Roma: Day Two

From One End of Town to the Other

Borghese Gallery and Ancient Appian Way 

Today we got up early (you’ll see that is a theme) to tour the Borghese Gallery Museum in the Villa Borghese. The kid that runs our hotel Our hotel concierge said that it was a 35 minute walk to the museum. We also had to arrive 30 minutes prior to our reservation, in order to claim our tickets. After about five minutes of brisk walking our calves were killing us and we could tell that we weren't covering enough ground fast enough. So we caught a cab, which ended up being a way better idea. It was a long way (35 minutes?) and the cab was totally affordable. We made it with several minutes to spare.

Of course, there are no pictures allowed inside the museum. If I was ever going to break that rule and snap a photo of one piece of art, it would have been in this gallery. They have several sculptures by a seventeenth century artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He was incredible and one of the first in his time to make masterpieces out of one solid piece of marble. His father was also an artist that sculpted using this technique, but the son really made the marble come alive in a way that no one else really had. One statue in particular was unbelievably breathtaking, and I wish I could have photographed it. Apollo and Daphne You’ll have to look at pictures online, but trust me it was amazing in person. The intricacy of the leaves and bodies, it is incredible that it all came from one solid piece of marble. The leaves are so thin they are almost translucent. Incredible. 

The entire house was stacked with fantastic art, but in a way that was digestible. We just used their audio guide, but still it was fantastic. You are only allowed 2 hours and we soaked up every second. It was interesting to hear about who requisitioned each piece and then how it came to be in the Borghese collection. Sadly, Napoleon forced his sister to sell many fantastic works of art during his time of power, and because they were sold, not exactly stolen, they weren’t required to be returned once he was conquered. I think I heard that most of them are in the Louvre. It was also sad, and interesting, to hear that so many paintings were obtained through misuse of power. The Borghese family was related to a pope, and at one point, the head of the house was a cardinal as well. They used their positions of power to extort people for the art they owned. For example, they might charge you with some crime and put you in prison, so that the price of your freedom was most of your possessions.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the museum and surrounding gardens. You could easily spend all day there.

I asked if there was a drinking fountain, the bookstore lady said, yes, just outside.

I was a little nervous. This looks like a decorative fountain, not a drinking fountain.
However, she assured me that she drinks it every day. 

The Borghese family wanted a home like no other. This was used to house exotic birds.

There were designed gardens and acres of open park.

This building was so intriguing to me, wish we'd been able to go inside.

There is even a zoo on the property!

We were just outside the old walls of Rome.

After our morning on the north end of town, we headed south to the Ancient Appian Way: Rome’s oldest and first road. I really enjoy ancient history and I was excited to see this bit of history first hand. We toured an early Christian catacomb and then walked our way up the ancient road to a little café where we had a sandwich and a cappuccino. It was a perfect afternoon.

Inside a catacomb, before I realized that no pictures were allowed. 

A reconstructed portion of the ancient road.

Ruins, ruins everywhere. There should be some sections of aqueduct out there somewhere.

Welcome to Rome, the city of headless statues.

I confess, I can't even remember what this building used to be now. Currently it's a museum.

The original portion of the Appian Way.

This guy (or girl?) was right at home outside the Appian Way Cafe. 

Delicious!

We eventually caught a bus and headed back to town to do some classic tourist sightseeing. We took the metro to the Spanish steps and walked our way down to the Trevi Fountain and on through town, eating our daily gelato. 

The Spanish Steps

Blake got suckered by the rose peddlers at the Spanish steps. 

At the top of the steps.

The view from the top.

It had just poured rain and cleared everyone out for our picture ;).
I think there is a raindrop on the lens though, right about at Blake's face.

Trevi Fountain, all lit up.

The green tree cracked me up. This is a memorial to the man who united Italy.

And then we crashed into bed! I'm behind on getting these posted, but at the end of the day I'm just completely beat!

Roma: Day One

The Day of Only Naps

We started the day with a drive to Seattle airport at 1:00 AM. The plan was to drive at night so that by the time we were on our flight to Rome, via connection in Chicago, we would be tired enough to sleep soundly on the plane. I'll go ahead and let you in on the outcome of that plan now: FAIL.

We were super tired driving to the airport (we were supposed to get in a nap after packing.. didn't happen), so we were driving after being awake since 6 AM-ish that morning. We were super tired at the airport and took a 30 minute nap. We were super tired flying to Chicago and took an hour nap. We were super duper tired waiting in Chicago and took a 20-ish minute nap. And we were super duper duper tired by the time we boarded the plane in Chicago. Thinking we were close to our long awaited sleep, we were unpleasantly surprised with a mechanical issue that delayed us on the tarmac for over two hours. We still couldn't sleep because we knew we'd just wake up again during take-off announcements and then the meal etc. We hoped to sleep after the meal, straight for at least seven of the nine hours.

On our way to Chicago, trying to stay awake with the in-flight movie.

I guess we've been spoiled by our other intercontinental flights because we've always experienced better leg room, nicer seats with individual monitors in front of you, and several other little amenities that make a long flight tolerable. Sadly, this was an old plane and those comforts were not present. We found our knees hitting the seat in front of us, even before they reclined. This did not bode well for our long desired sleep and all we got was a couple of hour naps.

Needless to say {further} we arrived in Roma, very, very tired and almost three hours later than originally scheduled. We tried to make our way through the activities we had planned for the day, so that we could check in to our hotel and sleep only through the night, setting our internal clocks to local time. Again, FAIL.

To pass the time during the day, we visited {what we thought was} the National Museum of Rome. It turns out it was only one of the locations, and not the main one. We saw some interesting things though.

Outside at {one of the} National Museums of Rome

Walkway down to a fountain

This crazy tree was more interesting than the fountain ;)

These horse statues guarded the fountain.

Inside an old Bath house - now used as an exhibition hall. 

This place was HUGE.

Welcome to Rome, where almost every statue you see, is headless.

Piazza della Repubblica, opposite the church below.

We also toured an incredible church that is housed in the former Baths of Diocletian. Michelangelo was commissioned to renovate and create the church. The old Roman baths were over five stories tall and the church now takes up all of that space. It was absolutely breath taking, and I know that the pictures don't do it justice.

The unimpressive exterior to the incredible church.

Giant dome, which used to be open at the time of the baths.

Every square inch, covered in art.

See how tiny the people look!

They seem to hold televised services here, as there was a lot of video equipment behind where I'm standing.

An interesting part of this church was the meridian line on the floor.There are two holes in the walls (see below) that allow light to come in and fall on this calendar, indicating the calendar very precisely. I can't do the explanation justice, so feel free to either just be satisfied with my simplified explanation or read more about it here, second paragraph down.

See that little circle of light, there's another one of these on an opposite wall.

There it is again, waaay up there.

What a massive, and beautiful, organ!

A view of the church from the side.

Back at the museum to collect our bags, and ready to find our hotel.

After that we initiated ourselves to the bus system and started finding our way to our first hotel. The bus was easier than expected, once we figured out how to validate our tickets. Finding our hotel, however, was not as easy as expected. Essentially, our hotel is two (or maybe more) floors of an apartment building. We were looking for a hotel/business entrance, but couldn't find it. Then we started looking for anything that would give us a hint of the hotel and finally saw the sign on a standard looking door. It's kind of fun to feel like you are a local, going in and out of the door with your own key.

That's our room with the cracked window, second window up.

After getting settled at around 4:00 we foolishly laid down on the bed, 'just to see how hard it was going to be' and woke up after dark around 6:30... oops! We forced ourselves up to freshen up, shower, etc. and hit the streets again. We walked around our neighborhood, promptly found a gelato bar and meandered through the busy streets (my flavors were hazelnut, that was pure heaven, and a darn good tirimisu) We also came across a pizza place that serves by the slice. You pay per kg, which ends up making pizza very cheap.. yet delicious!

This is pretty much the extent of our hotel room, there is just enough room to walk around the bed and
our suitcases barely fit on the floor. There is a tiny desk with a tv and closet rack with a safe opposite the bed.
As you can see, Blake fell asleep first.

The bathroom is also tiny, but clean and functional.

This hotel room does put a new meaning to 'small European style hotel rooms' but really, it's everything we need and we aren't spending much time here (awake) anyway. It's clean, nice, recently remodeled/decorated and very conveniently located near many places we want to see. It's just tiny :).

Cleaned up and ready to hit the streets (with a jacket of course).
We were also testing out our monopod for self portraits :)

We walked over a bridge and around a corner to this mass of people.
We never did figure out what was going on here, we think that this is just a meeting place.

Our pizza sampler... delicious!

Every kind of pizza you could think of, all were delicious.
We thought that this place was unique, but later realize that these types of pizza places are everywhere!

Pumpkin: Weeks 4 & 5

October 6th through October 19th

First, if you think I'm crazy for posting baby updates this early.. just remember: this is more for me than it is for you ;).

I don't think I'll bother with a picture yet.. there's nothing there besides my pre-pregnancy fat! Sometimes Blake will put his hand on my abdomen and say, "How's Pumpkin today?" I generally just give him a report about what Pumpkin is doing this week and how s/he's making me feel that day. I did have to point out, just once, that what he is putting his hand on isn't Pumpkin.. it's pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones, pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin lattes... but not our Pumpkin, not yet!

How I Feel
I'm feeling pretty good, which isn't a surprise. 'Morning' sickness/nausea isn't expected until after week six. I have headaches most days, but that is usual for me. What is unusual is not taking something for them! I could take Tylenol, or so they say, but it doesn't really do much for me and I figure, why put anything through my body that I don't *need* at this point. I also have a lot of bloating and, eek,  gas. I think that it's my prenatal vitamins. I've been trying to work out like I was before Pumpkin, and it absolutely helps me to have plenty of energy and most importantly keeps my GI system in better harmony. I am a little more tired than usual but not remarkably tired. I have noticed some greater emotional swings, but nothing crazy. I'm definitely getting more familiar with the bathrooms at work and in the middle of the night, but I'm also drinking a lot of fluids.

What I feel
During our two week wait, I felt all kinds of things going on in my uterus, I thought it was July 4th in there. In week four I still felt a lot of cramping and tingles/pains but not as constant and pronounced as before. During week five, things have continued to mellow even more and now I just get occasional cramping (like once a day) and the occasional sharp pain (like once or twice a week). I'm really feeling changes and tenderness in 'the girls' and that is starting to get old.. but probably not going anywhere!

What We're Doing
We had our first midwife appointment on Thursday of week five. It was just a consultation to get to know her and decide if we want to use her for our prenatal care and delivery. She has also been to Israel and I was glad to be able to pick her brain about anything that I should be concerned about with traveling during early pregnancy. She said that the food should be mostly fine and that flying will be no problem, just the usual get up and walk around, drink lots of fluids etc. The only unknown factor is whether I'll get daily nausea and that I should know before I leave, in which case she has some safe remedies for that.

On a side note.. I kind of wonder if my mom is going to flip out when she realizes that I took her first unborn grandchild to more than one foreign country without her knowing about it. I'm pretty sure that in the end, she'll thank me and realize that she'd be even more stressed knowing that all three of us were over there instead of the moderate level of stressed out she is experiencing from what she thinks is the two of us being there.

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Next baby post: Pumpkin: Weeks 6 & 7

Previous baby post: The Results Are In!

The Results Are In

We are... wait for it... EXPECTING!! We are thrilled! Due date: June 15, 2013 (Six days before my 30th b-day!)

Thursday morning we'd had a *very* faint line, but it was so faint we weren't sure if our eyes were playing tricks on us, so we went off to work with a little smile and a prayer.

On a pleasant Friday afternoon I took another test, let it sit and we looked at it together. We got our first definite positive test (at 12 days past ovulation for those of you that follow that line of thinking)! We also took a digital test the next morning, just to confirm.

I was pretty sure we were pregnant. I could feel things working down there. From sharp pains to twinges and cramps this was no ordinary end of cycle. It seemed like more than I could be imagining. It was our first month of trying and I hoped it was our last. I really want to be due at the beginning of summer (to avoid being pregnant during the ridiculous heat of July and August) but I also wanted to finish out this school year (which is why we didn't start in August).

We went out to dinner to celebrate and talked about all the things we hope Pumpkin loves and does. The number one thing we hope Pumpkin does is stick around and keep growing. Miscarriage is not as uncommon as we'd wish it to be and although I fully trust in the Lord's plan for our family, I feel like I'm holding my breath a little and wondering if I'll regret planning out this little baby's pregnancy, delivery and first years ;). I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, but what can I say? I'm just a planner.

Every day (it seems) I come across another thing that I have to Google to see if I am supposed to eat/drink. For example, did you know you aren't supposed drink many herbal teas? We discovered this just after we conceived. I was drinking tea like crazy (I love tea anyway and usually have one to three cups of tea after my one cup of coffee in the morning) but since I was cutting out caffeine and it felt like something was missing, more tea helped fill the gap. I can't remember what made me Google it, but I soon found out that many herbs can cause early labor/miscarriage or implantation issues. I wonder how serious this needs to be taken, and will ask my midwife (who is also a naturopathic doctor - knows her herbs) at our first appointment. However, nothing is worth the risk at this point.

In the meantime, my sweet husband went to our favorite tea store and picked out three fantastic teas that are caffeine free and herb free. They are Rooibus or red teas and two of my favorite flavors: earl gray and ginger peach. He also picked out one called passion fruit mango, which mimics (but is more fruity than) my other favorite Mango Ceylon. All winners and completely satisfying. I'm so impressed, if I didn't know it I'd never guess they weren't their black leaf/caffeinated versions. Blake was my tea hero with his scouring of teas with ingredient lists that were baby safe.

Other than taking more vitamins, trying to eat extra healthy (and avoid all those 'no' foods), working out *almost* every day and feeling those funny uterus twinges.. life continues as we knew it, with just a little more anticipation. Now I'm going to continue planning our big trip to Italy/Israel and hope that I stave off morning sickness and exhaustion until we get back!

So, here begins our official journey to parenthood! Bring on the unsolicited (and solicited too) advice!

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Next baby post: Pumpkin: Weeks 4 & 5

Previous baby post: Waiting