We have made it home safely but we feel we have passed from dream to reality. While all three of us have aches and pains from all the miles we walked in all the places we visited, we all miss the sights, tastes and sensations of our trip.

The last few days since the last email were packed with "adventure". First night in the Eternal City we decided to catch a glimpse of Rome at twilight. We passed by the Coliseum, The Forum and on to Campo di Firori, Plaza di Nuovo, the Pantheon and the Trevi. Unfortunately we were led astray by the beauty and the Metro closed before we decided to head home. So we walked about 3 miles, to our hotel.

Over the next two days we saw all we could. Each of us taking turns limping as our stamina fought the cobbled streets. All the above mentioned sights in daylight plus the Vatican Museum, the Sistine, Saint Peters and Trastevre.

Our biggest mistake was to look at a map and decide we could easily walk from the vatican to Trastevere. There just happens to be a "mountain" in between and almost no pedestrian access. But the long hard detour led us to the sight of a famous battle won by Garabaldi over the French, something we would never had seen otherwise.

On the last dat we searched the markets for a "Pink Bag": a fashion accesory that our daughter just had to have (Actually a black bag with "Pink Bag" written in pink glitter.

When we left we were delayed in the airport for two hours by the Italian way of doing things: slow and whatever. Our last night was spent in London. We were back in the same hotel we started in so we felt we were on familiar ground. After a disasterous trip through the Underground to get from Luton airport to the hotel in Earl's Court we were lucky to find a nearby station that had a train to Gatwick.

Finally, after an 11 plus hours of flying we once again breathed the good old West Coast air in VAncouver.

All the best of our pictures I am putting on a Yahoo site. (http://photos.yahoo.com/boweneurope2005)

I hope everyone enjoyed the reports and the pictures. Me, I'm saving up to go back...

Welcome home. I loved the photo album. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks cmcfong,

Writing the report wasn't as much fun as the trip but, I felt after all the good advice and ideas this forum has provided me, I had to give a little back.
Funny, though, I can't seem to find the trip reports by searching. I mean, I have posts with "Rome" in them but when I search for that text I don't get the post I just made... weird, huh?

I have read them all and enjoyed them. You might find them by clicking on your screen name.

Yes, I finally figured out that method. But I wonder about all the great posts I have never read just because the search engine is wonky...

Thanks for posting this report.

I do wish, however, that some of the great advice you received had included permission to use a taxi every now and then.

Actually we did take a cab the night after getting stuck out after the Metro closed.
It wasn't as bad as my prose makes it sound...

WOW what excellent pictures, 15 days to Italy to go, a question about tours, you seem to have seen a great deal did you do everything solo or use tours and if you did them solo what pre-planning would you do. Eastern Canuck PQ,

That was the most fantastic slide show!! You take great pictures--just having been to Rome in April, these brought back such wonderful memories-even tho we took hundreds of photos, your slide show was such a treat-thankyou!!

reply to oneillchris

I did it all myself using various internet sources including, of course, Fodor's. I cannot count the hours it took but it was a learning experience for sure.
I don't think I'd do it any other way. we changed plans on the fly and when we'd had enough for any one day we just bailed on our plans.
Of course, hotels were pretty much set in stone but something like the journey from Amsterdam to Brugge we made a final decision the night before thanks to our Eurail Drive Pass.

one more thing...

if I wasn't travelling with an 11 year old I might not have reserved all the hotels. But witha kid in tow I thought it best to take no chances...