Fiumicino!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was the summer of my foot's discontent.

Hahaha, just kidding. Depsite my badly formed feet, we had a lot of fun in Rome. It's dirty, noisey, polluted (what place isn't at this point), and it was HOT, but I am thankful.

I am thankful to have been given the chance to see history, beauty, the birth place of civilization, to have stood on grounds once walked on by Roman Emporers, soldiers, citizens, to have drunk from the same crystal clear water fountains popes of many hundres of years ago drank from, and finally, thankful to gaze upon the brush strokes of Michaelangelo...to have gazed upon that ceiling the way he did long ago to check his work, then climb back up on his scaffoldiing to continue this awesome labor of love. How absolutely fantastic it was! And this was just the touristy sights!

Everywhere we walked in Rome, something appealed to our fancy. Office buildings, churches, their wonderful piazzas and numerous fountains were sights to see unto themselves. We took hundreds of pictures. Around almost every corner, there was something we wanted to capture. Even at our hotel. The hotel had a resident cat, who we named Francesca. She came to greet us in the mornings and the evenings almost every night. She was sweet. We've got pictures of her! We even took pictures of traffic!

Roman traffic moves quite differently than Chicago traffic. First of all, they are not guided by traffic signals. With the exception of a few traffic lights, 95% of Roman traffic is self guided, meaning you turn when there's an opportunity. If you're not aggressive, one can sit there waiting to turn or move forward for hours. This is also the way people cross streets as well. You cross when there's an opportunity - and the opportunity must be self created, otherwise, you could wait to cross for half an hour. Cars, Vespas and people move and use the same space of the road. Side walks are unheard of in Rome for the most part. With the exception of a few side walks along the major shopping district, we didn't see many elsewhere. Space is at a premium in Rome, so parking can get a bit tricky. There are cars double and triple parked along the sides of the roads. How one would get out of such a spot is beyond me.

Gelato is awesome. We ate it every day, some days multiple times a day. It cannot be compared to anything here in the states. IT IS NOT ICE CREAM. It's was one of the most purest experience I had in Rome (with the exception of the Sistine Chapel). I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat regular ice cream again (I probably will though).

I am so glad I did Rome. I am so glad that I will have this to share with our children, that we have pictures to look back on and remember that a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when Alex and I were once young and vibrant and not confined to our wheelchair drinking dinner through a straw at 4 in the afternoon, we had been at the birth place of civilization. We had walked along the steps of kings and queens, therefore having made ourselves a part of history already thousands of years young.