THEY CALL ME... MEME!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Ciao a tutti i miei amici!


Hello my friends!

Italy is so beautiful.... We are in Rome for 3 days then off to Florence! Here are some photos from our first day! Fresh off the plane, an 8 hour ride, we were picked up at the airport by Luca ~ our very own True Roman! This was the name of the tour company we hired! Luca was excited to see the 5 of us and was given many high fives by the other tour guides waiting for their clients.. Lucky Luca! He had no idea what he was getting himself into with us ladies!!
Here is a shot of Frankie and her clients~friends who are joining us on this pilates retreat, Audrey and Bonnie! We got our luggage and headed for our hotel to drop bags and then Luca would be taking us around the city~ Here are some of the sites we took in....

We drove into a court yard and got out of the van to see this wall~ with a door that everyone seemed to be "peeking" into! It was the Piazza Del Campidoglio with it's splendid view of the Imperial city with the Vatican at the end! We
My picture through the peep hole only shows you the garden but in the distance you saw the dome of St Peters!! It was so very breathtaking... so sorry you can't see it in the picture, but we will be going to the Vatican tomorrow, Monday so I will show you the real thing then!
The streets in Rome are narrow with CRAZY drivers!!
Here is the Fountain Trevi~ Throw coins in with your right hand over your left shoulder, and you are SURE to be back in Rome on day again!
Check out Meigan, Bonnie and Frankie... AND the pick pocket guy next to Frankie!!! I have 3 shots in a row and, seriously, he is seen looking for her purse and moving closer to her!! No luck for him~ We were well prepared and warned by Luca to watch out for just his type!
Next we went to the Pantheon~
The Pantheon has the opening in the ceiling dome, letting in rain, and sunshine! Art work on the walls and ceiling were so beautiful!
Architecture in Rome ...

The statues and fountains are so intriguing ~ I enjoyed "capturing" them on film!
We also went to the Coliseum and so, so many more stops... I will share more!

Our goodbye picture with Luca...
Frankie, Audrey, Luca, Me, Meigan, Bonnie and Julie! We were so grateful to Luca for a really fun, interesting day AND the cappuccino he treated us to so we could WAKE UP and be able to enjoy a nice dinner before collapsing into our beds!!

At the Hotel Anglo Americano, Meig, Julie and Frankie check out the map of Rome to decide on a place for dinner...
and they found a lovely place where bread was free and the vino was fabulous too!!
~Audrey, Frankie and Julie~
~Meigan, Diana, and Bonnie~

~ Ciao~