It is hard to believe that we have been back home for 3 weeks and I still haven't had a moment to post more about our Italian adventure. Blame it on the end of the semester and the approaching holidays - it seems like I have been working around the clock either writing and grading exams or making a little headway on getting ready for Christmas. Final exams finally ended yesterday - hurray!

      Annie tells me it actually snowed in Rome this week!! A very rare occurrence indeed, so I'm pleased that Thanksgiving week we only had to deal with occasional light showers. Having the cobblestones of the piazza in front of St. Peter's at the Vatican glistening from a recent shower didn't detract in the least from the majesty of the surroundings. ( I also couldn't help but think of Tom Hanks and the excitement of Angels and Demons!). We all visited St. Peter's, then the rest of the family climbed the few hundred steps up to the top of the basilica for exceptional views of both the inside of the cathedral and outside, overlooking Rome. My knee wasn't up to the climb so I explored the fountains of the plaza. (I also almost had a fist-fight when, after I waited patiently for the dozen people ahead of me in the Vatican bathroom line, an Italian woman came in and tried to move right to the head of the line! I was having no part of that. She couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand her, but I guess my body language convinced her that I was not giving in. In general it seemed that Italy does not understand or participate in queuing up for anything!)

      Other days we visited other not-to be missed sights - the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps and shopping district. One afternoon Annie and I went to the Rome Zoo. It wasn't quite as exciting as the Prague Zoo's bat caves and free-swinging chair lift, but we had a great time and particularly enjoyed "Potato time" on the monkey island, where each monkey claimed its two potatoes from the keeper, then scurried off to enjoy them.

On Thursday Annie and 5 of her roommates made us a very nice Thanksgiving dinner in their apartment. They couldn't find all the usual ingredients (no turkey or cranberries and Mom had to bring the makings for the green been casserole in her suitcase), but the chicken and fixings were great and the company even better! All of the various animals - lions, tigers, antelopes, elephants and more- seemed to be lined up at their enclosure fences or doors, watching expectantly for the arrival of the keeper and their delivery of their food treats, but we weren't patient enough to wait with them.

We ate far too much pasta, pizza, Italian bread and gelato, but it just didn't seem to be the right time to diet! : )m.

All too soon the week was over and we had to say "Arrivaderci Roma!" and hug Annie goodbye for a few weeks. We got up at 4:30 a.m. to catch our early connection to Paris and then on to Chicago. I had no better luck sleeping on the plane, so the drive from Chicago to Iowa seemed extra long. But it was nice to collapse in my own bed and give thanks once more for an extra-special Thanksgiving.

Off on a Roman Holiday!

     Early in August my daughter Annie went off to Rome to spend a semester abroad. Although Mom and Dad were quite nervous about sending their baby overseas, I couldn't very well complain since I had gone to Europe with girlfriends when I was in college. The College of Design of Iowa State University has a small campus right in the heart of historic Rome catering to Architecture students in the spring and Design students in the fall. Happily a whole contingent of Annie's Graphic Design buddies were also taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity, so she would have plenty of company as she adjusted to her new setting.

     Since we hadn't seen her in 3 months and Annie herself was suffering occasional bouts of homesickness, we decided to visit Annie over my university's Thanksgiving Break. Both of Annie's working big sisters (Engineer Sara and Psychologist Jen) also arranged to take extra days off during that holiday week so they could join us and we could all be together as a family. Of course I worried whether all the complicated airline arrangements and weather would cooperate, but amazingly everything went just as planned.

     Jim and I left Iowa Friday after work and drove to Chicago since we had a Saturday morning flight there. Sara, who lives in Chicago, flew with us - first to Atlanta, then on an Air Italia flight direct to Rome. Jim travels so much that he was able to get both Sara's and my ticket using frequent flyer miles! The flight was fine - we watched several movies. The airline tries to help passengers 'transition' to the new time zone by turning down the lights after dinner and passing out pillows and blankets. But someone like me, who doesn't always sleep well even in my own bed, has little luck sleeping in an airplane seat when my internal clock is saying it is well before midnight. We arrived in Rome when it was midnight in Iowa but 7 am in Italy - how confusing to my biorhythms! We were pleasantly surprised to find that Jen's flight from Newark arrived just moments after ours, so we caught up with her in the baggage area.

    Having heard that some unscrupulous cab drivers frequent the Rome airport, Jim arranged to have our hotel send a car out to collect us. We piled into a small mini-van of sorts and had our first Roman cab experience (which would be repeated many times over during the week).

Basically Roman drivers drive as fast as they possibly can, riding the bumper of the car in front of them even on rain slick streets, switching from lane to lane (IF only there were any lane markings on the wider streets!), trying to gain whatever minute driving advantage that they can - the heck with other vehicles or pedestrians!! Every one of them must still have Gladiator blood coursing through their veins! There are no speed limits, pedestrians in the crosswalk do NOT have the right of way and even red lights are optional and up to the discretion of the driver! Believe me - that ride woke us up despite our jet lag and most every ride during the week was a white knuckle, close-your-eyes-and-pray, try not to yelp in fear because it might distract the driver as you barrel through tiny cobblestone lanes barely 8 feet wide, adventure.

    Annie was waiting for us at our hotel and hurray, the whole fam-damily was together!

It was a bit too early for our rooms to be ready but the hotel invited us to partake of their European breakfast buffet (which I am missing, now that I am back home!) while we waited. Mmm. Croissants, Italian hard rolls and cheese, yummy Europeans yogurts, cappaccino...

Our hotel room overlooked the Roman ruins of Palantine Hill while the girls' room looked into the hotel courtyard lined with orange trees laden with fruit. I never thought of Rome as an "orange tree" area but even some of the downtown streets were lined with them.

       That afternoon we took our first exploratory walk down cobblestone lanes (ALL of Rome is paved in cobblestones) with delightful Italian names we tried (awkwardly) to roll off our tongues, past ancient churches, through arches and passageways that legions have passed through, with something historic on each and every corner - until we reached the studios were Annie and her classmates are studying graphic design. ISU's little campus is located on the Piazza des Cinque Scoles (plaza of 5 schools), with a burbling fountain in the center. Annie unlocked the huge doors and led us up older than old marble stairs to give us a tour of their various workrooms and to show us some of her design projects. Then we walked a bit farther until it began to rain (this is the rainy season in Rome). We ducked into a sidewalk cafe with a tent-like roof to enjoy our first pasta dinner of the week.  After dinner the time difference was catching up with us so we called it a night and headed back to Hotel Kolbe to recharge our batteries.