Nancy's Travel Adventures!

September 13 - Long Journey

I am sitting in the Johannesburg airport right now awaiting my flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and then a long drive to our camp. But I am very excited to begin this new chapter in my journey.

Europe was great! We had a lot of fun, met some great people and saw some amazing things. Rome was more beautiful and interesting the second time around and I would love to go back and spend more time there. There is so much to see and do. It is an amazing city that is full of energy, history, and beauty.

We arrived in Rome after being in Salerno. Not a big fan of Salerno but as usual, we managed to find some humor and entertainment amongst the confusion, crowds and small alleyways that we managed to get lost in. The restaurant we finally plopped ourselves down at after walking up and down the many streets to find something other than pasta... was in fact, a pasta/pizza place. The owner/manager at first would not speak to us since we did not speak Italian but we finally managed to get his attention and order. Shortly after ordering, I glanced upstairs in the kitchen to find the cook at the restaurant cooking food with a cigarette dangling from his mouth gingerly with about an inch long ash just waiting to pepper our food. This was after we got the bottle of wine with no label and lots of sediment. We just laughed it off and decided to make the best of it. The owner/manager warmed up to us and we got some great shots of the cook puffing away as he is preparing the meals.

We left Salerno and flew to Rome, which is such an amazing city with so many stories to tell. I wish we could have stayed longer but we got Rome 101 the following day. We had a driver take us around Rome whose name is Alfredo. Alfredo looked like an Italian movie star (which we later found out he is in the industry as a location scout) and was very Italian and had the most contagious laugh! He thought we were hilarious and he would bellow out this high-pitched laugh that always ended with a snort. He loved to talk but in typical Italian style, would look at you while he was talking and use his hands a lot. Keep in mind, we are in the backseat and he is in the front driving us in the very confusing and busy streets of Rome. Drivers in Rome are blessed with having the Pope live in their city. They all drive like lunatics but manage to never get in accidents. I just kept telling the drivers that we definitely do not drive like this in California.

At any rate, Alfredo took us around and we went in and got a very interesting (and free -- the tour guide made a point of telling us that after every anecdote) tour of the St. Peters and then checked out the Pantheon, Coliseum, Old Rome, and the keyhole (for those of you who do not know what this is, it is a keyhold that you look through at the top of Old Rome and it offers you a perfectly framed picture of the top of St. Peters outlined by trees that are on the other side of the door of the keyhole you are looking through.

After flying from Rome to Paris to Johannesburg, it has been a very long journey and an expensive one! Air France charged me 500 euros (the equivalent of $630 US) for my luggage!! Not happy about that. I have to log off now to catch my flight but will continue on later! I am most likely going to be offline for a while but hope to have some great updates and pictures for you next time!

Ciao!

posted by Nancy Chapman @ 11:59 PM