First of all, please know how incredibly grateful we are to have this amazing year abroad ... not only having the experience of living in Europe, but also being able to travel so easily all over! We do have a normal life of work, school, cooking, running errands … the daily grind … just more holidays and closer proximity to other countries! Also, I am “blogging” our European adventure not only to share with you in hopes that you will experience some of this but also as a journal for our family.

I highly recommend Italy in October ... there are still crowds, but the weather is delightful ... mid 70’s in the day and 60’s at night! The sunny skies and perfect weather came at a great time after 3-4 weeks of rain in Haarlem! But beware, the rainy season starts in late October in Italy!

ROME

Experiencing St. Peter’s Basilica by attending a mass with Pope Francis was for me beyond amazing. I have wanted to attend mass in St. Peter’s all of my adult life and it was everything I imagined and more! Even picking up the tickets was an experience, with instructions to “Go to the Bronze Door at the right-hand colonnade,” and not mentioning it would involve the pomp and ceremony of changing of the “jester-dressed” guards and an announcement of a guest! I would love for the kids to have experienced this, but only one of us could go. Sorry, no pictures either! If you would like to attend a Papal Mass, you can look at the Papal calendar and request tickets by writing to Prefecture of the Papal Household.

The Mass was the Worldwide Missionary Mass and different parts of the mass were spoken in mulitiple languages. I “saw” Pope John Paul II in Madrid in the early 90’s with probably a million people standing in the same spot for 8 hours, but never really seeing him ... it too was amazing, but to have a seat 70 yards from the Pope, sitting in the holiest Catholic church, in his presence for over an hour was glorious! Then to walk out of St. Peter’s and see the thousands of people in the square waiting for the Pope to address the crowd from the window … wow!

Two days later, we visited the rest of the Vatican, including the Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s “Skip the Line Tour”. Although it is a must to see all of the above, know that “skip the line” doesn’t mean you will skip every line, you will still wait in the tour group line. The whole process of security and lines takes about 45 minutes before you are even in the Vatican! Sebastian thought it was really cool to “walk” from the hotel and arrive in another country in about a mile (well, 2 kilometers)! I really enjoyed seeing the Vatican Museum after the Forum and Palatine Hill, knowing many of the sculptures and artifacts came from there. Or perhaps for some, it may help to visualize what the Forum and Palatine Hill looked like by seeing the artifacts first? Either way, it is so amazing walking through 2000 years of history, but know it is CROWDED!

ROMAN AROUND

We visited the Colosseum (historically known as the Flavian Amphitheater), Palatine Hill and the Forum with a Walks Tour group. I highly recommend the Gladiator Gate and arena floor tour. It allows you access to the lower level which isn’t part of the normal entry ticket and to “skip the line” for real! The big takeaway for the kids was that Ancient Roman life was somewhat similar to life today … although slightly more brutal. Ladies met their friends at the spa and baths, men and woman (although they couldn’t sit together) enjoyed going to the Colosseum for a day filled with various games and entertainment. They activities ranging from announcements of “news”, hunting exotic animals with props creating various natural scene, prisoners fed to the lions, public executions, and, of course, the Gladiators.

On the way home in the evening, we walked past a pub, and they had the Clemson game playing, with Clemson fans in the bar! What fun to get a little TIGER moment during our trip!

SPERLONGA

In the small coastal village of Sperlonga, between Rome and Naples, is the Villa di Tiberio and Grotto … the subject of Ellerbe’s project last year in her Classics class.

Getting there was part of the adventure, with an 11-hour travel time via Italian trains and buses! We arrived in the small town of Fondi where we assumed we could get a taxi to Sperlonga. There was a sign for the Taxi and a number, but when David called it, it is a one man show and he wasn’t in town … so, on the local bus we went! We dropped our bags at a small beach hotel, walked a mile on the beach to the museum and experienced the ruins of the villa and grotto.

VILLA DI TIBERIO, by Ellerbe

Visiting the Villa di Tiberio was definitely a highlight of my trip, along with the forum and colosseum tour. It was amazing to see these ancient ruins, and I think that studying the sites last year made them even more fascinating for me. It was amazing to see these artifacts I had only seen in pictures and knew so much about in person. Although I knew what the grotto and statues looked like, and I knew the statues were amazing and life-size, it was still amazing to see it all in person and it exceeded my expectations. The statues include The Blinding of Polyphemus, The Theft of the Palladium, The Pasquino Group, and An Encounter with Scylla. I enjoyed seeing the statues and artifacts before seeing the grotto because it helps to imagine how amazing the site must have been. The statues were amazing to see in person, but the seeing the grotto was my favorite part of the experience.

We walked out of the museum down to the grotto. First, we walked through ruins of the house itself. Then we walked in and around the grotto. My dad said that he wishes they had the statues inside the grotto, so we could see what it used to look like instead of on display in the museum. I agree that it would be amazing to see the site how it was during Tiberius’ reign, but I was glad they displayed the statues in the museum. I’m glad the statues are in the museum because if not we wouldn’t be able to wander the grotto the same way we can without the statues being there. My favorite part of the experience was that the grotto seemed untouched and we were allowed to walk in the grotto, walk on the thin brick walls lining the pool outside the grotto, walk wherever we wanted to on the site instead of it being protected because of the art inside. Overall it was a great experience to visit a small town in Italy and walk the beach to the grotto. It was especially fascinating because of how much time I’d spent learning about it and because we were able to wander all over the site.

HAPPRI IN CAPRI

We took an all-day boat excursion around Capri as well as spending 4 hours enjoying the shopping and restaurants. The dramatic coastline of Capri is like no other I’ve seen. Capri is a must see in my opinion and I highly recommend taking a private boat or small group tour. We saw the white, green and blue grottos, Faraglioni, swam in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and loved the shopping.

SORRENTO & THE AMALFI COAST

Thanks to our great friend and NYC restauranteur Rocco for recommending his hometown of Sorrento as our base for the Amalfi Coast! From there we took a private driving tour of Positano, Amalfi and Ravello.

Sorrento is the “gateway” to the Amalfi Coast with the first town a short 20 minute drive to the opposite side of the peninsula. Our first stop was the lovely cliff hanging town of the Positano. I could easily have spent a day in Positano … charming, great shopping and great food. The town of Amalfi is the most touristy of the three and honestly, I recommend skipping it and moving on to Ravello, which is on the top of the mountain overlooking the Amalfi Coast.

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast has hands down the best tomatoes, lemons and oranges ever! We loved all of the food here……the Caprese and tomato bruschetta, the lemon cakes, lemon candies and pies, the fresh orange juice, seafood and of course the limoncello!

A DEII IN POMPEII

Pompeii was the biggest surprise of the trip for me……truly remarkable! After a “tour filled” vacation, the kids really did not want to have a tour of Pompeii, but instead preferred the audio guide. The audio guide was fine, but if I had it to do over again, I would definitely have a tour. It is far more massive and interesting than I had imagined and I left really wanting to understand more! It is just so fascinating to see the planned city from over 2200 years ago with a city grid, Forum, shops, basilica, temples, an arena and more!

That concludes my blog for Italy! Looking forward to sharing more with you about our life in Europe!