Well…jumped the gun on the last one that was supposed to post on October 1st but I hit the button too early and it was still Sept 30 in the states…so this is a place holder to make the count right…and again, more later…

Well…up and moving at 5:30 am is morning on our last day before the travel day tomorrow…I am looking forward to being home Sunday and getting back into my routine…to sit on my couch and tv that’s not in Italian…not sure what we’re going to do today since we’ve seen everything we had planned so I guess I should take a look at the internet to see if there is something close that we can walk to…I think I’ve lost weight on this trip with all of the walking when I had really expected to gain a few pounds with eating so much…but that’s okay…I’m running out of clean clothes and it will be nice to do a load of laundry or two when I get home…still can’t believe I’m in Italy and that it’s the last trip I’ll ever take but I’m good with that…trips are wearing and a lot of work but fun, too…not sure if I’ll ever figure out my daughter and how she’s feeling but that’s a DeVol thing and I have to accept that…didn’t spend all the euros I brought with me so that will be a goal for today…the cab to the airport is on me but only 65 euros and that will leave me with probably 50-75 left but that will make a good memory….okay, need to get a post out to Mastodon so I’ll end here…more later…

Well…we had our last tour of the trip today out to the Colosseum and it was a lot of fun…I finally got to see in person what I’ve seen so many times in movies and tv shows…we had a great tour guide named Vera who really knew her stuff and I learned a lot so that was cool…one of the weird things I saw was what I wanted to see in the old city…where Julius Caesar was cremated and I have a photo of the stone altar where that happened and it used to have a temple over it but it’s gone…walking through the old city really gave me a feel for how it was like to live in those times and the ruins were fantastic…we saw the old senate and a huge church that is only half there but is still huge…and to see the entire city from the hill where some of the emperors lived was really neat…and I got out ahead of the pain by taking tylenol, ibuprofen, and my gout medicine so I got through it with little pain and Vera recommended a restaurant for lunch and I had seafood pasta with clams, mussels, shrimp, and fish with a langostine crustacean on top…another yummy meal that I’m not sure you can get in the US…at least not in Muskegon…

Well…the abuse I’ve been pouring on my body really hit home yesterday with my right hip and toe just howling at me after walking around all morning and then the Vatican trip…so I attacked it with the prescription meds for my gout and switched up to tylenol and this morning I’ll treat with ibuprofen and tylenol since we have the Colosseum tour today…I do feel like I’ve let my daughter down by feeling the pain and showing it yesterday but she won’t see it again…I can suck it up for two more days and get through it…the Vatican tour was pretty cool but the Sistene chapel was a bit of letdown…we didn’t get to see the Last Supper but after seeing so much art work on this trip it all runs together…we did get to see “The Pieta” in St. Peter’s yesterday and that was cool…as was the entire cathedral…just spectacular as a historical building to me but being an atheist, the religious part of it was lost on me…we did have another great tour guide named Stefano who was fun so that was cool…now I need to suck it up and get started on the pain killers…more later…

Well…as we were wandering around this morning just taking in the sights, we found ourselves at a castle on the Tiber river that runs through Rome…it was huge and pretty cool and had these thousand year old bridges that still carry car traffic over the river…when we walked up to the front of the castle and looked left…we could see the Vatican in the distance and couldn’t believe it was that close…so we walked over to it and stood around in St. Peter’s square where the pope holds his audiences and some place this kid from Ada never thought he’d ever be…and we are going back there this afternoon to take a semi private guided tour that takes about 3 hours to see everything…and I can’t wait to see the Sistine chapel and the DaVinci paintings of the ceilings and wall that holds the “Last Supper” that I have only seen in photos up to now…I understand you can’t even talk in there and I have to wear long pants or they won’t let me in…but that will be the last time I’ll not have shorts on until we get on the plane to go back to the states Friday…lunch time…

Well…up and moving at 5am today and that is getting to be normal on this trip and I am fine with that…gives me time to have 2 cups of coffee before I jump in the shower to get ready for the day…hag a nice day yesterday and walked around seeing all kind of stuff…Rome is interesting visually everywhere you look and we saw cool buildings and ruins as we walked just to figure out what Rome is like…man, this is one busy city and there are cars everywhere…even on the tiny streets where everyone walks so you really have to keep your eyes and ears open…after we got back here we took it easy for a while and then out to another great dinner and I had spinach fettuccini with a veal ragout and just a int of tomato sauce…and I can say I’ve never eaten like this in my life…so today we are starting off with a walk to the Trevi fountain before breakfast and then we take the subway over to the Vatican for a semi private tour that will last a few hours and will get to see the Cistine chapel and everything else there and then we’ll just wander around…when we were walking I looked up and just a little ways away there was the Colosseum and that was so cool…okay, need to get going and have coffee to be ready to head out…more later…

Well…I think I’m a pretty crappy traveler and pretty sure I don’t want to do another marathon trip like this one…god am I an old fart or what? I am looking forward to seeing Rome over the next 4 days that I have only seen in movies and tv shows…and I want to hear and smell it, too so I can take those memories into my older age like hearing the church bells ringing here while we had dinner last night…going to be hot in Rome at about 85 degrees F but the locals we’ve spoken to have said this is nothing to what they suffered in the heat wave all summer…I was really expecting some fall temps but I guess I’ll have to wait til I get home for that…I have relaxed about the trip and the depression that was trying to grab me has pretty much dissipated after talking to my daughter last night…I have to remember that she is normally pretty reserved and that doesn’t mean she is unhappy…something I forgot for a couple of days…so, I need to continue packing to be downstairs for the walk to the train station around 10…off we go…

Well…up and barely moving this morning and have the water heating for coffee that will be ready in a minute and I can use that…today is a travel day and we’ll be heading to the train station for the ride to Rome this morning for our last stop on the trip…had my tall compression socks on to try to get the swelling down in my feet and it seems to have worked some…still going to take some ibuprofen to get primed for the day since I hurt everywhere but that to be expected as I push the old body to do things it’s not used to…I can see how all the walking has changed my legs and I think it’s funny how this old body looks after walking almost 100 miles so far…can’t wait to see Rome and our hotel there is right in the middle of the city…again…so we will be right in the middle of the action…again…we have a tour somewhere this afternoon but I’m not sure where but I know it will be fun…getting used to carrying my 40 pound suitcase around but if I ever travel again, I’ll pack lighter since my carry on weighs almost 20 pounds and that is straining my shoulders…more later…

Well…I thought it was something that I was or wasn’t doing that my daughter was reacting to, but of course, I was wrong…she has been having a painful shingles attack and forgot her medicine for it…and I feel so bad for her…she’s not old enough to get the vaccine until next year so she just has to deal with it and it hurts every time she walks…man, I couldn’t have been more stupid…we had a nice meal at an outdoor restaurant tonight and I had wide fettuccini with wild boar sauce that was made with red wine and it was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted…and she had a cheese pizza that had the best sauce on it…very yummy and the setting was so cool…just sitting outdoors on a street in Florence with the breeze blowing and church bells ringing…and the light and soft air just said Italy to me…very cool…

Well…crap…starting to feel depression coming on and it’s the last thing I need right now…I wonder if it’s from the stress of the trip? And then you say “how the hell can you be depressed when you are in Italy?” I did get a nice new leather wallet yesterday that is really cool and makes my bag smell good so maybe I can think about that? And all the fun we’ve had and are going to have in Rome? And I tried to pay my daughter for my end of the trip but she said to buy air conditioning for my house instead…could that be part of it? Cripes, I’ve paid my way my whole life and now she gives me this trip and the UK one and I don’t know how to act…but that’s on me and I just need to get over it…it is nice to spend time with her and I wonder if this probably being the last time is part of it? Whatever it is it’s my job to not let this bleed over into the rest of the trip and ruin it…yow! This is like a therapy session…how the hell can I be 73 years old and still feel unsure…man, it really is a bitch getting old…