June 27, 1997 Friday 

---

 Glenn drove us to the Raleigh airport around 4pm.  We all hung out at one of the airport restaurants to eat some pizza before we got on the plane. The trip to Gatwick was uneventful.  Kristie was the first to fall asleep, Stephen and myself after the movie "Two Presidents" was over.  That was a funny movie.
We arrived about 30 mins early in Gatwick, which was nice because if we had been 30 mins late instead we would most likely have missed our connection to Rome.  Additionally, the bus ride from Gatwick to Heathrow is an unbelievable amount of money.  It cost 34 British Pounds to send myself and two kids on a one way bus ride.  But, they did get us there before the flight so I suppose that is worth something. 

American Airlines had checked our baggage all the way through to Rome.  Originally I thought this was a good idea but our baggage did not make the connection, so our bags were not in Rome when we arrived.  And British Airways does not have a service desk in Rome!  Although, it seems that no other airline except for Aitalia has a baggage desk.  This did not help matters as the lost and found department was unable to tell me where my baggage was, if it was still in London, misrouted, or lost altogether.  All they have there to service you is a telex to the airlines.  I can say this much, that is the last time I fly through Rome. There were about 30 of us from our British Airways flight that didn't get our luggage.  That was a bit odd since some of the passengers had originated their travel in Heathrow, unlike us.  I had assumed that our baggage simply didn't make the connection on time.  One of the passengers was saying that the baggage handlers at Heathrow wanted to go on strike in a couple of weeks.  Quite possibly, they were initiating a work slowdown which explains how so many people didn't get their luggage.  That's one thing about these labour union tactics I've never been impressed with.  A bunch of disgruntled workers and I'm out 2 months clothing for three people!

One can not imagine the grief I was going through at this point. I couldn't even begin to think of how I was going to replace all this clothing, the three backpacks, the children's medicine and other things that were in these packs.  British Airways did authorize a cash payment of 255 pounds on the spot, so the baggage handlers also cost BA money.  It was nice of BA to provide the money. They could've just left me hanging out to dry.  Eventually, after several calls back to the states and getting some friends tracking down our luggage I did find out later that evening that it had arrived in Rome on a later flight.  Early the next morning our backpacks were in our hotel room.

Speaking of which, American Express travel put us into the Hotel Gambrinus.  I want to say that this is the worst hotel in europe I've ever stayed at for this price.  It is my first experience in a 2 star hotel.  Mind you, the staff here has been helpful, to a point.  The floors are nicely tiled and the bathroom is immaculately in good shape.  The television (small as it is) is connected to cable tv.  And there is a telephone, although that has proven to be largely unusable.  It's just that the first thing you see after entering through the street doors is peeling paint off the walls.  Not exactly the most hospitable sight.  But, I guess tourist season in Rome, I can't complain too much, it could have been considerably worse.  And so far, our luggage has been safe here.  The rooms are tiny.  We were supposed to be in a double bed room, well I'm on the fold out cot.  We do have a nice view of trees and the French Embassy next door.

Now we had on clean clothes and were ready to hit the sights! The weather here is fantastic too.  When we left Durham the heat and humidity was simply unbearable.  Yet here in Rome the cool air and constant breeze is simply delightful!!  Now I'm a little concerned about the weather up in the Trento area.  It should be fairly cooler there than it is here, but the warmer summer months are still ahead of us.  Hopefully the kids summer clothing should be adequate enough.

As you can see, I was surprised to see the plaza in front of St. Peter's to be so devoid of people?  I'm not even a Catholic and I'm there.  Hm, curious.  More people did show up later in the day.  I guess 08h00 is just too early for some tourists [-grin].  But if you want to get a chance to hang out there without people being around, this is the best time to do it. We had the run of the place.  One thing I wasn't aware of was the rule about no shorts.  This posed a bit of a problem since we are all wearing shorts.  The man at the front of the Basilica St. Pietro said it was okay for the kids but not for me (?!).  Then this man does the strangest thing.  He picks up a pair of pants hanging on a construction barrier and say, in English, "You want to try these on?  I don't know where they are from, I just found them here."  I look at the guy kind of oddly, these pants would obviously never fit me.  Yet he is offering me a pair of pants to go into the Basilica looking like a fool in pants that would never fit (much less button), yet wearing shorts is a problem. And I suppose he thought I was going to strip right there in front of the Basilica to change into these small pants??  Go figure.  I must say that wearing shorts hasn't been a problem in other cities like Paris.  One can go to Basilica Sacre Coeur (Paris) in shorts.   I guess I'm going to have wear the long pants next time if the kids are going to see anything of the inside of this place.  We may try to run by this place again tomorrow, I have this feeling we'll be up real early again tomorrow.  So we ended up doing the next closest sight which was Castel Saint Angelo instead, just down the via. Fantastic place, I highly recommend it for the panoramic views you get from the top. Not only that, but the price is real good.  Both the kids got in for free, only I had to pay 8,000 Lira.  It is rare to get a chance to see as much artwork contained in this building for so little.

The view of Rome from here is nearly as impressive as the panoramic views of Paris from La Samaritaine's rooftop.  There are paintings on the walls and ceilings all over this place.  These provide a small glance into what the people must have been like way back when.  If you are lucky, you will get to see one of the restorers at work fixing the walls and paintings.  We got a chance to watch one of these artisans at work.  I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler and yet these guys are able to reconstruct entire walls from just rudimentary outlines.  Simply an amazing skill, or a really creative hoax, I'm not sure which it is yet [-grin].

There is also a small bar set up here with a somewhat limited menu but surprisingly reasonable prices.  And how many times can one eat lunch and view St. Peters at the same time?  Although I do not recommend the cappuccino here, incredibly weak.  The cool weather even in late June makes this an enjoyable event.  At this point we finished canvassing the place and examining all the old cannons strewn about.  We walked back down to the bus stop and hopped on.  As it was we spent over 2 hours in the castel.  The kids were tired and Kristie fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel.  I wanted to get back to make sure our reservations would be extended an additional day.  The kids and I are still jet lagged and it's going to take a few days to get around and see enough of Rome to say we've seen it.  Well, enough of this typing.  I'm going to lay down and take a nap with the kids [-grin]. 

[21h30] Well, I am awake, at least at the moment.  Seems we slept much of the afternoon away.  So we went out to dinner at this corner bistro.  It is a nice open place to sit and eat.  Stephen has really taken to eating Italian food but Kristie seems to have become quite picky about her food.  Maddy, you were right!  Ugh.  Even stuff she picks out from the displays she will end up not eating.  I figured it was about time to hit the small alementaria down the street and stock up on some food.  Well, this place is closed from 13h15 to 16h45.  You guessed it, we got there at just about 16h40.  At least it wasn't a long wait before the doors came open again.  We bought some salami, bread, potato chips and some cookies that Kristie picked out.  On the way back to the hotel room, rain.  Stephen started complaining that it was not supposed to be raining today, just partly cloudy.  Fortunately we are only a block from the hotel at this point. We chowed down on the food and Kristie, of course, didn't like the cookies she bought.  Then we all fell asleep sometime after 18h00.  I just woke up at 21h30 as the sun set.  I think the kids are probably going to sleep through the night.  But now I think that by tomorrow night all our body clocks should be adjusted to European time.

Some observations on the new digital camera for those that I know are interested.  The rumours about sucking up batteries is not a rumour.  We hardly use the LCD display except to examine the picture and make sure that it came out. As you can see, small fingers can sometimes obstruct the view.  So it's nice to know that at the scene versus a few weeks later back at home.  Also, I have retaken shots using the fill flash when the foreground turned out too dark.  Really nice to be able to see that and adjust for it.  Downloading the pictures seems to really drain the batteries.  The battery meter was full when I started the download.  After I had botched the procedure a few times (I know, don't ask, I just wasn't thinking), the fourth time I downloaded the 23 lo-res pictures the camera shut off complaining about a low battery.  So they can go in a matter of minutes.  And the batteries were warm to the touch when I pulled them out.  So I can't afford to botch the download much [-grin].  I don't know how much the Olympus AC adapter costs, I've read on usenet it is expensive, but I might get one the next time I'm in the states.  I'm just hoping that it is a charger that works with european voltages. I guess a set of rechargeable batteries would be nice but I can't see dragging those large rechargers on a long trip.

 Click here to see all of the day's pictures (Warning - loads about 1M of pictures)

Copyright @ 1997 Alexandre POLOZOFF.  All Right Reserved.