On our bonus day in Rome, we happened upon this incredible church, in the center of the city. When we discovered that it is older than dirt and designed by Michelangelo, we absolutely had to go inside and check it out.

The name of this church in Italian is Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

In English that translates to Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and of the Martyrs, according to Wikipedia.

It was right down the street from our hotel. We had to ask around a little bit to figure out that this is still an operating church, and it is open and free to walk in at certain times of day. Would you believe it? We happened to be standing outside when they opened the doors. I was so excited to go inside!

I love that Alan snapped this photo of me gawking at everything. There was so much to behold! This is the only Renaissance style church in Rome.

In fact, this building was originally the site of the Baths of Diocletian, built from 298-306 AD. Ten thousand Christian slaves constructed this monumental pool that was over five times larger than an Olympic pool. The church is just a small part of the original baths.

The baths were actually commissioned by Emperor Maximian in honor of Diocletian. They shared rule of the Roman Empire at the time. But Diocletian never visited his namesake baths himself. Instead, he actually forced Emperor Maximian to abdicate. Nice, huh?

When the Catholic church obtained this site a thousand years later, Pope Pius IV gave Michelangelo the project of turning the area into a church.

They designed the basilica in honor of all the Christian slaves who’d built the baths as well as other martyrs both known and unknown.

This is a view of the side of the church from the outside. You see this as you are walking through the city, and as foreigners who know next to nothing about Rome, you just think it is a ruin. But in fact, this church is a big deal.

According to this article, “Santa Maria degli Angeli was the official state church of the Kingdom of Italy (1870–1946).”

These days they still use the church for many national ceremonies.

When Michelangelo passed away in 1564, here in Rome, his student, Jacopo Del Duca took over the project.

It was so nice and peaceful in there too, and cool. It was a hundred degrees Fahrenheit outside, so entering a quiet, cool room dedicated to God was balm to the soul.

The beautiful Renaissance interior was nothing at all like the ancient-ruins-looking exterior.

That is John the Baptist, a happier version than the captivating and shocking one also located in this church:

When I saw that, all I could say at first was, “Whoa. Who is… Ohhhh” Then I went to work getting the best photo I could. This sculpture of John the Baptist, by Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj (1944-2014). of his famous beheading, is a recent addition to the church’s art collection.

It feels very real and haunting when you first see it. There’s something extra eerie about a chopped off head statue.

Something scary is happening in this painting, but I am not sure what it is. What do you think?

This organ is the largest I have ever seen, and it is even more impressive in person. It is still in use, too. I wish I could hear it.

Look how the light shines down into the chapel area.

This church is actually in a cross shape. The part with the organ is in one of the horizontal wings of the cross shape.

I am pretty sure this painting depicts the persecution of Christians.

If you go back behind the church, which you can walk straight back there easily, you come to these rough ancient looking walls again.

Some places we went in Rome, there were plaques explaining things in both Italian and English. Other places, there was only Italian. I was not able to learn quite as much about this magnificent place as I would have liked to.

I did learn that part of Michelangelo’s restoration project was to raise the floor of this whole place by 2 meters to bring it to the 1500s street level.

This whole back area feels like walking through an ancient ruin, but then they have added this tall statue of Galileo there. In fact, there is an underlying theme of astronomy running through one side of the church, as it houses a meridian line that runs diagonally across one side and the middle of the building.

I was surprised to see Galileo here. Though he was a Christian, the Roman Catholic church of his time (the 1600s) put him under house arrest for his teachings about the sun being the center of the universe. Galileo was a Christian who was persecuted by the church itself. Now it looks like they are back to honoring him, with this statue in the courtyard of a Roman church of national importance.

We walked through the church, into the courtyard out back that had all of this ancient brick, and then we went back inside to check out the other side of the church.

This was the central, main chapel area. I like how it is open to people to come, look around, and pray.

This painting above must be the crucifixion of the apostle Peter. He’s the only one I have heard of being crucified upside down. Wasn’t that Peter?

You can see General Diaz’s tomb in the photo. He was an Italian general in World War I.

Even the ceilings are ornate.

This is a photo of the meridian sundial that runs along the floor. The sun actually shines down this line, accurately indicating the time of day and year. Pope Clement XI commissioned  Francesco Bianchini to build this. It was finished in 1702. It was restored in 2002, still works, and can predict Easter accurately.

Isn’t that something? The twelve constellations of the western zodiac line the meridian line in the marble.

This is us, standing outside the front of the church. You can see the other arch-shaped buildings of the piazza across the street. This marks the other borders of the vast baths of Diocletian.

Of all the places we visited in Rome this was by far my favorite. I think the number one reason for that is that it was quiet and uncrowded. Plus, it was cool, not hot and stuffy. This is definitely worth a visit if you go to Rome.

The post A Must See in Rome: This Beautiful Church Designed by Michelangelo appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The morning of our last day in Rome was supposed to be very straight forward. We had tickets to take the speed train right back to the U.S. Navy base in Napoli. We were staying outside of Rome, so we hired a cab to take us to the train station.

We had a good breakfast at our Hampton Inn that morning, and a reasonable cab fare. All was going to according to plan.

Then our taxi driver started to ask us about our plan, and he realized we did know about the train strike. (Of course, there would be a train strike). He kindly told us about buses that also can take you to Napoli, and we decided that was our best option.

That is how we ended up on a bench at the bus station in Rome, with dozens of buses, none of which had empty seats available to Napoli.

Alan and I agreed we might as well find a new hotel inside Rome and change our plans.

You can find good deals these days just looking on Google, so that is what I did. I found an excellent looking, highly rated hotel in the very center of Rome called Hotel Impero.

We booked a reservation online, called a cab, and headed on over to the new hotel.

This was such a welcome change. Staying outside of town was an extra hassle, having to constantly hail a cab over to Hampton Inn. Even in Naples, we were staying on post, so we had to rely on the Alibus to get anywhere.

Here at Hotel Impero, we could just step out the front door of the hotel and walk to almost any tourist attraction in Rome!

Plus, we were a block away from the train. Everything was suddenly so much easier and more affordable.

My best travel tip for when you don’t have a car is to pick a hotel right in the middle of wherever you want to be, and stay there!

Plus, I loved the ambience of the Hotel Impero. Most of the buildings in Rome have been there forever, and this hotel was no exception. The man at the desk said that the hotel and all of the surrounding area belonged to Mussolini’s government a hundred years ago.

We arrived earlier than check-in, since our plans had been flipped upside down, but the staff was so kind and welcoming about it all. We sat in the small bar area while they made sure our room was ready. After a short wait, we went up the tiniest old school elevator with a bell hop. The hotel has many turns, so he guided us to our room.

The whole place had the vibe of the early 1900s, and I loved it. This place was perfect for me. Everything was decorated and plush, and it seems like there were antiques everywhere.

Plus, I finally felt like I was staying in a real Italian hotel. The Hampton Inn was nice and offered all the comforts of home, but it had less of the authentic Italian experience, you know?

This place even had these enormous weighted keys and multi-level maze-like hallways. I adored it; I really did.

Once we’d gotten our things all situated, we headed across the street for lunch. There were plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Everyone talks about the food in Italy. As a person with food allergies, I do not get the same level of enjoyment out of restaurants.

Having no choice but to be gluten free is such a bummer when you are traveling. Yes, Italy is health conscious and has many places with gluten free options. But still, we had to ask everywhere we went and choose based on that.

Thankfully, I did still manage to have many gluten free pizzas and even one gluten free pasta dish. Alan printed out this celiac statement to explain my problem in Italian, and he would show it to places. It was so sweet of Alan to do that. He really looked out for me.

On our third day in Italy, we covered so much ground on foot. Our favorite place was the The Basilica Of St. Mary Of The Angels And The Martyrs. That one was such a big deal, and we took so many photos that I have to save those pictures for my next post, which will be dedicated only to the basilica.

Here are a few other places we saw.

The photo above is an elaborately carved sarcophagus. True art connoisseurs would probably be baffled at our attitude, but we did not know much about what we were seeing. If you love sculptures, you would enjoy the museum, I’m sure.

We saw many unusual things that we did not know they were.

This was the view from outside the museum. So much of Rome was this cool.

This was outside the baths of Diocletian, but it cost extra to go in, so we passed on this one.

This was close to our hotel too. We had the perfect location.

After touring the museum and the basilica, we just started walking around Rome. We took off on foot headed towards the famous Trevi Fountain and took photos of a few cool things we saw along the way.

This was another one of those buildings that looked important, but we had no idea what it was.

Orange trees grew along the street.

The Trevi Fountain itself was lovely and in tact and definitely the most densely crowded place that we toured. People packed in there. That’s why the photo is a close up. I was trying to cut out the crowds.

In retrospect, I should have taken a distance shot so you can see how many people there were.

We enjoyed picking out a few souvenirs in the little alley shops near the fountain.

After all that touring, we went back to our hotel and napped. Alan woke up from the nap and went out and visited a few stores. I have no memory of what he was shopping for. He probably brought back some food. I said, “I know we are in Italy, but I don’t even need to eat tonight. All I want to do is sleep and rest my feet.”

So that was what I did. I never did go back out that night. It’s a good thing too, because the next day we headed to Pompeii. I love that we saw Pompeii, but it turned out to be our roughest day by far, and you can bet I will be blogging about it soon.

To read about Rome day 1, see this post, with the Colosseum.

For Rome Day 2: The Vatican, click here.

The post Rome Day 3: The Beautiful Hotel Impero Saves the Day appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our second day in Rome dawned on us a little later than we meant for it to.

We knew we needed to get downtown early to stand in line for Vatican Museum tickets. You see, we did not plan far enough ahead to obtain tickets in advance.

In order to see the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling, you must have Vatican Museum tickets. We were not about to leave Rome without seeing the Sistine Chapel.

But did we see Vatican City?

No, not really. Sort of. We went all through the entire Vatican Museum, which takes up half of Vatican City, but we missed St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square, mostly because we did Rome with no plan. I explain why we took such a last minute trip in this post about our thrifty vacation in Italy.

That is how we ended up waiting in line for the Vatican Museum for three or so hours.

Thankfully, I have dragged us on two Disney World vacations in the past seven years, so waiting in excruciatingly long lines for hours is not something we are afraid to do.

Most Christians are familiar with King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a pretty famous Old Testament character. He destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and carried off the Jewish population to captivity in Babylon, where he came to appreciate Daniel.

For Bible scholars, Bible characters are like celebrities. Seeing these artifacts from the very people we have read about and studied is so exciting. This must be what Elvis fans feel when they visit Graceland.

Assyria is the country that destroyed Israel.

So many things happened with Israel, and King David, King Solomon, dividing into Judah and Israel, and then the devastation of the first temple. It used to be hard for me to keep it all straight. What finally helped me is this home school time line song that includes all of these events, along with other world events, all together in a format that is catchy and straightens all these historical events out in your head.
Here is a link to the timeline song I am talking about. You will like it. I know it sounds crazy, and it is made for kids, but it is so helpful and easy, without being all high pitched and annoying.

Here’s the lyrics to the part that helps me keep my Israel history straight. This goes from around 1000 BC to around 500 BC:

• (1000 BC) Early Native Americans
• Israel Divides into Two Kingdoms
• Homer and Hesiod
• Rome Founded by Romulus and Remus
• Israel Falls to Assyria
• Assyria Falls to Babylon
• Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Buddha

• Judah falls to Babylon
• Temple Destroyed
• Babylon Falls to Persia
• Jews Return and Rebuild the Temple

But before we ever got into the enormous Vatican Museum, we had a fun time waiting in line for three hours. I mean that, and I need to explain that before I go any further.

Behind us in line was a family of four. This family was from Portugal. The people in front of us were from Brazil, and the people behind the Portuguese family were also from Brazil.

I could communicate with them a little with my Spanish, but I did not have to much because the two Portuguese youngsters spoke such good English.

Thankfully, Alan had the presence of mind to take a photo of our two English-speaking Portuguese friends. I won’t post their photos here, though, since the youngest was only eleven, and I didn’t ask permission to share his picture.

The Portuguese family was a classic family of four. Their daughter was the oldest. She was a medical school student in her early twenties. Her little brother, who I literally talked to for hours, was eleven. He reminded me of my own twelve-year-old. Having four boys of my own, I am more comfortable than most people at talking with preteen boys.

This particular boy could have talked to anyone, though. I don’t remember his name, so we will call him Jose. Jose had so many thoughtful questions and stories. He talked all day and was not even boring. For a little while, he even got out his cell phone, and he and I played games on it. I beat him at tic-tac-toe, but he crushed me at these other games I had never heard of and did not understand.

Jose’s sister, we will call her Julia, had even better English than Jose. Together, Alan, Jose, Julia and I discussed the world’s view of former President Trump, President Biden, what it’s like to go to war, life in America, Lego, YouTube, Catholicism, you name it. We had such a surprisingly jolly time.

I know you want to know what they did say about Trump. We all agreed he has his strengths (in policy) and his weaknesses (in personality).

After spending hours in line, in the ninety-something degree heat, we would take turns going to pick up lunch. Alan managed to find us a large gluten free pizza to share, along with gelato and the most delicious sparkling water I have ever had in my life. When you are pouring sweat and dehydrated, cold sparkling water takes on a whole new meaning.

And then all of a sudden, the line started moving again. They would let in about thirty people at a time, and just like that we were in! We hugged our new line friends and said good-bye when we got inside. I figured we would run into them at some point that day, but we never did. The Vatican Museum is enormous and filled to the brim with people.

***Disclaimer: When you purchase through Amazon links on this site, I do collect advertising fees.***

The paintings covered the walls and ceilings of many of the rooms. It is hard to know where to look. There is so much to see.

I am sorry to tell you that we were clueless tourists going through most of the museum. We conducted zero research in preparation for this, so we usually did not know what we were seeing. Our eyes were overwhelmed.

However, most of the rooms were so ornate and incredible that even without knowing what we were looking at, it was fascinating.

If I had it to do over again, I would buy a book like this to give me some information first, https://amzn.to/3EjDxaH.

Of course, we went through all of these amazing exhibits with the goal of seeing the Sistine Chapel at the end, which we did see. No photographs are allowed in there, and of everything you see in Rome, I would say it is the most spiritually moving artwork that we saw.

I will include a stock image from Canva of the Sistine Chapel at the end of this. First, you must weave through the museum displays with us.

I do wish I knew more about these paintings to tell you. As we were going through I kept thinking, “I wish I knew who painted these and what they mean.”

The painting above and below were painted by Ludwig Seitz. I did look up the Latin writing on this one because everything means more when you understand it. It reads, “Dvininarum veritatum splendor animo exceptus ipsam iuvat intelligentiam,” which translates in English,

The splendor of divine truths received in the mind helps the intelligence itself.

Pope Leo XIII, 1879

I looked up the Latin on this one too. It was commissioned in the late 1800s by Pope Leo XIII and painted by Ludwig Seitz also.

The Latin on this one translates to, “The ancient arts have happily returned to life by the patronage of the Roman Pontiffs.”

I feel like this guy sometimes.

This was such an incredible ceiling.

There was this room that was all wall sized maps. As you can imagine, Alan loved it. The only map I remotely recognized was the Italy one.

The tapestry above illustrates the murder of the infant boys that Herod ordered when he heard about the newborn king. This was Herod’s attempt to kill Jesus off as a baby. It didn’t work because God sent Jesus and his family to Egypt to hide until that Herod passed away.

There is at least one whole room of Rafael frescos, and we could not find it. Either that, or we walked right through it and did not realize it, which is completely possible.

No matter how much art we make, God still outshines us with his beautiful green creation. Vatican City does a lovely job tending this green space.

Look how empty and ancient the doors to the Vatican Museum look at the end of the day.

I promised you the Sistine Chapel, though, didn’t I?

We did see that, and it is just as wonderful as we’d hoped. And it’s hundreds of years old! People come from all over the world to see it. You are supposed to be quiet in the Sistine Chapel and not take any pictures.

Also, you are allowed to stand still and gaze up at the ceiling from the middle of the room only. The perimeter is for people coming and going. Then all around the room are benches on the wall to. sit on, but it is difficult to get a spot on the bench.

Alan and I lost each other in there. I just stopped and looked up, but Alan did not rest until he found me. I felt badly about that. If I’d known he was focused on finding me, I would have helped more. This meant I got to look at it extra long because once Alan finally found me, he had not even looked at the ceiling yet, so then I stood and stared at it with him.

I could not find a free stock photo of my favorite part of the Sistine Chapel though. The entire front altar wall of the chapel is The Last Judgment fresco, also by Michelangelo. It is incredible and thought provoking. You can find images of it on Wikepedia.

By the time we left the Vatican Museum, we were exhausted. We went from there to a grocery store and picked up some gluten free snacks.

Alan was always on the lookout to make sure he could find me food that would not make me sick. Thank you, Alan!!!

Most of the restaurants were able to make me a gluten free pizza.

Between the airports, Italy, Outer Banks, and Alabama, I still managed to get gluten-ed several times though. My body still has not fully recovered. My nails are a disaster.

After our grocery shopping, we visited a street gift shop and had the best time. We bought all sorts of little things.

There is something purely invigorating about shopping that got me through the rest of the afternoon. I call it a shopping high.

Fresh off our shopping high, we boarded a train to a few stops away to do some more exploring. My legs were not used to walking in flip-flops. In fact, according to my reading, Italian people don’t usually wear flip-flops in the city. I should have just worn my tennis shoes.

We got off train. I had one goal. “Let’s find a green space with benches where we can just sit down and rest.”

After our little rest, we somehow managed to get to the Spanish steps for some sightseeing and and early dinner. In Italy, dinner is eight o’clock. I seriously doubt we waited that long for dinner.

See if you can find Alan in the above photo at the Spanish Steps.

This area also had the expensive designer clothing stores. We saw people who we were pretty sure were fashion models walking around. They were giant, thin, polished young people with slightly unusual clothes. Sorry. I didn’t take any photos of the fancy people.

Everywhere we went it was pretty crowded. I did get a photo of that:

And of course, the buildings themselves are beautiful.

Here’s both of us at the Spanish Steps. Note how much better women dress in Italy than people dress when touring America. Not a single person was wearing an “I Heart Rome” t-shirt. Can you believe it? I felt underdressed every single day, and yet I did nothing to fix the situation. My overall mood was “tired tourist with a little anxiety” every single day.

That particular day was a happy one though. We so enjoyed talking to our new friends in line at the Vatican. Then there was the shopping. The street vendor had excellent prices. Plus, we ended the day in a restaurant on a beautiful street, enjoying an Italian meal.

Looking back on it, I must say our Rome days went quite smoothly. Imagine if you actually prepare for your trip and know what you are doing. You could have a fun vacation in just Rome itself.

This was supposed to be our last day in Rome. That is why we crammed in so much. However, things changed when we set out for Naples the next morning. I will tell you all about that in my next post on Italy!

Ciao!

The post The Vatican Museum: A Day of Waiting, Making New Friends, & Pizza appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Why the nutshell? I don’t know. Basically, this is a little overview of my trip, and then you can bet I will type out a whole series about each individual place. It was a sweltering week in Italy. Most places were not air conditioned. And I am going to tell you all about it.

Days one and seven were traveling days, so this is very quickly going to look more like five days in Italy, I think.

As I mentioned on Facebook, we did fly military space available. Our tickets to Italy, believe it or not, were only $22 a piece. Crazy, huh? Our tickets home were $40/piece.

I promise I am going to write out a little guide on how to fly military space available. My husband even made a video with me about military flights while we were beginning our trip. I need to finish it off, and then I will post it here for everyone who is interested.

First, I want to say that this trip was to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and it was a beautiful vacation.

Alan especially loved touring Italy. We saw so many historical sites and a couple of volcanoes, so this was right up Alan’s alley.

The version of Italy we saw was dictated by our military arrival and departure destinations. That is why we stuck to Rome, Naples, and Sicily.

We both enjoy historical sites, so I am a little embarrassed to admit that while we were in the southern area with all the beautiful water and island destinations in a heat wave, we did not visit the beach.

It is okay though. We did visit the Mediterranean Sea when we were in Israel. Plus, we knew we would have some beach days when we got back to the U.S.

I think the phrase I said the most during our trip was, “planes, trains, and automobiles.”

Did you ever see that movie? It felt like we spent a bulk amount of this trip on planes, trains, and automobiles. Oh yeah, and also buses. Don’t worry though. Nothing caught fire, and no one had to sell shower curtain rings.

Please note the photo above. At the beginning of Day one of flying to Italy, we looked tidy and well groomed. Then we waited all day for our plane to leave. Then it took us around eleven hours of flying, plus many time zones to pass through.

So by the next photo, it was technically day two, though we had not been to a hotel yet or changed clothes or showered. We were riding this 140mph speed train to Rome that I was nervous about. That is why I looked like THIS on the train:

Embarrassing. I do hope I combed my hair before I got off the train, but I doubt that I did. Thankfully, we did ride straight to our hotel and freshen up. Oh, and you would never know that train was going so fast. I could not tell. It was not bad at all.

A lot of this vacation revolved around planes, trains, buses, and automobiles though.

The day we planned to ride the train from Rome to Napoli, our cab driver informed us that there was a national train worker strike. (So glad he told us!!) The strike was scheduled to last all day long, so all buses were booked up. (In Italy, they schedule their strikes.) However, since it was about 40 degrees Celsius/104 degrees Fahrenheit, the government stepped in and ended the strike in the late afternoon.

Our solution was simply to stay an extra day in Rome to wait out the strike. That ended up being my favorite day in Italy.

Then on the day that we planned to fly from Napoli to Catania (way down in Sicily), there was an airline worker strike!

You cannot make this stuff up, so we got the LAST two train tickets that day from Napoli to Catania.

By the way, it was an eight hour train ride. Also, our seats were not together.

The cool thing about the train ride though is that the TRAIN takes the ferry between the mainland boot and the island of Sicily. During the ferry ride, we had to switch trains. Then we were able to get out and look out over the water on the ferry!

That was a one of a kind experience for sure.

Overall, we did this whole week-long anniversary trip to Italy for only $2,138. Can you believe that? And we did not slum it. We stayed in what I would consider nice hotels (often Navy lodges) and paid for many cab rides and restaurant meals.

So what did we actually DO in Italy?

Well, besides studying train schedules and surviving the insane heat wave, we mostly saw Rome and Pompeii and rode trains.

We ended up spending three days in Rome. In Rome, we saw the sites we had heard about the most:

-the Colosseum

-The Titus Arch

-some other archway

-a basilica designed by Michelangelo

– the Vatican Museum

-the Sistine Chapel

-Italian restaurants

-the Trevi fountain

-the Spanish steps

-graffiti in all of the non-historic areas

-all sorts of beautiful buildings that I could not name

-bus stations

-train stations

-the best dressed population I have ever seen…Italian women do NOT dress as we do when out touring the city.

I look forward to writing a whole post on the Rome days and another post about our Pompeii day.

It was so hot in Pompeii that when I think about Pompeii, all I can think about is, “Man, that place was so hot. I almost passed out that day.”

Fortunately, I’m not prone to fainting. If you are, do not visit Pompeii in a heat wave. Pack water, and wear a big hat.

Overall, our Italy trip was a little stressful (for me) and exhausting (surely for both of us) and oh-so-crowded everywhere. I kept reminding myself to be grateful though.

I knew this was a luxury and a very kind thing that Alan was doing for us, and I did think it was cool to visit so many famous places.

Crowding into train after train, standing room only, and wondering why nowhere was air-conditioned is not how I envision a relaxing vacation. There was very little relaxing involved in this trip.

When I am crowded into a D.C. train I do not feel this stressed even though it is the same. In a foreign country where I did not know the language, I just felt far out of my comfort zone.

But mostly, the problem was the heat.

At some point in Rome day three, I sat down on my hotel bed and said, “I am not going anywhere else today. I do not even want dinner. All I want to do is lie here, sleep, and let the swelling in my ankles go back down.” And that is exactly what I did.

Y’all, I was never good at extreme heat! Two different years back in high school I called my band director trying to quit because I could not take the endless days of one hundred degree sun in band camp. Somehow he always managed to talk me out of quitting. The sun and I are not friends.

Alan, on the other hand, absolutely loved touring Italy and enjoyed the freedom of not being with a tour group.

He was downright exuberant. “Oooo let’s take a picture here. Let’s take a picture of this,” he said so many times. I was always a little shocked. It was so incredibly hot that I had a hard time caring about what I was seeing or taking photos. Plus, I wished I had my tennis shoes and an ice water, all the time.

There is a good lesson to take from this. Wear tennis shoes. My flip-flops were comfortable, but they strained my legs because it had been a year since I had worn them. My feet are used to tennis shoes.

I will tell you all the details in my next few posts!

For my next vacation, I told Alan I am willing to fly military flights. However, I would like to pick a quiet place on the coast and not change hotels at all.

The post Our Sweltering 7 Days in Italy in a Nutshell appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.