August 25, 2009

Today we left Rome. Our flight wasn't until late in the evening, so we had plenty of time to do some walking around still. Most of the morning we spent at the B&B, waiting for the maid to show up so we could turn in our keys. Afterward, we dropped off our luggage at the train station to lock up, then ate lunch and visited a couple more sights. Our trip to the airport was very interesting.
Our flights came into and out of Rome's Ciampiano airport- the smaller of the 2 in the city. I use "in" lightly, as Ciampiano Airport was actually a 15-minute train ride outside the city limits. Once at the train station closest to the airport, we had the option of walking to the terminal or taking a shuttle bus. Now... the airport was close. Very close. We saw it as the train was slowing down into the station. And the next shuttle bus wasn't going to be there for 40 minutes, so we decided to walk.
This was the wrong choice. We made it to the fenceline of the airport quickly enough, alright. We kept walking, handrailing the fence for a long, long time. Finally, an Italian guy driving a Jaguar dressed all in white pulled over and asked us if we needed a ride. (Cue the "Godfather" theme song, here). He made us an offer we couldn't refuse- a free ride to the airport. Looking at the possability of missing our flight square in the face, we took the ride. The drive was another 5-10 minutes and, apparently, the route to the airport entrance required some freeway driving and going through traffic tunnels. What a mess. Fortunately the guy was just looking to help us out and got us there without a problem.
This is the last church we went into- St. Ignacious of Loyola. The ceiling was painted very uniquely. The main part (that you see in the center of the photo) was painted to look like an incredibly high ceiling to heaven, when you looked at it from the correct vantage spot (marked by a bronze spot on the floor). The dome-like area you see on the far left of the photo was actually a shallow-curved ceiling, it was just painted to look like a deep dome, again from a certain vantage point. The ceiling was actually far more impressive than the picture makes it look. Timmy was in his stroller the whole time, looking straight up.

Lunch, and Mommy playing a bit with Timmy. Usually during meals we made a little walking-around area for him by pushing aside some chairs and the stroller. He liked it a lot.

After we dropped off our luggage, we took a trip to the Rome Zoo. Their credit card machine wouldn't read our old, busted-up card, so we couldn't get admission. Fortunately, we were able to sneak in near the Chimpanzee exhibit and saw the Zoo any way. Timmy got a stuffed monkey out of the deal, since the two exhibits he enjoyed the most were the monkeys and the "Teddy bear" exhibit. That is, the brown bears that were playing and fighting five feet from the window, giving Timmy a great show.

This is the Zoo entrance. Right before we were denied admission. Their loss.

And that was all for Rome! The flight made it back to Frankfurt around Midnight, and we made it back home around 3:30. Timmy slept the whole way home and woke up promptly at 6 a.m..