Hi Everyone --

I can't put it off any longer. I have to write about our trip to Italy!

We had an after midnight flight from Mumbai to Amsterdam, which meant we left about 6 p.m. for our 4 hour drive to Mumbai. We made it fine (Feroz is a good driver) and we went to have dinner at the Leela Hotel. It's a very expensive hotel and our dinner was about $50. That was just getting us ready for meals in Italy! We caught our flight and landed in Amsterdam about 6:30 a.m. and had some European breakfast -- croissants and hot chocolate. We then headed to our next flight and arrived in Rome about 1 p.m. We caught the train from the airport to the main train terminal in Rome and then walked to our hotel. It was a nice 3-star hotel and our rooms were on the 4th floor. We usually walked up, unless we were so tired we couldn't walk any more. Doug and Hannah found some pizza and I had a nap. We strolled around to get our bearings and had dinner and went to bed early.

Our hotel had a great breakfast -- fresh croissants that were filled with vanilla or chocolate cream, other pastries, meat and cheese and rolls, juice, hot chocolate and fruit. We didn't appreciate that nice breakfast enough! We walked and found the tourist office and bought 3 Roma passes -- which included a metro pass for 3 days unlimited riding, and free museums for the first 2 museums we went to, and then 1/2 price for any museums after that. We rode the metro a lot while we were there and used all our museum passes, so we felt like we got a good deal. We saw the Church of St. Mary's of the Angels and Martyrs, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus, the Victor Immanuel Monument (tomb of the unknown soldiers), Santa Maria Sopra Museum church, the elephant and obelisk statue, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Church of San Luigi de Francesi, and Trevi Fountain. I think we were tired!!! We had pizza from a little shop where they cut the piece of pizza to the number of grams you order then take your pizza and sit and eat it on the steps of the church. We also had some great gelato! We did get dinner (only the American tourists eat at 5 or 6 p.m.) and headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted. We did get a great picture of Hannah and a Roman gladiator. Those guys were dressed up and all around the Colosseum willing to have their pictures taken with you for 5 euros. We got a bargain, and Hannah's pictures were only 3 euros.

Saturday we had breakfast at the hotel again and headed to the Vatican. We were going to go to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel first, but it was closed -- the only Saturday all year that they were closed. It was because it was All Saints Day. So we went to St. Peters Square and into the cathedral. While we were wandering around in there, a procession started coming though and the Pope and all his helpers went by to have mass in the cathedral. We didn't get to go see all the things in there because they had the front part sectioned off for mass. We wandered outside after mass and the Pope was in his window with the red banner hanging out and he was speaking to all the people in St. Peters Square. First he gave a message in Italian, then French, English, Spanish, and Polish wishing us all a happy and peaceful All Saints Day. We wandered down the street and found another pizza place and had pizza again for lunch. I think I could really like that! We walked to Castel San Angelo went through the museum there. Then we wandered back to St. Peters Square and just sat by the columns and watched all the people. We took the metro from there to the Spanish Steps and were amazed at all the people there. It was like India -- just throngs of people wandering and milling about. We then walked to the Piazza Del Popolo, saw the twin churches. Our legs were so tired! We had dinner at Burger King (a real treat!) and went back to the hotel by the metro. Again, it was another early bedtime.

Sunday we took the metro to church. We had a bit of a walk from the station, but we made it while they were singing the opening song. The service was in Italian, which was fine, but there were plenty of foreigners there, that Italian was their second language. The people of Rome are very happy about their coming temple, which will be built in NE Rome near the Mission Office. We had a great lunch on the way back to the hotel, took a 1 hour rest, and went to the National Museum of Rome. I really enjoyed the huge and old mosaics and imagined their patterns would make beautiful quilts. We had dinner on the street in the Piazza de Independence and went back to the hotel for the night. Tired again!

Monday we had breakfast at the hotel and walked to the train station to catch the train to Florence. It was about 1 1/2 hour train ride and very nice. We also walked to our hotel again and got registered. This 3-star hotel was in an older building also with a funny old elevator with iron and wood doors that we had to open and close. Hannah was a bit nervous at first, but we also appreciated it since we were again on the 3rd floor. The market was close to our place and we were excited to explore there. We found a local's hangout and ordered sandwiches -- Hannah didn't appreciate hers still very pink, but they were good sandwiches. We walked to the Duomo, and it rained hard. Luckily we had bought umbrellas from our Bangladeshi friends in Rome and didn't need to buy more here. We were so wet, we went back to the hotel to dry a bit, then we were back out walking to Santa Maria Novella, Piazza della Republica (where there was a carousel and live musicians playing), Piazza Vecchio, and then dinner of pizza, tortolini, and canoloni, then back to the hotel. We just didn't have any trouble sleeping at all!

Tuesday we needed to do laundry. There was a laundromat just down the street and around the corner from our hotel. We had 2 loads and it took an hour. Our hotel in Florence didn't come with breakfast, we just went out on the street to find a shop where we could get some pastries. We finished up the laundry and went to the Galleria del Uffizi, but we didn't go in because the line was too long. We went to the Bargello Museum and had lunch (pizza, pizza, and ravioli), then went to the Piazza Santa Croce, but didn't go in again. We wandered around some more and found some really decadent Belgian style waffles with whipped cream and chocolate. Hannah and I thought they were just single, but they popped another waffled right on top. We couldn't even open our mouths that wide! We found a 99 Euro store and had to walk through, and Doug found an Internet cafe. Then back to the hotel to dry off again. Dinner found us at a place recommended by Rick Steves, and we had sausage with beans, legume soup, and spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes. Back to the hotel exhausted!

Wednesday we headed out early. We walked to Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Pitti, went through the Museums Dalleria Palatina and Galleria D'Arte Moderna. We found a place to have lunch at Piazza Santo Spirito and had ears with broccoli, butterflies with zucchini and artichokes, and canoloni with spinach. You have to guess who had what! We did some shopping and found a couple belts for Doug (a hard choice) and some gifts. We talked to Michelle at the Internet cafe. We went back to the hotel and Doug needed a new book, so he went wandering for a bookstore. We had a nice dinner with Caesar salads, sliced beef with roasted potatoes and pasta with artichokes, and goulash with potatoes. We stopped for gelato on the way back to the hotel.

Thursday we wandered around the market some more, and we found the fruit and vegetable markets. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us, but we saw the most beautiful cauliflower -- huge and white and nice! We caught the train back to Rome and took the train back to the airport. We had to fine a cab to take us to our next hotel, which was a bed and breakfast. We had a mediocre lunch at the airport. Again, it was raining! We checked in about 4 p.m. and just read books and rested. The owner of the bed and breakfast had a restaurant down the street and round the corner. It was Italian and Egyptian, because her dad was Egyptian, so we could have schwarma and spaghetti. At the bed and breakfast, we were given a key to our room and about 6 other keys. We had to lock the outside gate, lock the door to the house, close the inside door, and then lock our room. We didn't even think there were other people staying there, but finally someone made some noise. It was a double decker room, and Hannah slept in the top. It was a nice place -- again a 3-star.

Friday we took the bus to the central bus station in Ostia, then took the metro to Ostia Antica. This is the old Roman seaport and it's mostly in ruins now. We wandered around in there all morning, and it was a nice day. We had lunch (lasagna, calzone, and pizza) in town then walked out to the beach. We wandered along there and then climbed up onto the pier. I'm just not as young as I used to be! How embarrassing! We did enjoy the view and just being outside in clean air. We stopped for gelato and walked back to the bus station. Of course, by this time we didn't know which bus took us back to the bed and breakfast. We asked around, they stopped a bus leaving the station and put us on it. Luckily we made it back! We had dinner again at the dad's restaurant of antipasti, rigatoni, veal and prosciutto, and french fries. While we were eating it started thundering and lightning and we had to walk back in the rain. We had hot chocolate and went to bed.

Saturday, the cab came for us at 4 a.m. to take us to the airport. Our flight was 6:10 a.m. to Amsterdam. We barely made our connection to Mumbai. We were caught in huge lines going through from the domestic side of the airport to the international side of the airport. Our flight started boarding at 8:45 a.m., we landed at 9 a.m., and our flight left at 10 a.m. We didn't even have time for a burger or anything. Sad! We landed in Mumbai at mightnight and found Doug's name on one of the numerous nameboards outside the Mumbai airport. We got a courtesy car from the airport to the Leela Hotel. We finally got to bed about 2:30 a.m.

Sunday the alarm didn't go off! We got up and showered as fast as we could, had the buffet breakfast at the hotel, and Feroz was outside waiting for us. We made it to church during the opening song. There were new people in Mumbai that will be here for a few years, there were some that have already left, and there were the familiar faces. We had pot luck then left for home at 2 p.m. We got home at 4 p.m. and found the electricity off. This is the new electricity program -- no power from 8:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and no power from 4:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. It's getting dark now at 5:30 p.m., so there's not much we can do during that time.

We were glad to be home. We had a wonderful time. There were plenty of things we weren't able to see, so we'll just have to go back again!

We hope all is well!
Love, Lucinda

p.s. We had a good time. The museums, houses and cities were so clean and pretty. Everything was so expensive in Italy as we are use to really cheap (and not so good food). Dad