Day 8

Day 8 - Rome, Italy It is hard to believe that this is our last day in Europe. It seems to have gone by so quickly until we talk about all of the things that we have seen and done. So many things were on today's itinerary. We had a 6:45 am wake up call and were on the bus by 8:10 to head into Rome. Our hotel is outside of the city limits due to hotel availability and prices. After a quiet drive into the city (because a majority of us were trying to catch up on a bit of sleep), we parked just outside of the walls of the Vatican, the smallest country in the world. None of us had any idea how many tourists were on the other side of those walls! The line to enter was about 1/4 mile long, at the least. Fortunately being in a group, we were able to bypass that line and get a direct entry. We had to pass through security with our Vatican guide, Giuseppe, which was quite the experience. There were so many people there!!! It was challenging to hear Giuseppe as we went through the gardens and the galleries because the Vatican issued headsets were very poor quality, but we managed to muster through and try our best. We passed through so many galleries of statues and amazing architecture. On the gallery ceilings there were beautiful paintings that made them look as if they were 3D, in other words, painted as "tromp l'oeil". And finally, we arrived at the entrance of the Sistine Chapel! It was amazing, the artwork is indescribable...to actually see these paintings in person were phenomenal! Just knowing that Leonardo da Vinci spent so many years of his life painting these incredible works! And then realizing that the week before the Cardinals of the world met there to make the most important decision of the Catholic church!! WOW! From the Chapel, we moved over to St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world! It. Was. AH-mazing!! Pictures do not do this place justice! Being there made me appreciate it so much more. Being that we were there on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, there were tons and tons of people visiting the Basilica. The personnel at the Vatican were all getting prepared for Palm Sunday services and the first official mass from the new Pope, Francis I. After our Basilica tour, we had some free time for lunch and then we were going to our tour at the Colosseum and the Forum. Our tour guide was fabulous. She was an archaeologist who really knew her information. She gave us amazing details and interacted so nicely with our group. After this portion of our day in Rome, it was time to walk over to the restaurant, which was about 30 minutes away. We passed the Pantheon and several fountains along the way (Rome is known as the city of fountains). Dinner our last night was a green salad, pizza and a flan-type dessert. Dinner ended around 8 pm and we had the choice of returning to the hotel or staying in the city for 2 more hours to explore the monuments on our own. We split, some of us stayed and some of us returned to the hotel (which we fondly referred to as our "Shining Hotel" - as in the movie). Once at the hotel, I was witness to a shoe funeral for a pair of fav shoes which had literally been worn out and one boot, whose partner had been left in Nice, France. It was hard to believe that our trip was over and we were headed home in a few short hours. We had done so much in our time in Europe. Our exhaustion levels were high, but so worth it when we thought about everything that we had done. Hopefully everyone who saw the Trevi Fountain threw in their coins for their eventual return to Rome.

Day 7

Day 7 - Assisi and Orvieto We had another early morning since we were boarding the bus and headed towards Rome, via Assisi and a ceramics factory tour. I think today was a favorite day for many of the people on tour. We could tell that the sun was trying to break through (for the second day in a row). Today we would go from the region of Tuscany to the region of Umbria, the only landlocked region in Italy, known for its fabulous olive oil. Our first destination was a ceramics factory where we were told about the process of creating the beautiful ceramics of the region. It was fascinating to see all of the unique designs and vivid colors in the pottery, not unlike Mexican talavera pottery. We then traveled a few minutes to the hill town of Assisi, home to St. Francis, the patron saint of Italy (also the animals and the environment). This was a fabulous time to visit the town and the Cathedral since our latest pope has chosen the name of Francis. We parked the bus and walked up into town where we split for lunch and some exploring of the quaint streets of the town. It appeared to be more touristy than "real", I am not sure what the full time population is outside of the Franciscan friars who live there, but I can not imagine that there are too many people. A bit of Assisi history: this is the birthplace of St. Francis who was born into a wealthy merchant family, but renounced it all in the name of God. The Basilica that is in Assisi was built in his honor after his death. We were taken on a fabulous tour of the Basilica by Michael, a Franciscan friar from Pennsylvania, who has lived there for 6 1/2 years. He did an amazing job giving us the history of the Basilica, its frescoes and the fact that there are really 3 churches in 1 at that location. We were able to see the tomb of St. Francis, which was quite interesting. He told us that the purpose of all of the stained glass windows and paintings within churches was to convey propaganda to those who visited or worshiped at the church. He also explained the difference between a Basilica and a Cathedral...every Catholic diocese has one cathedral, or one "head" church, while there can be several Basilicas. In order for a church to become a Basilica, there has to be a special history or event that has happened there. A diocese then applies to the Vatican to get permission to be called a Basilica. From Assisi, we headed to a Medieval town of Orvieto, http://www.orvieto.ch/, a real town where real people live and function, on a daily basis. We were supposed to reach the town by funicular, but the workers were on strike, so our bus driver had to drive us to the top of the plateau where the town is located. We walked through the quaint streets past many shops, bars and restaurants. Many of the food shops had stuffed wild boars staring at us from the front, showing the importance of this animal in local culture. As we approached the church, all of our jaws dropped, it was GORGEOUS!! Again, we were free to wander. Many of us headed for a bar, not the same meaning as in the U.S., where we purchased gelato or cappuccinos. We walked back to the bus and headed for our final hotel, just outside of Rome. We arrived after about a 90 minute drive and ate dinner at 9. Our appetizer was a delish pasta with a traditional sauce from Rome, AMATRICIANA...delicious!! Our dessert was a tart with a wild berry jam filling. We finally called it a night around 11, just in time for a few hours of sleep before our last day in Italy. Hard to believe that it has passed so quickly!!

Day 6

Day 6 - Florence, Italy What an AMAZING city! Our day started off with a city walking tour and our guide was amazing! She was so knowledgeable and entertaining. She really kept all of us engaged with the information that she shared with us. Our first stop was the Duomo (Cathedral) of Firenze, the Italian name for Florence. Florence is known as the birthplace of the Renaissance period and the home of da Vinci's statue, David. Our guide led us past the city hall where we saw amazing statues of great Italian men, Amerigo Vespuce, Dante and Galileo, just to name a few. We visited the Ponte Vecchio where we saw the bridge lined with windows and windows of fine jewelry. One of our group members attempted to go in to one of the shops later in the day where she was not so kindly denied entrance. After about 90 minutes of walking the city, our guide took us to our leather demonstration which was actually more of a sales pitch. The only demonstration that was saw was the vendor embossing gold leaf onto a piece of leather. From there we were taken to the jewelry room where we received another sales pitch. A lot of group members did buy leather articles, coats, wallets, key chains, etc. since Florence and Italy, in general, is known for its fine leather. Giuseppe then let us loose for 6 1/2 hours in the city. A majority of us headed straight for lunch while others went for gelatos or shopping. There are so many museums in Florence that it is too difficult to see them all in one day. Personally, I dragged my family to the Gucci museum which was very interesting...for me, at least! We passed several groups throughout the day and most of them took full advantage of the great shopping in Florence. This region of Italy is also known for ceramics and Florence is full of shops with beautiful ceramic pieces unique to this area of Italy. Dinner was in Florence and we had caprese salad as an appetizer, roasted chicken and potatoes for the main course and a tart for dessert. We shared the restaurant with a group of middle school students from France who sang happy birthday in French and then Italian to someone in their group, it was quite entertaining! We boarded the bus and headed back to Montecatini where we called it a night.

Day 5

Day 5 - leaving Nice, France and headed into Italy. This was the earliest day yet, also the wettest. Our wake up call was at 6:45 am! We were packed and on the bus by 8:30. We followed the coast and began our trek into Italy. About two hours in (and several of us napping along the way), we stopped at an Auto Grille. There we were able to use tree restrooms and buy some shacks for the road. Giuseppe taught us the very important lesson of properly ordering an Italian coffee. The Italians take their coffee very seriously. So seriously that Starbucks market research depeartment decided not to open stores here! Our journey has taken us through the Alps and Oppenhime mountains. I can not even count how many tunnels we have driven through...enough that I gave up reading my magazines. We have passed by Genoa (Genova in Italian) and Caraba, home of the famous marble and its quarries. The marble quarries were difficult to see due to the rain and heavy clouds, but we have a general idea. We stopped at another Auto Grille for lunch. The sandwiches were AMAZING, as was the pizza. The slices were enormous!! Everything seems to be so fresh. The Auto Grille is what we woild call a truck stop. There are some beautiful pastas and beverages that are available for purchase. Some of us bought packets of salami, cheese, olives and crackers. We have discovered Pocket Coffers by the geniuses at Ferrero Rocher. They are little squares of chocolate with a burst of espresso in the middle! DELISH! We arrived in Pisa at 2 and watched as many men came running to our bus to sell us umbrellas. I have never seen such a site! We walked as a group to the tower, dodging both the rain and all of the men who were pushing umbrellas. It was an amazing site as we came around the corner to the Piazza Miracle. The tower seemed to peek around the church in front of us. It was as if we walked into the page of a history textbook. We had a bit of free time before heading into the cathedral and the baptistery. Seeing that the weather was not going to clear up, we walked back to the bus...very wet and chilly. Again the men selling umbrellas tagged along with us. We also saw gypsies throughout the town. Today was a good day to target tourists due to the distraction of the rain. Our hotel is located in Montecatini Terms, not too far from Pisa and Florence (our destination tomorrow). We had time between check in and dinner, which was at the hotel. Some of us took little snoozes, others went out exploring. Dinner was pasta as an appetizer, pork and roasted potatoes and a tirra misu ice cream dessert. This has been our earliest evening in so far. A few of us headed out on search of cappucino and gelato, the rest of us headed to our rooms for an early to bed type of night.

Day 4

Nice, France - another amazing day. I'm pretty sure that we would all move here given the opportunity. The morning started off early again, so we were dragging a bit. We were fortunate today in that there was sun. Our view as we stepped out of the hotel were the snow capped maritime Alps, breathtaking. We boarded the bus and headed for Eze, a city instrumental in the perfume industry of France. We took a guided tour of Fragonard, a perfume company that has been in existance for over a century. We touted the factory where they make many of their soaps, creams and other beauty products. Our guide explained the job of Le Nez, the nose, and his/her ability to distinguish over 2000 different scents. One must go to school and training for 10 years before earning the title of Nez! We were given the chance to do our own smelling of scents, rose, lily of the valley, coffee, chocolate, orange and lemon. It was an interesting experience. From Eze we headed along the coast to Monaco. That is when a good majority of us decided that it would be a fabulous place to live, provided money was not an issue. It is amazingly green and the Mediterranean is such a rich blue. The breeze was blowing in off of the water and the sun was shining brighter than it has during our entire trip, it could not have been more perfect! Once in Monaco, we left the bus and took the elevator up to the city where we saw the cathedral where Grace Kelly is buried and the castle. It is such a quaint town. We had some free time to wander and explore. Many of us took advantage of the many little restaurants and had some lunch. Some of the more adventurous went in search of escargots! (Despite some woman telling them that there is no escargots in Monaco!) The park that overlooks the sea is amazing as well. So many blooming flowers, the colors a beautiful contrast to the lush green grass. We met up at the Yellow Submarine in front of their aquarium and walked back to the bus. A short ride later we went to the world famous Monte Carlo casino. It was fun being on the steps of such an iconic building. Out front we were treated to a virtual car show of lamborginis and ferraris...the tippy top of money cars. Only once did the Casino security have to tell tourists to stop leaning on the cars. We took a nice bus ride back to Nice where we did a bit of shopping before dinner. Many of us walked to the beach where we were able to truly experience the Mediterranean!! Some of us had wet feet for the rest of the night. :) Dinner was meatloaf in mushroom gravy with frites (fries). A very typical pairing in Ftance. Many meat dishes are served with fries at lunch and dinner. Chocolate mousse was served for dessert. This was the earliest night back to our hotel rooms, 9pm. We repacked our bags for our trip to Italy tomorrow. Hard to believe that our voyage is half over!! It will be nice to have some bus time to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Day 2

Day 2 Happy St. Patrick's day from Paris. The weather started off beautifully, but ended on a cold and wet note. We did so many things today. We started off at the hotel with breakfast. Pretty typical for a French breakfast...croissants, pain au chocolat, fruit, yogurt, crepes and beverages ranging from expressly to apple juice. I think the apple juice was the hit of the morning for the kids because it is so different from what we are used to in the States. At 9am our coach hus pulled up and we hopped on board for a bus tour of Paris. We left La Defense area and headed for Paris where we would pick up our morning tour guide, Paval. These city guides are so knowledgeable about Paris. They have the best stories and amazing details about the city. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate all of his military victories. From there we drove down the Champs Elysee and all of the American stores that line the avenue. The latest addition is Abercrombie and Fitch. Other monuments we saw and photographed were Les Invalides, La Tour Eiffel, Luxembourg gardens, the Louvre, Tuilerie gardens, and we ended at Notre Dame which is on Ile de la Cite. From there we split up, changed and withdrew money and headed for a quick lunch. People ate everything from pizza and sandwiches to beef Burgundy and duck. We then met Giuseppe, caught the metro (the subway) and went over to the Eiffel Tower for a trek up to the 3rd level. By now the temperature dropped a bit, the sun has gone behind the clouds and the rain has started. As we finally arrived at the top, the wind was blowing so hard, but the view is amazing from up there! (I will try to post pics tomorrow). At 4pm we reconvened as a group, 47 in total, and took the metro back to Montmartre for some quick shopping and dinner. Tonight's meal was quiche, roasted chicken, green beans,nrice and apple pie for desert...the concensus was that it was a good meal. Next on the itinerary was a boat tour on the river Seine. Our metronride over was entertaining for some of us due tonthe Scottish men, kilts included, who were celebrating St. Patrick's day andnsome rugby. They entertained with a rendition of "Deep In The Heart of Texas", claps included. Despite being cold and wet, the scenery was amazing and we arrived at the base of the Eiffel Tower just in time to see the twinkle lights that sparkle every hour on the hour for 5 minutes. Beautiful! The boat tour gave us a chance to see many of the same monuments from a much different perspective. It was about an hour long and we were all more than ready to head back to the hotel for a hot shower and some sleep. We have decided that French people are so skinny due to all of the steps that they must walk, especially in Paris. :) Tomorrow will be equally busy and I hope to include some pictures for everyone to see... a remain!

Day 3

March 18,2013 Our last day in Paris. Again it was a bit chilly, but most of the day was spent indoors. Breakfast was at 8 and we were to be packed and ready to go at that point. We had our choice of pasteries, crepes, yogurt and fruit. At 9 we headed to the Louvre for some exploration time. A majority of us headed for Le Joconde, aka the Mona Lisa. We had about 4 hours of time to wander the museum and do some exploring of the surrounding neighborhood. I know some people went shopping and others stayed in he Louvre. Did you know that the Louvre is the largest museum in the world? And part of their collection is in storage because they can not display all of the relics? Crazy... We caught the bus and headed back towards Ile de la Cite for lunch. We had Flam, a traditional dish from the Alsace region. Similar to a pizza, Flam is thin crusted and has a creamy cheese layer with meat, veggies, or dessert - chocolate or apple with cinnamon. Our bus driver, Christian then took us to the Gare de Lyon where we boarded a 4:49pm train for Nice. For the most part our trip was uneventful and restful, er managed to offend one couple, but I think they were uptight to start with... Start of day 4 - we arrived at the hotel last night at midnight and I was too exhausted to post. We are now on the bus that will take us the rest of the way on our voyage. The drive to the hotel was full of twists and turns as we climbed to the top of Nice so fortunately it was dark and we couldn't see :) I will add more tonight, provided I can get onto the Internet.

Day 1

Nanterre - 11pm local time Here we are, after a very long day and lots of sitting time, our tired group arrived in Paris at 1pm local time. We arrived (finally) at the Campanile Nanterre at 4pm. There was some misunderstanding along the way, but we benefitted with a nice bus tour of the city, seeing all of the top tourist spots along the way. After a quick hotel check in, we followed our tour director, Giuseppe, and the California group to the RER train which we took to get to dinner at Les Balcons. Dinner was a cheese pie appetizer, pork chop with mushroom gravy and au gratin potatoes rounded off with a chocolate eclair. From dinner, we took a nice walk up to Montmartre and the Basilique Sacred Fleur, the highest point in Paris. Of course to get to the top we had to hike up over 200 steps. I suppose we worked off our dinner. We returned to the hotel at 9 where we decided to call it a night. Tomorrow is an early morning city bus tour...

One week out...

And here we go!  We are 8 days away from our departure and I know that there are several excited people at my house!!

We will be traveling with a group of students and adults from Apple Valley Christian School in Hesperia, California. They will meet us in Paris. Here is a link to their blog, take a look when you have a chance!!  

A few things to remember:

• Your passport, of all things, please quadruple check that you have your passport!!!
• All liquids must be less than 3 ounces and in a quart size zip-loc bag if you are carrying them on the plane. 
• If you wear contacts, bring an extra pair or two, just in case. 
• The luggage you bring is the luggage you carry!

Please be at El Paso International Airport by 11:30 on Friday, March 15, 2013. I will see you in front of the American Airlines counter!!  

This is going to be a fabulous trip!  A piu tardi!!