Tales from the Taylors: Roman Holiday

The week before Thanksgiving, Daniel had to head to Europe for work. Rather than having him come directly home, we decided to meet up in Rome. We both thought it sounded rather romantic to "meet in Rome". So on Monday the 22nd, I jumped on a plane to New York and then on to Rome. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous to do such a long flight. I've never been to another country other than mexico and that was by car or cruise ship. I made sure to fill my camelback with enough medicines to make any pharmacist jealous. Luckily I passed through security without having to open up my medicine closet! As I walked to my gate, I noticed ALL of the telephones were occupied by boys in suits-the missionaries! I knew that my flight was going to be great if my fellow passengers were missionaries. My flight was great. In fact, I had all 3 side aisle seats to myself. I stretched out and read a book for most of the flight. After a 4 hour layover in New York, I boarded the flight to Rome. Again I was blessed with 3 seats to myself. HA! I watched several movies, read and then slept for the remainder of the flight. I woke up in Tuesday morning in Italy! I then had to wait for Daniel to land. That wasn't such a good idea on our part. I had to wait 4 hours for him to fly in from Amsterdam. I calmly read my book for about 3 hours in an airport filled with Italian speaking folk. As it got closer to the time for Daniel to land, I started to "think". "What if he goes to the wrong terminal and pages me and I don't get the page cuz I'm in another terminal?" "How am I going to contact Daniel since my phone doesn't work in Italy?" "How am I going to get help from someone here in the airport since I don't speak ANY Italian?" Let's just say I was SOOO relieved when an Italian 4Life employee asked me if I was me. He'd seen my picture in the Spain office and recognized me. He was our ride to our bed and breakfast. Luckily Max not only found me, but he had a good sense of humor. We decided to hide me in a cafe and for Max to tell Daniel I wasn't flying in til the next day due to bad weather. It was a fun trick and it made me smile-a good thing after my "thinking" episode! It was great to finally see Daniel. Our sightseeing began the next day (Tuesday was spent looking at office spaces in Rome with Max).

We first saw the Vatican which was only a 10 minute walk from our B&B! And it was a good thing too cuz my camera died soon after we got there. But have no fear, we were able to walk back and get Daniel's camera without missing out on anything! It was amazing to stand there in the square and look around us and see the statues on the top of the buildings, to see St. Peter's Basillica, the fountains, etc. Ahh, Rome. The inside of St. Peter's is awesome! The lettering on the wall is 7 feet tall! (if that helps give you a true perspective) After the Vatican we saw as much as we could in the days that we had. Here are more pictures of the trip: