Rome Highlights

Rome was Beautiful

Vatican City

We are currently awaiting our tour into the Vatican. Oh, and it's official...Sean and I can share pants. They actually look good on him. More later.

Rome, day 1

Our day started a little late, but it seems like we saw EVERYTHING today! I am the good kind of tired right now. We found a fancy hotel with a nice guy who is letting us use the internet.

Today we saw the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, several beautiful churches, a panoramic view of the city from the top of a building, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, saw a really great street performer, had a very good meal at an outdoor restaurant on Piazza Navona, marveled at the sheer number of fountains, sculptures and other cool things everywhere you look, and walked our feet off. Tomorrow we head to the Vatican. There, you have to be dressed modestly (no bare shoulders or shorts) or they won't let you in. Here's the hilarious thing: Sean didn't bring pants, and after a fruitless search for affordable pants on Sunday when stores are closed, he decided that he's going to try to wear my pants (jeans). THAT will be a sight to behold. I have no idea how they will fit. I'll definitely take a picture, assuming they fit at all.

This is very fun so far...I'm looking forward to more good Italian food in the days to come. If I keep walking this much, there's no way all the food will affect the waistline.

Time for bed (almost). More soon, I hope. (Our hotel advertised internet access, but doesn't actually have it. Bummer.) Have a great day, everybody!

In Italy

Getting here was a bit of an adventure (flights delayed out of london, took 2 hours to get baggage), but we are here!!! We slept way too late this morning, but I really needed it. On our way to the Colosseum right now. More later!

Landing in London

I'm here!

I am wandering around in London a bit today, not much time to see things, but it's good to not be in the airport! I walked farther in Heathrow today than I ever have in any airport...including O'Hare. It's so crowded in the airport; everyone seems to be leaving for vacation right now.

The flight was good; I am officially a fan of Virgin Atlantic. Very comfy, cool seat-back screens with on-demand movies (I watched Night at the Museum), games (Tetris! Need I say more?), a little bag with toothbrush/paste, socks, eye shades...and the food was pretty good, too. One nice discovery was that the drink carts actually have a full-service bar--even for those in the economy seats. So I had a cute little glass of white wine with dinner.

Will: I think Ralph Wiggum (or someone that sounds just like him) was sitting behind me. !!

Brett: I agree, it's really great to fall asleep on an overnight flight and wake up in another country. Definitely the way to go. Though I'm rather tired right now.

I took a few photos when we were approaching the airport; I'll try to upload shortly.

Credit Card Fraud

Well, just like in the funny Citibank commercials, someone has been using my credit card number to purchase thousands of dollars' worth of stuff at Harley Davidson stores around the country. Lovely. I've bought and reserved quite a few things for my Europe trip with that credit card; so now I have to go through and figure out who needs the new number. Arrrgh. At least I'll get a new card by tomorrow. (Kudos to Citibank for noticing this and calling us!) 24 hours without a credit card...what on earth will I do?? :)

I wonder how that happened? I've made so many online purchases in the last week, it's hard to say. I'm hyper-vigilant about checking for the "secure" symbol on webpages. Now I just have to hope and pray that they don't have any other information. And I'm changing every password I can think of, and putting fraud alerts on my accounts and credit files.

I just want to get on that plane and fly away!!! This is nuts.

This time next week I will be here:

(Vernazza, Italy)

Hooray for elected officials!?!

This post may turn out to be premature, but we'll see. I leave for Europe in 7 days, and still do not have my passport (I sent in for a renewal almost 4 months ago, not thinking I needed "expedited" service.) The passport agency won't even talk to you if you're not going somewhere in the next 14 days. Well, I called a week ago, and after several hours (not exaggerating) finally got through. They upgraded it to "expedited" which did absolutely nothing. At 9 days from travel day, I started to panic and called to schedule an appointment at the Chicago passport agency. The automated appointment system, groaning under the weight of the excessive call volume, took 35 minutes to tell me that there aren't any appointments until July 25, and I leave on the 20th. Out of desperation I called our Senator's office. Which must have worked, because today I talked to someone at the passport agency, and she mentioned a note in my file that there had been a congressional call requesting a 24-hour passport issuance. It should be sent via Fedex later today.

So, hooray for democracy. Or something like that. (Never thought I'd be so grateful for a politician.) I'll have to remember to send his office staff a postcard from Europe.