Gini's Travels: Mom and Dad Visit (Part 3)

The final part of my parents trip, was what I was looking forward to the most. We were warned by the locals in Avellino that the last place you want to be on the "Holy Weekend" (Easter Weekend) is Rome, but my mom and I had our hearts set on going. Friday we dropped Drake off for his road trip to Udine and we hit the autostrada for Rome. Mom of course wanted to get as many tours in as possible, and decided that a personal tour guide was the way to go. I personally loved it. Having a tour guide helped us see as much as possible with the big crowds and limited time. Anyways, Kadi (our tour guide), was waiting for us at our hotel when we arrived in Rome and we were off right away to see 1/2 of the Vatican. Here is mom with our tour guide Kadi in the Vatican museum. Side note- I was excited to learn that Kadi was originally from Ohio, moved to Italy to study art history at the age of 17. She made me feel so unintelligent, she knew SO much, I would love to have spent more time with her.

Me and Dad with St. Peter's Dome in the background in Vatican City.

I was impressed with this HUGE bathtub. No lie this was an emperor's bathtub.

Mom and Dad in the hallway leading into the Sistine Chapel.

After our tour we found a bar with great food during happy hour.

The next morning we got an early start in an attempt to beat the crowd at St. Peter's Basilica. Of everything we saw in Rome St. Peter's was my favorite. It took about 140 years to complete, mostly because once an architect died, a new architect would completely draw up new plans, tear down everything and start over. Inside was amazing.

Us in Piazza Novana, the most popular Piazza in Rome

In front of the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Next we were off to the Roman Forum

Then the Coloseum, which was very crowded

I know this is kind of nasty, but Kadi pointed this out to us. Outside this particular exit from the Coloseum was a brothel. If you look closely you can see an advertisement for it.

And finally Trevi Fountain

Tradition is if you throw a coin over your shoulder you will come back to Rome someday.

Another restauraunt! We got to see the chefs cook are meal through that window next to us.

Next morning was Easter. Here we are on a bridge on the Tiber River. After taking a little walk, we drove back to Avellino to celebrate with Drake.

The next day was bad weather, and the most popular travel day of the year here in Italy. We decided to skip the busy roads and go up the mountain in our backyard. There is a train that goes to the top of the mountain here in Avellino in only 7 minutes. The man operating the train asked me to help drive the train up, here I am pretending I am doing just that.