Challenges challenges

A little drama this morning. Power went out in the entire hotel. Breakfast was by candlelight. I'm so glad I did the majority of my packing last night since we had to check out this morning and are heading to Firenze (Florence) 

A view from the train

 

My backpack is on a backpack that rolls...  Alice's Camel has two humps 

 

Looking out of the dark towards the window from the balcony of the room during the power outage

 

A cuppa Joe ... mustache included

Then we got to the new hotel in Florence and the room reeked of cigarette smoke.  It was a non-smoking room but they smoked in it and then left butts on the balcony.  The management felt bad and upgraded is to a "Privilege Room".  Yay!

Santa Maria della Vittoria Church

One of the men from my finance workshop travels to Italy often and told me to go to this church for the amazing artwork.  We went not knowing what we would find...

It is probably the most ornate church I have ever seen...

The artwork is amazing...

Including all of the statues...

And the metalwork ...

There is A LOT of gold on the altar too.  I could only include a small number of photos here so you won't see the altar -- but just imagine seeing gold crosses and stars everywhere.  

Day 3 - Roma, Italy

After lunch and the aqueduct we stopped at some churches. The first was designed by Michelangelo and includes the Prime Meridian inside.

 

It's a point where science & faith come together.  The Pope ordered it way back when to prove the church was forward and on the scientific edge of things

 

There's a hole for the sun to come through at noon and a hole for the light of Polaris to come through and they join along the metal lines on the floor.

 

Attached to the church is a Roman bathhouse -- because what else prompts one to take a bath and get clean more than attending church?

 

It's kinda like an old school baptismal.

Wheelbarrows, Planes & Fountains

This restaurant is in the middle of the road. Cars can come through on either side. It's charming with wheelbarrows, sharpening stones & lots of flowers

 

 

We were standing by the lake waiting for the train and this plane kept going down touching the water and popping back up again.  It got really close to us.  Close than this photo but I like being able to see the buildings and clouds in the photo.

We did a short view of the Trevi Fountain.  It was super duper crowded.  Lots of selfie sticks.

 

We finished night two in Roma, Italy having dinner with one of Scott's friends.  Dinner here usually starts at 8:30 PM and goes until midnight or later.  They take their time serving you because it's a social event.

Phallic-cies

So... walking through Roma you realize they like there obelisks everywhere. It's an extremely phallic country. An example...
Walk through a Piazza and ...

Walk through another piazza and...

Walk through a store of Italian foodstuffs and ...
 
Self explanatory right?!?

Aqueduct and fine shopping

Along one of the streets of high end shopping--think Gucci, Prada, Louis Vitton...
there is a high end store that looks like a high end Nordstrom's. In building it, they ran across the issue of finding a piece of original aqueduct. Since they couldn't remove it the store decided to build around it. So go to floor (-1) and you'll see the aqueduct next to a coffee and juice bar. And around that part you'll see stationary and other fun little things to shop for. All high end and all high priced.

Brother, Father, Pope

Father Paul picked us up and gave us a tour. Scott kept calling him Brother Paul not realizing that an SJ is actually a Father.

We're at the Papal Vacation Home that our current Pope doesn't visit any longer. But they have some amazing old telescopes.

 

The wooden domes are beautiful.

 

The view from the terrace isn't bad either.  The lake is a crater lake.  We're told there's a little rumble every once in awhile.

 

Father Paul & Scott & Taguhi

 

Oddly enough Father Paul & I found out we have a mutual friend so it's truly a small world.