|
 Italy
2006 Photo Gallery:
Photo Gallery
Roberts
adventure.
Italian style.
The
Roberts Italian Adventure 2006:
by Ryan and Amanda Roberts
When I was
growing up in Canada, I was just like any white-blooded Canadian
kid; I loved toys. And of course, what better place to get toys than
Toys R Us? Walking through aisle after aisle of pure fun and
enjoyment, I could barely contain myself. Usually I wouldn’t come
out with anything, but the shear excitement of simply being there
was tough to contain. I just wanted to yell out, “Hey world, I am
having so much fun, you just wish you could have as much fun as I am
having right now.”
[Stay with me,
we’re getting to Italy in a minute…]
One day in Toys R
Us I noticed that they were having a drawing for a shopping spree.
‘If you are selected as the lucky winner,’ the paper submission
exclaimed, ‘you have 2 minutes to run through the store and throw as
many toys as you can into shopping carts. Any toys in a shopping
cart at the end of the two minutes are yours to keep.’
So I eagerly
filled out my name, put the form into the submission box, and waited
a few weeks for them to call me. I waited and waited and waited some
more. Then I waited some more after that.
I’m still waiting
for them to call me.
But now I feel
like that shopping spree submission was actually answered, only it
was found in a different country…
Italy.
Amanda and I had
5 days to explore a country that is so diverse, so intricate, so ‘in
your face’, so historical, and did I mention amazingly beautiful? I
felt like I had to throw different parts of the country into a
shopping cart so we could fully experience and retain all that Italy
had to offer.
Amanda takes over the story….Someone had to! It was going nowhere
quickly!
Sunday Morning, October 22nd, 2006
Ryan and I were
blessed with the opportunity to fly Business Elite on the flight
over to Rome. What an amazing experience that was! It makes an 8
hour flight go by so quickly…although I think Ryan and I were the
only ones there playing free video games…and why not?!
We landed in
Rome, checked our bags at a “Baggage Drop” (I never even knew those
existed!) and headed straight for our real-life history lesson,
thanks to our Rick Steve’s Italy guidebook. And I must add from the
start that we had incredibly beautiful walking weather! If you ever
decide to travel to Rome, please do it in late fall or early spring,
when the air is cool and good for sightseeing.
We walked by the
church that houses the Apostle Peter’s chains from when he was
imprisoned. Then we walked by the Coliseum. What an amazing arena it
must have been when it was fully intact! Ryan and I both stared at
this “colossal” structure, knowing that many Christians had been
martyred for their faith in this very location. The arch of
Constantine is just outside the Coliseum, which symbolized when
Constantine made Christianity the official religion.
We made our way
over to the Roman Forum, which was the heart of the city of Rome
(back in the day, of course!). There were so many ancient
structures, some of which dated back to 100 BC or so! We were also
able to walk on the very road that Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus
walked on so long ago. As we looked at all the different buildings
and structures, we couldn’t help but note how SMALL we are…and how
NEW the United States really is, compared to this ancient city.
One of the
structures that particularly stood out to us was the Arch of Titus,
which commemorates the 2nd Diaspora, when Rome destroyed
the temple in Israel in 70 AD and brought back the Jews as slaves.
The Romans had the Jews build a monument (the Arch of Titus) to
commemorate their own destruction! As we made our way through the
Forum, we saw the Rostrum, which is where speakers often gave their
public addresses. Paul most likely shared the gospel from this very
place when he was in Rome!
As we continued
on our self-led tour of Rome (getting lost only once or twice…it
helps to have your very favorite pilot along with you for the
tour!), we passed by Rome’s monument to the unknown soldiers who had
died in recent wars. Then we stumbled upon the Pantheon.
What an
incredibly beautiful building! The Pantheon has an open dome at the
top, and it is said that when it rains outside, people love to come
inside the Pantheon and see it rain inside through the open dome, I
guess kind of like a reverse fountain! It was once a secular
building but was then given over to the church, which is one reason
why it is so beautifully preserved.
By the Pantheon
we had our dinner, at a local café (yes, it was a touristy one, but
we were so starved by this point we didn’t even care!) and then had
our first taste of Italy’s famous gelato! We tried the tiramisu
flavor, which was va bene! And amazingly enough…no sugar
crash or cruel headache for me…it might just have been the Lord!
After our brief
rest and refueling, we decided to do a night walk in Rome. The
nightlife was pretty incredible-- I’m not quite sure where everyone
was all day, but they all came out at night! We were able to walk by
the Trevi fountain (pronounced treh-vee) and did the
traditional “throw your coin in the fountain (backwards and over
your shoulder) so that you can return to Rome one day.” Oh, and
watch out for the peddlers on the street…they shove beautiful
long-stemmed roses in your hands, insist that it’s a gift for you,
free, and then if you accept (finally, after much nagging) they look
to your man and ask for “a small something, some euros, please.”
They are quite persistent---just don’t make eye contact!!
We walked by a
couple more landmarks that were well lit up (including the Spanish
steps, although I was quite disappointed in them…I really didn’t
think they were that impressive, although everyone always talks
about them) and then headed on the bus to find our bed and breakfast
for the night…although all we really cared about was the shower by
that point.
-----Brief
side note: Did I mention that Ryan played basketball the night
before we left and twisted some ligaments in his ankle? Yeah…so …
Back in Rome…
We FINALLY found our place for the evening (after talking to some
locals…and having each one of them give us their opinion about which
direction to go!) and had some much needed rest…on probably the
hardest bed I have EVER slept on in my whole entire life.
We woke up early
the next morning (I think it was 4:30 am) to beat the rush to the
Vatican, which I just learned is the smallest country in the world.
I’m still not totally sure how the pope got his own country, but…
We ended up
waiting in 2 lines (the first was for tours only—I’m not sure how we
missed that important factor, so after waiting in that one for about
an hour we got sent to the back of the 2nd line and
waited another hour), briefly browsed the Vatican museum and then
proceeded towards the famous Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo.
Unfortunately, we were unable to take any pictures inside (for fear
of the Italian guards going “NO PHOTO!” and then chasing after
people). It was incredible to think of Michelangelo lying on his
back painting these ceiling frescoes, which, by the way, are painted
in to the plaster and have to both dry at the same time. In other
words, you gotta be quick and accurate!
Rick Steves, our
handy tour guide via a book, informed us of a short cut to get to
St. Peter’s Basilica (thanks Rick!) and we avoided the long line.
Inside St. Peter’s (which is awe-inspiring just to see the outside,
much less the inside) (and yes, I know I use parentheses a lot. I
like them. I also like exclamation marks, in case you didn’t notice
that too(!).) We saw Michelangelo’s Pieta, his famous marble statue
carving of Mary holding Jesus after he was taken off the cross.
There were magnificent domes and carvings, more frescoes, more
statues, and way more marble than should be possible. Seriously.
Berlini made a
bronze canopy that stands in the middle of the church , under which
Peter, the apostle, has his bones buried. This basilica is actually
built in the spot that Peter was crucified, upside down. Ryan and I
were struck the most by the fact that everything, no matter how
glorious it was externally, was DEAD spiritually. And since when are
Peter and Mary the focus of our Christianity? Last time I checked,
Jesus paid it all…and furthermore, He is NOT on the cross any more
but is seated at the right hand of God, and HE ALONE is interceding
for us (not Mary). Read Romans and Hebrews! It’s all right there!
As Amanda steps off the soap box, we see Amanda and Ryan leaving
Rome on a train headed for…
Assisi!
Different in so
many ways from Rome, it quickly became our favorite city out of the
4 we visited in Italy.
We arrived in
Assisi on Monday night, wandered around for about an hour in the
brisk, cool, windy air, and found our hotel (FINALLY…my feet were
aching and we were both getting slightly grumpy from lack of food).
We grabbed some food at the restaurant below our hotel (Il Duomo…they
hardly spoke English, so that was fun…for real. We enjoyed guessing
what our food would be when it came out!) and slept in until we woke
up naturally the next morning at 9:30. Ahhh, sleep. Why didn’t I
value it as much when I was a kid?
Tuesday, we
casually explored the streets of Assisi, visiting several churches,
including St. Francis of Assisi Basilica (he’s the guy that started
the Franciscan monks…the brown robe was a great fashion statement).
After lunch, we tried the hazel nut and pistachio flavored gelati…MMmmmm!
It was unanimous…we liked the hazelnut the best! That night we ate
dinner at a quiet, family restaurant that has been in business for
50 years, and instead of playing Andrea Boccelli, like we do in our
Italian restaurants, they played…Beach Boys and the Beatles! It was
pretty comical! I think our favorite part about Assisi was our bit
of offroading we did, just exploring the beautiful stonewalled city
inside and outside the city walls. The mountain view was
breathtaking, and we were able to overlook olive groves and grape
orchards. Truly charming, quaint Assisi had stolen our breath away!
(Just look at our picture of the sunset over the hills, if you don’t
believe me!)
Oh, I have
forgotten to mention something very intriguing to me, and apparently
this is true of most of Europe: Did you know you have to pay for
your food TWICE over there? Once when you buy it to eat it and once
when you…uh, well, take a little visit to the ladies room, if you
will. Yup, they charge you almost $1 (.50-.75 euros) to go to the
RESTROOM!! I was appalled! There were several free ones, but you had
to search long and hard to find those sometimes…
So we started our
Wednesday morning much the same as we did our other mornings…up at
4:30 to catch a train to Florence (or Firenze, as they say).
The train ride took about 2 hours and once we got to Florence (and
paid for our food a second time), we headed to the Academia, the
museum that houses Michelangelo’s famous David that we all read
about in our Humanities books. Let me just tell you that it really
is incredible. The fact that it was completely carved out of one
block of marble, the incredible detail of every muscle, this
intricately carved, eight foot tall statue was pretty amazing!
We visited
another museum that houses some works by Rafael and some treasures
from the Medici family, looked around the city for a bit more with
our hurting feet (Ryan, from his ankle and me just because I wanted
off my feet!). We then headed back to the train station (compliments
of ‘Trenitalia’ or ‘Train Italy’) to catch our train to…..
Venice!
Venezia, to the Italians….
We arrived in
Venice around 9 on Wednesday night, and it looked pretty beautiful
all lit up. We are still researching how on earth---and WHY on
earth---this city was built in the water. No matter what the reason,
this water-loving girl was in ecstasy!
And this time,
instead of wandering around trying to find our hotel, God provided
us with our very own set of angels, straight from Finland! =0) The
couple who had already found the B&B that morning (after much
searching) walked right up to us, asked if we were staying at the
same place, and proceeded to lead us towards our bed and breakfast.
A short time later we thankfully found the one restaurant that was
open and ordered a pizza and some pasta.
Now let me just
tell you something about pizza in Italy. It was very good, HOWEVER,
they have quite different ideas about what toppings should be
considered on top of pizza. We saw everything from sliced hot dogs,
spinach lettuce (UNCOOKED…it looked like they ran out of bowls to
serve salad so they just put the salad on top of the pizza!),
artichoke hearts, mussels (in their shells), clams, and corn, to
name a few. I did like the salami on top of the pizza, but some of
the other stuff makes me queasy just thinking about it!
Thursday morning,
after breakfast (oh, and breakfast is coffee and croissants over
there, not eggs and bacon and ham and meat, but lots of bread and
pastries, just to forewarn you!) we headed to the water city to do
some sight seeing. We walked up and down all kinds of bridges. This
is funny: their traffic lights are hanging over the water, since the
water is their street! What do you do if you are rowing a boat and
it turns red? Aaak! Oops, sorry officer, I tried to stop…the waves,
…I couldn’t…
We decided to
pass on the gondolas (it would’ve been almost $100 American for an
hour ride) and took the much cheaper vaporetto, which is kind of
like a water bus. We were able to walk in about 6 different churches
there, one of which was St. Mark’s Basilica. Just like Peter in
Rome, Mark’s body is buried in the middle of this church. Something
that hit both Ryan and myself as we walked in this church was that
the bones of a man who had literally walked with Jesus were buried
in the very building we were standing! It was a pretty neat thought.
Thursday was our
11 month anniversary of being married (although we were technically
celebrating our 1 year anniversary a bit early to avoid the crazy
stand-by flying around Thanksgiving) and Ryan treated me to
something very special! Venice is the birthplace for Baroque
composer Vivaldi, and we went to hear the Virtuosi Venezia (Venice
Virtuosos), a string quintet, playing 2 of Vivaldi’s concertos as
well as ‘The Four Seasons’. What incredible musicians and what an
unforgettable experience! The hall we were in was actually across
from St. Marks and was the same dimensions as the hall in which
Vivaldi composed most of his music.
The night was
incredible as we walked around beautifully lit streets, palaces, and
water that all whispered of things from centuries ago. Venice is
definitely a must-see!
Friday morning we
rode the train to Venice’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport (ask Ryan about
the time we walked across one of the busiest streets in Venice…. in
dress shoes with big bulky back packs on to catch a bus going in the
other direction…it was great fun) and began our journey back to the
states.
God blessed us
once again with being able to fly Business Elite back home, helping
make our 27 hour day, 11 hour flight, much more tolerable. When we
got back to Atlanta, the weather had been bad and our flight, which
was way overbooked and was supposed to leave at 8:40 pm from Atlanta
to Orlando, didn’t leave Atlanta till about 12:40 and so we didn’t
arrive home in our beds until 4am. Considering we woke up at 7am in
Venice, which was 1am eastern time, we were exhausted!
It was wonderful
to be able to spend so much quality time together, alone with each
other and God, and be able to see history right in front of our
eyes.
As we flew back
over the Swiss Alps, France, Ireland, and Greenland, we couldn’t
help but think of other places that we have yet to discover on other
adventures…. |
