Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Rome

Mike and Judy Henderson
September 18 - 28, 2018

Judy had expressed an interest in seeing Sicily some years ago so when we saw this Tauck trip we decided to sign up for it.

9/16-17/2018 (Sunday and Monday) We depart today from Los Angeles airport.  Tauck has a program called "the gift of time" where you get one extra day, either before the tour, or after the tour, as part of the package.  We chose the "before" to use the day for jet-lag recovery.  We'll arrive in Rome on 9/17 and the tour starts on 9/18.

Here we are just before we left home.  We received a text from Lufthansa before we left home that the flight to Munich would be delayed about an hour.  That's not a problem for use because we had about a four hour layover in Munich.  We didn't try to change the limo pickup time because that's not fair to the limo people.  They've already scheduled their drivers.

The trip to LAX was uneventful - it's Sunday and the traffic was light.  We arrived early - very early considering the delay in the takeoff time.  Here's Judy checking us in at the Lufthansa counter.

We headed up to the Alliance Lounge where we'll wait for the boarding call.

Here's Judy in the lounge.  We've created a bit of a "nest" here in the corner.  Judy is doing "Words with Friends" and I'm working on my travel computer.

Eventually, they called our flight - departure was to be about 6pm instead of 5:20.  We're on an A380 and the business class layout is nice - side-by-side seats instead of the herringbone seats that we had on our previous journey.

We have two seats on the port side and Judy has her favorite seat - next to the window.

The flight to Munich was about 10 hours but uneventful.  We managed to get a bit of sleep but were up about 2am, our time.  Even though we left a bit late, we arrived just about on schedule - about 1:30pm Munich time. 

We're in the Lufthansa lounge now, with a layover until our flight to Rome leaves at 4:20.  The Munich airport appears to be fairly new and modern.

Our flight to Rome left on time and it was only a bit over an hour.  Nancy from Tauck met us at baggage claim.

After a short wait another couple arrived and we were all taken to the hotel - the Majestic.  Here's a panoramic picture of the hotel - taken the next morning.  It's a nice hotel but has a couple of problems.

After a quick meal in the hotel restaurant (on the terrace), we headed off to bed.

9/18/2018 (Tuesday) Since we came a day early, we have the morning free to do some wandering around Rome.  Our first official tour activity is this evening where we all meet, the tour director(s) review what's going to happen, and then we have dinner.

We started the day with breakfast on the terrace.  Tauck had included breakfast in the extra day, which we appreciated.  The terrace is very nice - the temperature was mild early in the morning which made for a very comfortable seating.  Judy is seated at the table at the far right in the picture.

We decided that we'd walk to the Pantheon.  Google maps plotted a course for us along the narrow back streets of Rome.

Along the way, we came to the Trevi Fountain.

Here's Judy at the fountain.

And me. I had been wearing a hat and that's why you see that mark in my forehead.  We each threw a coin into the fountain.  In the movie "Three Coins in the Fountain" I believe it was said that if you threw a coin into the fountain it means you'll come back to Rome.  Wikipedia says that about 3,000 Euros worth of coins are thrown into the fountain every day.

We continued along the narrow street and came to the Pantheon.  I chose this picture because it shows both the round structure of the rotunda as well as the portico entrance.  It was built as a Roman temple but was converted to a church in the 7th Century.  That conversion probably saved the structure.

This view is directly in front of the entrance.

The interior is quite impressive.  Here's what you see as you enter the door.  The oculus allows light into the rotunda and is covered, today, by glass or plastic.  Originally, it would have been open to the elements.

This panoramic view shows part of the interior. 

And a close up view of the altar area.

Victor Emmanuel II's tomb is on one side of the rotunda.

When we left the Pantheon we walked towards the Spanish Steps.  We passed the  Palazzo Montecitorio, which is the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

Then we took a detour and went into San Silvestro in Capite church. 

An interior view of the basilica.

Next we walked to the church of San Carlo al Corso

The interior of the church.

A close up view of the altar area.

We were now just a short distance from the Spanish Steps, our next goal.  There are 135 steps up the Spanish Steps and the Trinità Dei Monti church sits at the top of the steps. 

It's a hike up the steps but we both made it and entered the church.  It's not a really grand church - here's a view of the interior.

By this time, the sun had been up for a while and it was hot and humid.  My shirt was soaking wet.  We walked into the Villa Borghese Gardens but did not stay long - and we just skirted the edge of the gardens.  I didn't take any pictures during our walk.  We eventually walked back to the hotel and each took a shower.  We had lunch at a small restaurant just down the street from the hotel.

Leaving the restaurant, we were across from Il Convento del Cappuccini museum and ossuary, so we went to see it.

Here are a couple of pictures from the ossuary.  We saw something similar in Milan.

That evening we had the first gathering of the tour - a cocktail party on the terrace, followed by dinner in the restaurant,  Here are our two tour directors - Erica and Massimiliano.

Here's the group at dinner.  Erica and Massimiliano are telling us the plans for the next few days.

After dinner it was off to bed.  We tour Rome tomorrow.

 

 

Our adventure continues here