Next stop...the greatest place on earth!

Nope...its not Disneyland... it's one of my new favorite places on the planet. It's a little place that I like to call Sicily!

This was the first port on our cruise . We took a bus up to a town called Taormina and it was a little bit of heaven on earth! (And you will notice the same lovely black and red attire that I am wearing! I love how it looks like I only had a few shirts! haha! Oh wait! I did! :) )

There is so much to love about Sicily!

I loved walking down the cute little streets and seeing the balconies with beautiful flowers...

I loved eating something called Granite (Pronounced Gran-ee-tay...I think!) It was like a smoothie but oh so much better!!!

And eating a pizza sand which that is to die for! (I wish I was eating one right now!)

I loved just looking out at the AMAZING scenery! I could have stayed there for months! Blue sky--blue water--white buildings. Do you see why I love this place? (Sorry there are so many pictures...but they are all just so beautiful its hard to choose just a few!)

Mt Etna is also in Sicily and adds a nice backdrop to the ocean! I was thankful that it decided to not erupt while we were there! :)

I loved this sign that I saw. It made me laugh so I had to take a picture!

(If you make it bigger you can see what it says! It still brings a smile to my face. Since we didnt go up there, I will never know! )

I loved that we could take a cable car down to the beach. I just tried to focus on the Ocean and not the fact that we were hanging from a tiny wire! See- child life works on myself as well!

Once we made it safely I loved the feeling of the sand between or toes and splashing in the waves!

We did find this sign and both quickly decided to show our disgust! (Remember folks Alitalia = bad airlines! They messed with the wrong girls! :) )

On our way back I took this picture out the bus window... you can see Italy across the water! They are even contemplating making a bridge to connect the two! We shall see!

Oh Sicilia I loved ya! I will return someday and spend more than 4 hours! :)

But wait the fun does not end there! on to the next stop!

Jill vs the computer

Okay- it has happened. I am ready to throw this computer out the window and stomp on it a few times! I am sure that all of you have been on the edge of your seat just waiting on more wonderful adventures and wondering why I haven't posted since Wednesday.I mean I've almost been back 2 weeks and have only written 2 blogs! Well- Instead of asking me-- how about you ask this big ole black box in front of me? It has decided that it truly has had a mind of its own! And it is going to prove that to me if its the last thing it does! (And it may just be the last thing it does before I throw it away!)

Before I started posting I spent a TON of hours getting my pictures along with 2 CDs from my friends down here that went with me, organized in order. I Finally got them organized and picked the best ones, erased the not so good ones (even though a blooper blog may have been funny) and put them in one folder---and was all set to just copy and paste to my blog. Well, on Thursday I received the 4th and final set of pictures from my friend in Utah. Somehow after I had finished downloading her pictures- I erased all of my pictures from the other 2 CDs! How?! I have no idea. My computer got tired of working long hours I guess. Maybe he wanted overtime?! How was I to know?

So, I had to re-download all of theirs...and put them back in order and re-erase the bad ones and re-pick the ones I wanted. It was long and tedious, but I did it. However, it was extra tricky because they were all completely out of order this time. Some of Sicily's pictures were in Crete's and then all of a sudden there was one from Ephesus etc...they were a mess- so that took extra time to put them in order. THEN to top it all off, all of a sudden the original pictures re-appeared in perfect order...except in 3 different areas (for the 2 separate CDs and then my own pictres that I had originally downloaded). Is this making sense? Because it isnt to me! So I didn't need to re-download and re-put in order etc... it was basically done for me! How? NO idea.

All I know is that I did a lot of extra work today during my lunch break that was not needed. So tonight I decided to abandon Picasa and go straight to my pictures and compile the original 2 CDs + my pics into one folder again and put them all in chronological order. After about 1 1/2 hrs I finished it and went to play games with friends. After returning- I opened "my pictures" and BOOM it was all back in 3 separate places again!!! Why do I even try to organize them?! None of this would have happened if they hadnt got deleted in the first place! Those first 2 blogs were slick without too many problems!!!

So... long story short. I THINK I have figured out what is going wrong and I should have this problem fixed in the next 2 days and then the blogs will start flying. I guess the good thing is that I have looked at these pictures SO much that I basically know which ones I want to use and what to say!

Wish me luck because if I do it all again and the computer randomly mixes them up again...I may have to do something drastic like...buy a MAC!!!

Some more of Rome

After a little TLC, I do believe that my computer is doing much better today! So lets try this again!

Next stop on our tour was Palentine hill- aka where Rome started.

I was fully intrigued with all of the many things that I was learning that I did not know about Rome and then I found this...

I decided that it was a prayer stone... and therefore began summoning the heavens for help to find our bags!

One of the things that I was really excited to see was Circus Maximus- where the Chariot races were held. (Are you all singing the Chariots of fire song? Its okay. I am too...we can sing it together.)

However when we walked over to the look out here it was we saw ...

A big field. That's it. Still to this day I can not figure out how something that held MORE than the Colosseum had absolutely no ruins. No remnant of the millions that died there. Mind boggling really. (Almost as mind boggling as how an airline can have absolutely no idea where your luggage went...but I digress). It was pretty though, and we did see a wedding party walk across it- so that was cool/different.

However, what was not expected was that there is something called Circus Minimus! Did you know that?! I sure did not. As it sounds- Circus Minimus was a smaller version of the Chariot races. The King/ruler/emperor --whoever he was...was so afraid of being assassinated at Circus Maximus that he built it inside his palace and only invited very privileged people. It was smaller and therefore even more deadly and bloody than the bigger one. And the best part- there ARE ruins of this one! Here it is...

Pretty darn cool. I would have loved to have seen the MAXIMUS! but I was thankful that this minimus was still partly there! (And here's an odd twist to the story. The King was so paranoid his entire life of being killed and took every precaution to not be...and in the end he was assassinated by someone in his own house! I guess you can never be too careful so just live your life and for heavens sake go see the Chariot races!)

Next, we were just wandering around, looking at more ruins and imagining how big the bedrooms were, guest rooms and great hall...and then all of a sudden there was a pinkie toe right in front of my face. Not only was it right in front of my face, but it was as big as it!

So lets just think for a second...if the pinkie was that big- the statue must have been MASSIVE! I love how big everything was back in the day!

We got a little lost as we tried to find the Forum. This was one of the main streets in ancient Rome. There were a lot of temples, palaces, and I believe Parliament etc... Therefore we kind of gave up and decided to find the "toilets"When low and behold we found the forum as well... and what a site it was!

I love that you can see the Colosseum. Everything was so close.

So many ruins that made you really use your imagination about what it looked like when the Kings were there. My friend bought a book that showed the before and after. I think that if I had lived in ancient Rome, I would have spent a lot of time in the forum!

There was some couple from France that the boyfriend was standing up on the railing for a picture. I could not watch. I was sure that he was going to be on the 6 o'clock news because of falling to his death. To my relief and I think everyone else up there.... he did not fall!

At this time it was around 7 and so we headed back to our place to "rest" and then head out and go to dinner. Around 10 we realized that we had all fallen asleep! That was it! We were out for the night! Jet lag along with baggage worry quickly added up!

Here's a funny story. My alarm clock was in my luggage so we had to use my friends cell phone as an alarm. All night long I kept looking at it to make sure that we hadn't missed the alarm. Well, my morning brain sometimes isn't the smartest, but yet I choose to use it when I shouldn't. So I looked at it and thought it said 7:30. I jumped up and got in the shower. I came back into the room and told the girls that they needed to get up and that the alarm didn't go off. They were so confused and then looked at their watches. It was 3:30 am. I still had 4 hrs to sleep! Oops! I never did that again! :)

Day 2 (Notice the black capris. They will be in a lot of the following pictures! :) I was thankful that I had a change of underwear and clothes in my carry on!)

We woke up early and headed to Vatican City for a 4 hour tour (Another singing opportunity. Did you sing the Gilligan's island song "3 hour tour?" I hope so- cause I sure did!)


Here is Tiffany and I waiting inside for our tour to start. You can see our stylin headphone set.


One thing that was cool was they were very serious about being modest. And these signs were very apparent that there would be no swimming will be allowed inside! :) If your skirt or shorts were too short, they gave you things to wrap around your legs. Also, your shoulders needed to be covered as well. I really loved the respect that that showed. However, when you're going into a building full of naked statues, it really seems contradictory! :)

So many painted ceilings. I found myself wondering why they weren't as popular as the Sistine Chapel? Did those painters not have to lay on their backs for a long time as well?! Who knows!

I had to take a picture of this! This was an honest true bath tub that was used by the Queens! What?! And to top it off- they actually used Milk! How did they not drown? This is not a bathtub... its a hot tub! I gotta get me one of these!

This was my favorite statue because she was so modest! SHE read the sign outside! :)

Inside St. Peter's

Here I am outside of St. Peters Basillica.




Vatican City is its own country. So at this moment I was standing in 2 countries at the same time!!! Rome and the Vatican City! I know- you all want to touch me--- Later.

Just eating some Italian Pizza outside the Pantheon. Oh happy day! I wish I was back there right now!

We spent a lot of time in this square. Admiring the Pantheon as well as making a lot of phone calls to the airline and reminding them that we were going on a cruise the next day. It was maybe not my favorite moment of the trip, but there was a really cute Italian waiter who tried to help me so much and I guess it made it worth it! There were so many people that helped us in Italy!

Our bags were still unaccounted for on Sunday morning which left us running through the streets of Rome with 1 hr to buy clothes. It was a fun filled high stressed morning as we barely made it to the train station, the train left late and we were some of the last few on the cruise ship. Once we found our room, I collapsed in exhaustion as the Cruise ship took over the search for our luggage. I will forever be grateful! :)

to be continued...