a family that gets sick together, sticks together

On Sunday night, the night after we hosted a get together for the USA vs. Portugal game of the World Cup, our family (excluding Calvin) came down with food poisoning. It was miserable. I just laid in bed for a while, wanting to throw up, but not nothing was moving. Kent was feeling sick, too, and was in the other bathroom. Then Win threw up all over his stuffed bear, Blackie, and on the floor. Calvin woke up because I think he was already sleeping on our bed and was walking around during the ordeal.

At one point, probably 3 AM, all four of us were awake on our bed watching Little Einsteins. I wanted it to be comical and it was, but it wasn't. We all just felt miserable, except little Calvin. Who knows how he didn't get it. Apparently, our family was the only one to get anything. We were worried it was the kebabs we served or the something in the waffles we made with Kent's family, but no. We still don't know what happened.

The rest of Monday was spent lounging around on the sofas, watching more soccer games and cartoons. Win was a trooper and so was Calvin. They both took great naps. It was fun having Dad home during the day on a weekday, but I wish it could have been under healthier circumstances.

Pompeii

After two full days in Rome, we made our way south to the Amalfi Coast. Visiting coastal Italy has been a dream of mine for a few years. When I worked for West Dermatology, I had to find someone to paint a mural of something "Italian" for one of their offices and I chose a drawing that was located in the Amalfi Coast. For this trip, I knew I wanted to visit either Cinque Terra or the Amalfi Coast and the latter won out because we were closer.

We took the bullet train down to Naples (it moved so fast it made my ears pop when going through tunnels) and from there we took a privately run Circumventa train down to Sorrento. On our way down, we heard some people talking about Pompeii. We knew we were close, but hadn't planned on visiting the site. As we got closer we asked our neighbors how close the train stop was to the ruins. They said they were within walking distance so Kent and I made a split-second decision, grabbed our luggage and made our way out the sliding doors.

I'm glad we did. Pompeii is probably the best preserved ancient Roman city there is. Kent described it as "eerie" because the neighborhoods were still intact. Really, it was just like a normal city, just very desolate. I loved that you could still see the colored plaster and mosaics, and the plaster casts were emotional to behold. It was a rushed tour because we wanted to get to our next destination, but like I said, it was worth it.

There she is, Mount Vesuvius. 

Rome - Day 2

We did all of the "pagan" sites the first day so we thought we would counter that with a full day of religiosity at the Vatican. We walked there from our hotel, which was located in the city center, not very close to our destination, but it was worth. It is better to explore big cities by foot if possible. Our feet were killing us by the end of the day, but like I said, it was worth it.

After a breakfast of chocolate-filled pastries, tarts, yogurt, bread, meat, muesli, etc. we made our way to the Vatican. 

Breakfast view…not too shabby.

We thought we would beat the crowd by getting there when it opened, but everyone else had the same idea and we all had to wait in one long security line. Once we were in we roamed around Saint Peter's Basilica for a couple of hours. It defines grandeur in my opinion. A worldly, religious grandeur if that makes sense.

 Saint Peter's Basilica

View before climbing to the tip-top of the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica. It kind of felt like we were in Angles & Demons. And see that line? It went from one side of the square (or circle) to the other.

We didn't take many photos inside the church, not sure why, but it was amazing. St. Peter's bones are supposedly buried there "definitely, maybe." That is what the Catholic church says because there are indeed bones from a man hailing from 1 AD. Kind of interesting. We touched Peter's worn, stone foot and marveled at the Pieta. It is beautiful. Really, it touched me. Made me emotional. I got so much more out of St. Peter's this time versus 12 years ago. Age and appreciation.

Feeling a little claustrophobic going up to the tip-top.

The second long line of the day was spent outside the Vatican Museum where the Sistine Chapel is housed. You have to exit the city and wait in line to get back in. We did get to eat lunch (which was only okay…disappointing since it's Italy) and I found some cute alphabet trains for Win and Calvin.

Talk about aching, but happy feet!

This was the Hall of Statues (or something to that affect). Just one of the many rooms you have to wind through in order to get to the Sistine Chapel.

The statues were really amazing. Michelangelo was inspired by many of them and some of them were in fact his. And Kent, he has the body of the The David or like a Roman god.

The School of Athens was amazing in person. My Humanities slides never gave it justice. Look at those colors? Vibrant and beautiful.

Tapestries. We were almost to the Sistine Chapel.

We couldn't take any photos of the chapel itself, but it was incredible like everyone says. So much time, so much detail, so much neck pain. Thank goodness we have Rick Steves with us that day so he could explain the panels and what was going on. Creation scenes across the top, prophets on the sides, muscular men in between each panel, large last judgment mural on the side. It was impressive to say the least.

The Pantheon. How it was build in 27 BC is beyond me. It was actually rebuilt in 80 AD. I suppose that's fairly old as well…

As you can see we were really tired here. It felt great to sit down on the pews for a bit. I think this was the first time we had sat down all day. Side note: Raphael is buried there. Who knew? Another interesting point, the ground is sunken in all around the Pantheon. The city has just grown around it. Like I said in my last post and it's super cliche, Rome wasn't built in a day. The phrase has a new meaning for me.

Cruising the town with a cup full of gelato. Hazelnut (Nicolla) was the best flavor in my book.

Lots of walking.

Lots of lovely things around every corner.

To end the day, we ate fresh lasagna with many other American tourists and found our way to the Spanish Steps. Was it worth more walking? Yes, indeed. I think we even spotted a couple of sister missionaries although we never confirmed that.