz to drive to Florence. We will use the car to transport us to Florence and to Rome. Each city is about a 2 ½ hour drive, so we will use the car to finish up our self tour of Italy.

It takes about 25 minutes via personal water taxi to arrive at the airport. We hop into an Audi station wagon and load up all our bags for our trip to Florence. The car fits all our bags and we settle in for a 2 ½ hour drive. The roads are more winding than we remember. We run through tunnels and around bends in the road, passing Italian towns, farms, and the Italian countryside. The day is clear and bright and we drive easily south through Bologna towards Florence.

Once into the town, it becomes more difficult to locate the correct streets and turns and we are relieved when we pull into our hotel, The Grand Baglioni Hotel (http://www.hotelbaglioni.it/index_eng.html). The hotel is in a perfect location, just minutes away from the famous sites of the city. We check into the beautiful hotel, full of Italian history and take the elevator up to the 5th floor. At the top of the hotel is a panoramic view of the city. While we are here, the Tennessee College Basketball team is staying here as well on a tour of Florence and Rome.  There are tall basketball players found throughout the hotel today. 

From here we can get our bearings, getting a handle on exactly which direction to start our walk. A cool breeze is rustling through the grapevines surrounding covering a portion of the deck.

Onwards we walk to the Duomo (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or in English, the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower). This main church of Florence Italy was begun in 1296 and completed in 1436. The entire church is made of marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white. It is amazing to see. It’s pure size overwhelms you as you near it. It towers above our heads and we sit and stare at the massive structure.

We sit down outside the cathedral to have dinner. We are famished, and what better place to eat than at the base of the Duomo. We enjoy a traditional Italian dinner and marvel at the grand church before us.

Tomorrow we will spend the whole day exploring Florence before continuing our journey on to Rome.

Exploring Venice

The day starts out warm and bright. It is a beautiful day. We walk through the busy streets and stop in the City Center for cappuccino. The sun is beating down on us as we walk around town enjoying the city scenery. Caleb is still tucked away in his bed, sleeping in. Even in Venice, teenagers are still teenagers. Laugh.

We walk back to the hotel and rouse the teenager to join us in our walk to a nearby restaurant on the Grand Canal for breakfast. Breakfast is no longer being served at 10:50 am, so we enjoy chicken parmesan and pasta for breakfast. It is 7 hours later here in Venice than in our home time zone of CST.  Our bodies are still adjusting to the dramatic time difference. 

After breakfast we walk to the waterfront and decide to take another Gondola ride. It is relaxing and quiet to float around the waterways of Venice enjoying the view. The Gondola driver is singing in Italian and talking about significant historical events related to the bridges and the buildings as we pass them by. I’ve never been on the waterways when there were so many boats. We pass Gondolas, each filled with couples or families, here to enjoy a holiday in Venice.  Cruise ships drop off hoards of people and we see tour groups clumped together around various places all along the canal.

Once off the boat we meander through the streets of Venice, stopping here and there to shop. Caleb picks out a sweat shirt and we buy a few t-shirts for relatives. The Milano glass that is made here is incredibly beautiful. We look at jewelry, vases, and an assortment of articles made out of the Milano glass.

We make our own self-created walking tour of Venice and walk to the ‘suburbs’ , jig jagging through the small streets where the locals live, far off the beaten path of the tourists. We find this path enjoyable, and continue in our out of the way walk to see the sights that most don’t see. We walk by a grocery store, a hardware store, a playground, and a small center filled with locals enjoying wine and chatting it up. We find local restaurants, and wine shops.

We decide to walk to the famous Rialto Bridge. Thank goodness for GPS on the iphone, because it showed us exactly where to walk from where we ended up on our self-guided tour to arrive at the Rialto Bridge. We bought a local bottle of wine to sip on our walk and within 10 minutes, we were standing at the base of the Rialto Bridge.

Dinner was  a plate of seafood risotto and a plate of pasta in a small restaurant right off of San Marco Square. Prices are reasonable and we enjoy great local wine and Italian food. We saw, we experienced, and we tasted a bit of Venice Italy.

 

After a restful night’s sleep, we will embark on our next adventure. Onwards to Florence Italy and our stay at the Grand Baglioni Hotel (http://www.hotelbaglioni.it/index_eng.html).

Enjoying Venice

Once in Venice and settled in, we walk through the hustle of the crowds and find a small café to have dinner.  We each order sea bass and some pasta with a bottle of local wine.  Wine is actually cheaper to have in Italy than it is to order a Coke.  Most restaurants have house wine that is exceptional.  Our fish comes, grilled to perfection, skill encased in fins, skin, and a head for that is how they serve it in Italy.  We enjoy deliciously fresh fish and an amazing plate of pasta.  Dinner is fabulous.

After dinner we wander around San Marcos Square.  This large city center is filled with vacationers from around the globe, eagerly enjoying the local shopping, café’s and street vendors.  We drop into a few shops and look at the various things you can buy out of Milano glass and other articles for sale.  We look through a myriad of masks, decorated for carnival.  Vacationers are walking around the square in the masks that they purchased, and we are surrounded by frivolity and play.  Lovers are kissing intently and couples are holding hands.  Families are taking pictures and skipping and jaunting from place to place.

The Gondolas are still out and we hale a Gondola driver and decide to ride around Venice ala Gondola style in the peace of the cool night air.  For 35 minutes we cruise around Venice by boat, meandering through small channels and viewing the churches and sights along the way. 

We pass the home where Casanova lived and float past dozens of bridges, each decorated differently and having a design unique and unto its own. 

Once off the boat, we walk to San Marco Square.  The church stands tall behind us, a central landmark in the square.  Its bells sound as twelve bellowing clangs at the strike of midnight and the reverberations ring through the courtyard.  We sit at a café and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate here in Venice is more like a pudding.  It is rich and tasty.  Caleb adds milk to his chocolate drink and enjoys the hot chocolate piece of heaven. 

It is one of the things I remember most from my last trip to Venice when Heather was with me.  It is dreamy tasting.  I wonder what ingredients they combine to arrive at this tasty splendor.

Venice has a special appeal.  There is something spectacular about the many waterways and the hundreds of varying bridges.  There is a romance as you walk the streets and see lovers kissing and couples holding hands.  There is a magnetism in the air and the spirit is jovial and.  It is a city full of ambiance.  No where can you go and experience a city like this.  No place can mimick the appeal and the feel of Venice.

We are off to bed for tomorrow will be our first full day in Venice before he head off to Florence to discover yet another Italian city. 

The Train Ride to Venice Italy

We depart Paris early and head for the train. We board our first train at 7:45 in the morning heading for Italy.  Our schedule has us changing trains in Milan.  The first train is 6 hours, then an additional 2 ½ hours to Venice.  The train is comfortable and quiet. 

We are reading, watching the scenery and I’m writing on book 4.  It is relaxing.  I’m enjoying the quiet and the ability to just ‘be’.  No phones are ringing, no emails ‘dinging’, and no urgency to get to a meeting or run to the next
appointment.  It is life on vacation.  It is a reminder that often we pack too much activity into our lives. 

We don’t ‘sit’ and enjoy life enough.  We rush through our days and forget to stop, look around, and soak in the moment- remembering each little part of the scenery and sights and sounds around us.

When we arrive in Milan, we must change train stations and we hop into a cab for a 5 minute ride to Milan Centrele.  From there we walk onto our next train and arrive in Venice around 6:50PM in the evening.

The weather is about 84 degrees and we step off the train to an awaiting concierge.  We jump into a boat and are immediately overwhelmed by the beauty and magnificence that is Venice.  Ah, the city of islands and bridges.  It is actually made up of 188 islands connected by 400 bridges.  Ah, the flowers, the gondolas, and the views of aged buildings and interesting architecture.  Venice is a city unlike any other.  It is as individual as they get.

Our boat takes us to the hotel dock and we check into the Hotel Danieli.  Last time I was in Venice we stayed at the Hotel Bonvecchiati but it is booked full so we are trying a new hotel on this trip.  Our hotel is close to the San Marcos Square and we saunter over and enjoy the view.  It is busy time here in Venice.  We see crowds of people in the square, busy walking about, enjoying italian ice cream, coffee, and shopping at the assortment of shops surrounding the square.

We have 2 days to enjoy Venice before heading to Florence by car.  Our Italian adventure begins.