Yup- thats me standing in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. If you would have told me I would be doing this 6 months ago, I wouldn't believe it. But it's true, Kelley and Dan started plotting and planning this trip last spring to celebrate everyone's 30th wedding anniversary. How cool is that? Just that they would do all the research and plan everything out so we could have this wonderful trip means so much to me.

We flew to Italy a few days before we were supposed to get on the cruise ship so we could see the sights of Rome. The things we saw were so amazing. There is so much history there...it's hard to take it all in. You could spend months there and not be able to see all the beautiful art...the sculptures, paintings, magnificent buildings, it was really something that takes your breath away when you see it.

The Colosseum was really cool to see. We got a tour guide there that was giving us way too much information and taking way to long though ( the tour was supposed to last about an hour and a half, and we had stood there and listened to him for 45 minutes just at the first few stops. So we decided to venture off on our own to see the rest of it. There was signs all over telling us what had happened there and you could just picture the gladiators and the chariots, the games and the battles and everything that went on there.

Sitting under an olive tree to get out of the sun. Yes there were real olives on it!

One thing we discovered right away was that everything was VERY expensive there. We went into a little restaurant there (they all had people standing outside coaxing you to pick their restaurant) and ordered lunch. We mostly wanted just a glass of water. They don't have that so much over there. You buy a bottle of water. Well that is fine too. Could we get a glass with some ice? (the water was not cold) So they brought a small dish of ice for our whole table to use. Then the real kicker was when we got the bill and realized each bottle of water was 9 euro. Which made them about 12 dollars U.S. money. Dan's meal didn't have a price by it so he didn't realize it was costing him 95 euro. He paid over a hundred dollars for his spaghetti and steak. Good thing they can afford it and can laugh about it. I would have been crying in my 12 dollar bottle of water.

The food in Italy was not what I expected. Yes there was a lot of pizza. Pizza and gellatto were everywhere. The gellatto was amazing, the pizza, not so much. The crust was thin and crusty and they didn't use much sauce or cheese. I think we have taken their pizza and made it what we want it to be.

We did a ton of walking in Rome. There was so much to see! Tony and Marsha had been there before so he was designated our official tour guide. He did a really great job too. He would tell us what he knew about the places, then just make up crap about it. It was sometimes hard to tell the facts from the crap...he is a very convincing story teller! He got us to the sites we wanted to see though...no easy feat, and we learned a lot too. (mostly stuff I wouldn't repeat though because it was probably crap!)

The streets are so small, the cars are all really small too. We saw a lot of cars that I had never heard of before and a lot of those "smart cars". Some of them were so small they looked like golf carts or little Barbie cars.

These are famous steps called "Spanish steps" It's is supposed to give you good luck to sit on them.

This is what some of the stores did with their gelatto. I guess they had to try to make it different somehow than everyone elses gelatto. There was seriously a shop selling gellato or pizza about every 10 feet.

They have a fascination with Pinocchio there. There was all kinds of souvenirs of him and toys made to look like him.

They had some really cool fountains and sculptures. Also lots of naked men. (statues) We learned from our amazing tour guide we had in Vatican city all about the Greek sculptures and the Roman Sculptures and why they made them look like they did. There is a ton of symbolism in all of their art work. Each piece tells a story. She said they kind of worshiped the male body because it represented youth, strength, virility and power..

This was inside Vatican city. So very cool to see! We didn't want to get stuck with another boring tour there so we were avoiding all of the people who approached us to get us to take their tour. We had gone out of Vatican city and were getting something to eat when a guy approached us and told us we would not be disappointed if we went with his tour. He was American and said the girl that would be our guide was from New York. We decided to go for it cause you had to pay to get into the Vatican and St Peter's Basillica anyway and also wait in a line about a mile long. He was right. We were not disappointed.

This was our tour guide Brandy. She was reeeeeeeally smart! She knew so much about this place and it's history. She made the tour really fun and interesting. She was a huge fan of Michelangelo so we learned a lot about him and his art work. We were able to go into St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistein Chapel and see his amazing work. We couldn't take pictures inside the Sistein Chapel because they said the flash would fade the paintings.

Each piece of art work had a story to tell. This is the goddess of fertility. You would think maybe those are eggs all over her? No, bulls testicles.

This was a really cool tapestry of Jesus coming out of the tomb. When you look at it from this side it looks like he is walking toward you and reaching out to you.

Then as you walk past it and look back, it looks like he has turned the other direction and is still reaching out to you.

Magnificent paintings...each one telling a story. Brandy said that was how they would communicate. She told us some great stories about Michelangelo. He was apparently not a fan of the ruler Constantine who asked him to do all of this art work for him, so he would put subtle things in his paintings that told how he was feeling. One picture had him with his bare butt to the emperior's face. There was a moon above them in the painting and she said that is where we got the idea of "mooning" someone.

This was one of Michealangelos's sculptures of Mary holding Jesus. It was put behind bulletproof glass after some crazy guy came after it with a sledge hammer and broke it up.

There was some pretty creepy stuff in the Vatican too. This was a tomb with one of their old rulers all mumified in it. There was also a really creepy statue of satan that gave you chills to look at.

Everything was so beautiful and ornate and magnificent...yet some how just kind of empty and cold.

These are the gaurds at the Vatican. he he silly

This is a typical gas station in Rome. Like the cars...very small. The price was not small. 8 euro a gallon. Makes it about 11 us dollars a gallon! No wonder they drive small cars!

Tevere River. Very beautiful. I think this is the river they had them racing on in the James Bond movie Casino Royal.

This was in Portifino, Genoa Italy. A beautiful little town with cobblestone roads and interesting art work.

It was a beautiful port with lots of yachts.

In Barcelona, Spain, we were able to see the place where Christopher Columbus was born and raised.

This was his own personal courtyard. There was a huge statue of him in the town square.

The home he lived in.

So many scooters and mortercycles.

I didn't take very many pictures on the boat. It was called "The Navigator of the Seas" and was huge! It was a beautiful ship and the rooms were really nice. The food was wonderful...I ate so much! All the service on the boat was really good. Our waiter was from the Phillipines. He was really friendly and we got to know him quite well. He has a wife and little girl back in the phillipines. There has been some really terrible rain storms there and lots of flooding and he was very worried about their safety. He wasn't going to be able to go home for quite a while either because he was asked to go train the waiters on a new ship they were just finishing. It was going to be the biggest cruise ship out there and it was an honor to be asked to work on it. You could tell he was really sad though to be away from his family for so long. He has us all in tears the last night when he showed us a picture of his family and said it meant a lot to him that we cared enough to ask about them.

Our room steward was really nice made something cute like this for us every night.

This was Monaco. It was really a ritzy city. Lots of fancy cars and expensive shops. This is where the Monte-Carlo Casino is.

OK. So this was about the funniest thing I have ever seen. When we were in Monaco, we were looking out over this beautiful scenic ledge. There was rooms to the hotel below us and then the cliffs and the ocean beyond that. There was a bee buzzing around Brenda that wouldn't leave her alone. Dan came running up saying "I'll protect you!" He swung this plastic bag from the ship that had all of his stuff in it at the bee. The handles broke off the bag and the rest of it went flying over the railing. The other men had teased him until he was shamed into taking off his fanny pack (where he had been carrying his camera) and putting it in the plastic bag. We all went running up to look over the railing and saw where the bag had landed in the deck of one of the hotel rooms below. The maid came running out and looked up at us like "what in the world?" She was really nice and brought the bag up to us. Unfortunatly, the camera was in pretty bad shape. The look on Dan's face as he saw the bag flying over the ledge was priceless.

This was the coolest cathedral in Mallorca. It has the worlds largest stained glass window

that made all these beautiful colors reflect on the walls inside.

The last place we went...Palma Spain had a beautiful beach. We all enjoyed relaxing there for a few hours.

Heading back to Citavecchia...we had a day on the ship. A relaxing way to finish the cruise.

The trip home was anything but relaxing. We had an hour delay sitting on the plane in Italy, so when we got to JFK (nine hours later...my poor husband was in the smallest seat, I don't know how he did it) and got through customs, our connecting flight had already left. We were in the airport there for about 2 hours trying to get some help. After waiting in some long lines of angry people, we found someone who would help us. ( Air Aitalia no bueno) This nice lady that worked for air Aitalia got our whole group set up in a hotel close by and gave us dinner and breakfast and then on a flight home at 9:30 the next morning. I think I am fine to not fly again for a long long time. What a wonderful time we had though. I saw things I never dreamed I would ever get to see and spent an unforgetable week with great friends and my sweet husband.