ROME JANUARY 9-10

Kate: We spent two great days in Rome with David and Iris guiding us to the signts and sites. David made sure we saw all of the piazzas with their splendid baroque fountains and provided Kevin and Nell with a more contemporary museum experience--a show about Grace Kelly which they all enjoyed. Iris continued our art history and religious educations by guiding us into every church we saw--and, in Rome, this is about every other building. The magnificence of these buildings is impossible to describe: we would walk into a church and there, with no fanfare at all, would be a Michelangelo or a Bernini or some other amazing sculpture or painting. Since we were touring Rome on a Sunday, we often viewed the churches with choirs in the background or bells chiming. Kevin and I actually tried to sit through a mass at St. Peter's but the sermon did us in. Nell caught both of us dozing despite the intense gesturing and loud Italian pontificating of the presiding priest. Street music in Italy is classical--an opera singer at a corner in Florence and violinists in Rome. Amazing.
Our one contribution to the Rome experience was the reservation at the Hotel Donatello, a nicely appointed but well off the beaten track hotel with Norman Bates covering the desk during the day and Count Dracula at night (really, you had to see this guy-we all slept with crucifixes under our pillows). Sorry, Iris and David!