Arrevederchi Roma!!

What an amazing day in Rome... and what a long one!! We started off the day by heading to the Vatican. Went thru the museum, Sistene Chapel and then St. Peter's Basilica. It was my first time in the Sistene Chapel - a-mazing!! All the marble in the Basilica was so impressive! After a quick lunch, we hopped on the bus & headed to the colusseum. Awesome again!

Yes, I took this picture - Impressive, huh!? It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Rome today! Couldn't have asked for anything better! Got to climb up a few levels and check the place out. Wow... then went across the street and saw the Roman Forum... more amazing sites!

This is sunset over the Roman Forum... sunsets in Italy are quite colorful!

After some free wandering time... and some GELATTO :)... we had our farewell dinner. What a great group of Group Leaders on the awesome RED bus! Our evening activity was a Rome by Night tour... a sort of hop-on, hop-off experience. Hit Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, all the big places all lit up... wow... Well, on our walking tour, we saw my Ferrari - just out of the shop - all polished, ready to go!! We had seen 2 Lambourghinis earlier, so this just topped it all off!!

The awesome staff on the Red Bus:

Lino, Stefania, me, Sarah, Jen, Shea, Kathy, Stephanie, Bob

Sadly, it's time to leave this amazing place! Can't believe it's been 16 yrs since I've been here.. had to admit that... It was incredible.. the sights, the sounds, the smells, the food, the culture... all breathtaking. Cannot wait to bring the kids back here in June... it'll be a tad :) bit warmer, but that's to be expected. Am pulling an all nighter... we didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight and I'm on the early bus transfer at 4 am, so repacked, showered, blogging and off we go... FCO --> FRA --> ORD --> MLI.

Back I go... for a while... :) No more travel, that I know of, until Dec. 27.

Hope all is well and that the snow is melted by the time I get there!

Hugs ~ steph :)

Another gorgeous day in Roma...

It was another gorgeous day in Roma today... sigh... and after hearing what the weather's like at home, I'd prefer to stay here... not ready for winter!

We had our Orientation presentation today which went quite well. We then quickly changed clothes & headed into town for a free afternoon.



As you see in the above photo, barely a cloud in the sky... 65 degrees maybe... perfect! We walked all the over the place... strolled is maybe a better descriptor.

Had to have gelatto... I've been here 3 days and this is my first gelatto - that's not right!! It was quite yummy! I had a scoop of Kinder (a kind of candy) and mint - delicious! Jen had Nutella (I think). We continued on our walk and headed to the 'Bone Church."

Yes, those are all bones/skulls used as decoration of the chapel. btw... this is an illegal picture since there is not to be any photos, but I couldn't resist and words could not do this justice. I couldn't get a pic of the bone chandeleire... craziness!!

We then hiked around the corner on a lovely tree-lined street that reminded me of Paris and found the Hard Rock! Yes, I'm a HRC tshirt junkee!! But apparently since I was soooo focused on the HRC, we missed the American Embassy across the street! lol

Lastly we ended on the Spanish steps. Here's a photo of part of the staff on our RED bus: Stephanie, Bob, Kathy, me & Jen. It was gorgeous there at night. We wandered back, met up with the rest of the staff. Had a fabulous meal at this waaaaay of the beaten path restaurant that only has seating at 8 & 9:30. Had fried artichoke, wonderful homemade pesto pasta & lamb... sigh... course had some lovely red wine. We then met up with the other Group Leaders at the Irish Bar appropriately named Trinity College and topped it all off with a Guinness... yeah!

Tomorrow is a HUGE day for us. Vatican, Sistene Chapel, Colusseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps... a bunch more places I won't remember their names... then a night tour of this amazing city. Can't wait to bring the kids here in June!

Stay warm, my Iowa friends! I'll try to smuggle some amazing weather back with me!

Hugs ~ steph :)

ROMA!!!

Yes, I'm off again... this time to ROMA!! I'm here doing a presentation to new Group Leaders on their EF Training Tour. And, since I haven't been to Italy since college...yikes... and it's on the tour I'm doing with kids this summer, I was over the moon when they asked me to come present.



Arrived on Wednesday in the rain and was given quite a ride by our taxi driver. But, the weather cleared up and we had a staff dinner with the other 2 buses that are also here. Some old, dear friends are on the other buses and have made some wonderful, new friends.



Here are two of my favorite people, Bob & Bruce. Bob is on my current bus - I was paired up with him last year on my 1st Training Tour and am quite delighted to be paired back up with him. Bruce, on the right, has been a former partner-in-crime as well for 2 Training Tours, including this past summer in Beijing. He's on the blue bus this time... GO RED!!





Another old/new face on the blue bus is my Tour Consultant, Brian, out of the Denver office. Was nice chatting and catching up with him at dinner. He works so hard to make sure all our tour components are ready before we depart. Great guy - I truly appreciate all the work he does!

Today all the new Group Leaders arrived... and boy are they looking tired tonight.. typically on your 1st day in Europe. We went with the 1st group of early arrivals and headed into center city for a walking tour. Sadly it poured the entire way into town and I was pretty sure our walking tour was going to be miserable. The minute we stopped the bus was the minute it stopped raining - yippee!! We did a lovely walking tour, ending at the Parthenon where we had free time/lunch time... course we had to get some Pizza for lunch....yum! The weather was absolutely gorgeous today - such beautiful blue skies! Our hotel is outside center city, which is common in Rome, but nothing tragic. Headed back into Center City for dinner after we got everyone checked in. Had a lovely meal of red wine, pasta, pork, and tiramisu... 2 nights in a row of Tiramisu... if you insist!! :)

Friday is our presentation day and then we have a free afternoon/evening. Saturday is our tour the entire city day... it may have not been built in a day, but we're gonna see it in a day. Have an appt with the Pope at 10 :) I can hardly wait to bring the kids here this summer! It'll be a tad bit warmer than now, but what I've seen so far has been quite overwhelming, I cannot wait until free time Friday and Saturday's amazing day... YIPPEE!!!

Will post pics tomorrow/Saturday hopefully before I leave a 4 am on Sunday.

Arrevederchi to all!!
~steph :)