Never Given A Name

We made it to Rome! It's my turn to blog (this is Dawn). When we woke up this morning, we weren't sure if our travel plans would be changed due to the volcanic ash warnings. There have been many cancellations, but we were fortunate to make it here (although as you will read….the volcano was the least of our dangers!) It was a long day of travel, but before we left, we biked to Austin's "spanish" home to drop some things off. Even though his host family wasn't there, it was fun to see where he's been living these past few months. Biking in Seville has been a wonderful way to see Austin's city! Joel and I absolutely loved our time in Seville, and Austin was a fabulous host, showing us everything…it was so fun to see how comfortable he is communicating in Spanish.

We took a flight from Seville to Madrid, then to Rome. We were pretty sleepy when we got off our flight, but that changed quickly when we stepped into our waiting taxi. Apparently, our driver used to specialize in NASCAR racing….what is 140 kilometers in Americanspeak? Why did we have to be the fastest car on the road…either lane…any lane…middle of the lane? And did you know that Italian cars have loud horns and like to use them often? Our Italian driver also tried to tell us about landmarks that we should know and when he used his hands (gesturing as Italians like to do) I had to look to see if anybody was in control of the steering wheel. And he kept calling me "senora" and waving his hands, saying "benito" but I didn't know he was talking to ME…maybe I was too nervous about all the car crashes we kept driving by. Luckily, we had Senor Austino in the back seat, who could communicate semi-spanish, english, whatever. I'll take a volcano any day over an Italian taxi driver.

We got to our hotel, and our stomachs had settled enough to realize we were very hungry. We went to "Trattoria Pizzaria" down the street and joined a wonderful Austrian couple for some delicious pizza and tiramisu. Austin downed almost 2 large pizzas. Our room is interesting, lots of marble, lots of windows, even the window in the bathroom gives us a quick exit down the alley (!!)

Tomorrow will be a full day of sightseeing!

Greetings from the Ole' Buff. I survived another day. We are on the ground floor so I will be guarding Mrs. S from the bad guys tonight. She locked the window 6 times. We are going to retire to our Rob and Laura Petrie beds. Some of you old folks will get it.,


God Bless.

Austin here - I am writing this last bit in Rome hotel on Monday night. We just spent the entire day in Rome Monday and think we've seen the essential parts of the city. We have had internet connection problems and phone problems. We are well and leaving for Sorrento tomorrow morning at 10.