Show No Fear! DIS Exclusive Viva Italia+DLP TR Sept 2014*COMPLETE* New TR link added 7/3

[amazingact21]

Just played catch-up on your report, Kristy!


Loved seeing all the pictures from the Angels & Demons Tour. I have to admit, I was FaceTiming Alex while I was reading, and I turned the camera around to show him a few photos and said, "We HAVE to see this one day!"


Your welcome dinner sounds delicious. Man, that pasta looks so good.


I loved your recap of the walking tour you took your first night in Rome. I actually learned a lot. I had no idea about the water in the barrels and the pizza priced by weight. Interesting stuff!

 

[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Wednesday September 17th

We met up with the group and Cristina told us about some good books available for purchase that show how the Colosseum once looked compared to how it looks now. In the meantime, Dusty had been put in charge of her purse and scarf.

ABD 02-098 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We got outside, and I took out the Colosseum magnet to show DH…and promptly dropped it on the ground and broke it! I was pretty bummed, but then DH pointed out that all of the little table vendors outside were selling the same exact thing for a lot cheaper than I had just paid to buy it inside, so he bought another one. Okay, so that wasn’t the best purchase, but it looked so good inside the shop! Lol

We started walking to our next stop on our whirlwind tour of Rome, the Forum. We started out first at the Arch of Titus.

03-097 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-098 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-100 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-101 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


ABD 02-110 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Into the Forum!


03-102 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-103 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We stopped at the house of the vestal virgins, so of course our resident vestal virgin had to pose there for a picture!

03-105 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


ABD 02-119 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-106 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

It was pretty cool wandering through the ruins. We saw the place where Julius Caesar’s funeral pyre was believed to be located, which was pretty cool. And we also saw the Senate building, where Julius Caesar was not actually killed, that was a creation of Shakespeare. Caesar was actually assassinated at the Theater of Pompey.

03-107 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-108 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-109 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
The large building on the right is the Senate building


03-110 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-111 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
The excavated road believed to be the original road of the Forum from the time of Julius Caesar!


03-112 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

As we were making our way out of the Forum, we could see an area where they were still doing excavations. Cristina told us they have been working on this same section for a very long time, so it is apparently very tedious work! But pretty amazing to think that in a city as old as Rome, there is still history to be uncovered.

03-114 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-115 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


03-116 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We stopped on the way out of the Forum to fill our water bottles with water from the aqueducts at one of the nasoni and then got back on the bus to head to lunch. It had been a pretty hot day so far, and on the bus ride, Dusty introduced us to “Toner Time!” He had a bottle of toner to spritz our faces to cool us off when we needed it! Now, even my DS at home knows the answer to the question “What time is it?” is “toner time!”

03-118 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Kathy getting “toner-ized”
​

We were on our way to our delicious pizza lunch! But that seems like a good place to stop for now...

UP NEXT: How much pizza can one human consume?

 

[khertz]

Just played catch-up on your report, Kristy! Loved seeing all the pictures from the Angels & Demons Tour. I have to admit, I was FaceTiming Alex while I was reading, and I turned the camera around to show him a few photos and said, "We HAVE to see this one day!" Your welcome dinner sounds delicious. Man, that pasta looks so good. I loved your recap of the walking tour you took your first night in Rome. I actually learned a lot. I had no idea about the water in the barrels and the pizza priced by weight. Interesting stuff!

Yay, I just did the same thing on yours!! I genuinely hope you & Alex get to visit there one day, it's something I recommend everyone do in their lifetime! It was totally a life changing experience for both of us. Pictures will NEVER do this trip any justice! All of the food was so good at the welcome dinner. It was definitely a good first meal to kick off the ABD portion of the trip! This TR is nothing like anything I have ever done. Usually I type updates right into the DIS, but I find myself doing a lot of researching and fact checking to make sure I include as much info as possible so I am typing everything in Word. Sure, it's all pretty to look at anyway, but I know for me, it's SO much more interesting to know the history behind it!

 

[Dugette]

More great updates! Loved all the pictures, especially the Colosseum. I need to get there someday, clearly. We honeymooned in Italy, but did not go to Rome (we were in Northern Italy), so definitely need to go back sometime!

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

I'm thinking I should have held off on the photobook until all of your pictures were up. They are so great! Maybe I will give the book I did to Brian's dad and make a new one.

Laurie

 

[missangelalexis]

Those early morning photos are gorgeous.

Love all the Colosseum photos. Ugh, stinks that you were stuck waiting for a bathroom so long!

Can't wait to hear about lunch!

 

[KelleyK75]

Great updates! The tour sounds so interesting and the pictures are awesome!!

 

[Imagineer5]

I love your comment about the Arch being built in 315 - that is just something that blew our minds our entire visit to Italy (and Europe in general) - just how OLD and rich in history EVERYTHING is. Just amazing.

The Colosseum photos are beautiful.

Your visit to the Roman Forum looks great as well - your mention of how it is amazing how something as old as Rome still has secrets unearthed reminded me of something. We visited Volterra, in Tuscany, and took a tour of the city. One of the things that our tour guide mentioned is that everything underneath the earth, no matter if it is on private land, is owned by the government. As such, if a homeowner unearths some great find, the government can take over the land. Because of this law, most people now ignore any findings even though there are still things buried deep under the earth EVERYWHERE but no one wants the government to come in and take over. Really sad! And really amazing to try and imagine what is hiding under all the unexcavated land. For instance - an entire Roman theater was found buried under about 200 ft. of land and old "trash" debris just outside of Volterra.

Anyway, truly enjoying the TR. Can't wait to see more! YUM pizza!

 

[sayhello]

What amazing photos of the Colosseum and the Forum! And DH's early morning photos are wonderful! So glad you finally got to see the Colosseum, and knock that off your bucket list!

I, too, get what you say about the new excavations at the Forum. When I went to the Old City of Jerusalem a couple of years ago, there's an area there that they are "newly" excavating. Amazing! I guess there are still many surprises out there!

Sayhello

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Hahaha, it appears the "Adventure" in Adventures by Disney refers to street crossing.

Oh wow, I would not have expected a memorial to 9/11. That's quite lovely.

Follow the Orange Sign? Well, at least it's not a flag.

Wow, the Colosseum. Now that is iconic. That must be so amazing to see in person.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Great pictures and great trip report so far!

 

[kanadar]

We also had Cristina on our tour! Wasn't she just fabulous?! Looks like your tour of the Colosseum was a bit different than ours but still fun. I look forward to seeing how your trip was different from ours!

The new hotel for ADB is really close to the Castel Sant'Angelo and Vatican City. I can see it in a couple of your pictures from the Angel and Demons tour. Great TR so far!

 

[LoveMickey]

We landed in Rome around 12:30 pm or so, and immediately had to wait in what felt like a huge cattle pen for passport control! DH used his "fill in all available space" technique to avoid the even longer line that had formed as the mass of people turned a corner, and we got through probably a little faster that way. As soon as we got our passports stamped and we walked through, we saw our ABD greeter waiting for us!

Do you remember how long it took you to get out of the airport? I'm planning something for that afternoon (we arrive a day early) and I want to make sure we can make it by 4:30.

Thank you.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I can't even imagine driving a bus through Rome! Part bravery and part crazy!

very cool about the arch and the connection to Constantine. He is referenced as part of the Fraternity I was in - plus his connection the start of the Christian Church and holding the councils of Nicea, etc.

Wow, so the entire Coliseum was built in roughly the same time it is taking Disney to build the Downtown Disney Parking Garage

hmm, is there any downside to being a vestal virgin? Kinda like the idea of pledging my daughter to that

As cool as the coliseum is I kinda find the Forum (or at least the idea/concept of it) even more impressive to think about.

Ok, really got myself confused as when you said "spray toner to cool off" I was thinking of like a printer toner cartridge and that would make a mess, etc.

yummm, Roman Pizza

 

[afwdwfan]

It is great that the group all got along so well together. That much is clear from some of the back and forth banter in the comments. Just make sure to link back to that introductory post if you're going to keep referring to names.

I just have to say, the sign Dusty is carrying around makes me think of the Brazilian tourist groups in Disney World with their leader and his flag. Did people run the other way when they saw you guys coming?

The Colosseum is amazing! I'm sorry you spent a valuable chunk of time there in the line for the restroom. But at the same time I'm wondering what exactly would be considered to be a restroom in an ancient Roman ruin... I think the pictures Dustin got made it well worth his having to run to meet up with the group. Great shots of the Colosseum!

 

[k5jm]

Just make sure to link back to that introductory post if you're going to keep referring to names.

Ok, this is Dusty:

 

[schmass]

What gorgeous photos! Really enjoying your report!

 

[silmarg]

I was chatting with Bill B (SaintsTickets on these boards) about getting Saints tickets for the 49er game in a couple of weeks (I am taking the family down from NY to see my beloved Saints). We got to chatting about recent Disney trips and planned trips. I mentioned that for my DDs sweet 16 next year we are thinking about doing the Italy ABD... Bill said I got to check out the trip reports his WhoDat pals were writing on the DIS.... and Bill is so right. Great pics and great commentary.

While DW is a nervous nelly and wants to wait for Ebola and Isis to wane before booking, maybe showing her some of these great pics will help her "get over it"

Thanks for taking the time to write the TR and I am looking forward to reading the rest...

PS - If you know anyone w spare Saints-49er tix, let me know!

 

[OKW Lover]

Enjoying reliving our trip through your posts!

I can hardly wait until you get to the flag waving troupe that is so authentic to Italy.

 

[khertz]

More great updates! Loved all the pictures, especially the Colosseum. I need to get there someday, clearly. We honeymooned in Italy, but did not go to Rome (we were in Northern Italy), so definitely need to go back sometime!

Thanks!! Rome is pretty hectic, but we absolutely enjoyed our time there. I am really interested in history so it was great to be surrounded by it while in that city.

I'm thinking I should have held off on the photobook until all of your pictures were up. They are so great! Maybe I will give the book I did to Brian's dad and make a new one.

Laurie

Aw, thanks for the kind words, Laurie! This post really made Dustin smile,

Those early morning photos are gorgeous.

Love all the Colosseum photos. Ugh, stinks that you were stuck waiting for a bathroom so long!

Can't wait to hear about lunch!

Thanks, Alexis!

Clean public restrooms were so hard to come by, that most of us women hated to pass them up when we had the chance, so unfortunately this happened a few times.

Great updates! The tour sounds so interesting and the pictures are awesome!!

Thanks! The tour was great, and made even better with an awesome guide to show us around.

I love your comment about the Arch being built in 315 - that is just something that blew our minds our entire visit to Italy (and Europe in general) - just how OLD and rich in history EVERYTHING is. Just amazing.

The Colosseum photos are beautiful.

Your visit to the Roman Forum looks great as well - your mention of how it is amazing how something as old as Rome still has secrets unearthed reminded me of something. We visited Volterra, in Tuscany, and took a tour of the city. One of the things that our tour guide mentioned is that everything underneath the earth, no matter if it is on private land, is owned by the government. As such, if a homeowner unearths some great find, the government can take over the land. Because of this law, most people now ignore any findings even though there are still things buried deep under the earth EVERYWHERE but no one wants the government to come in and take over. Really sad! And really amazing to try and imagine what is hiding under all the unexcavated land. For instance - an entire Roman theater was found buried under about 200 ft. of land and old "trash" debris just outside of Volterra.

Anyway, truly enjoying the TR. Can't wait to see more! YUM pizza!

That is CRAZY that an entire theater was excavated!!! That's really interesting (but a little sad) about things found under homes and on private land. I'll bet there are lots of other amazing finds that no one knows about because of the threat of government takeover.