Summer Vacation for Emily, Joanne & Lee ...

July 3rd (Monday) – Leave for Rome

• Depart for airport (12:45 flight)
• Flights, via Aeroplan reward tickets -
  • Air Canada AC 172 – Edmonton to Toronto (12:45 to 18:15)
  • Air Canada AC 890 – Toronto to Rome (20:10 to 10:45 on the 4th)

• Roma 2000, Rome's tourist web site and Frommer's - Destination Rome
• Hotel - Hotel Modigliani (42, Via della Purificazione, Rome), which was an amazing little hotel
  • Airport to Hotel - Hotel Modigliani was supposed to pick us up at the airport but due to a somewhat frequent taxi strike they couldn't but the hotel provided excellant train/metro information to get us there (Leonardo Express high-speed train, €9 each. and the Rome Metro, €16 each for the CIS metro pass, which was valid for 1 week)
  • The Hotel Modigliani was amazing - and walking distance from everything in Rome), great rooms (we has one with a small rooftop balcony) and a great breakfast to start the day
• After a quick shower & some food we started with a siteseeing tour in area around the hotel (Frommer's The Heart of Rome) - Trevi Fountain, Spanish StepsTorre Argentina (Cat Sanctuary)

• Frommer's In Vatican City took the metro to the Vatican -
  • since it was a Wednesday in the summer, the Pope was holding a mass in St. Peter's Square, which was a bonas
  • we then toured St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Museum and climbed to Michelangelo's dome
• finally we walked back from the Vatican to our hotel, as Rome isn't really that big of a city (~40 min walk)

• Emily and Joanne checked out the shopping (Frommer's The Shopping Scene), much of which is in the area around our hotel, while Lee did some exploration of 'ancient Rome'

• We walked up to Galleria Borghese (~15 min walk), which has amazing art and sculpture (since they limit to 360 people in every 2 hour block so you need a reservation, which we had from Select Italy prior to going, but many people were disappointed as it was 'sold out' for several days)
• more exploring, in the Trastevere area
  • we took the metro and tram to Porta Portesie
  • walked to Church of Santa Cecilia, Church of San Francesco a Ripa and the other main sites
  • we found a garden shop on Via Trastevere where we picked up some 'feet' for flower pots back in Canada
  • then stopped for dinner at an amazing outdoor pizzarea near Piazza Santa Sonnino (we wnet back twice more to eat there)
  • walked back to hotel

• Entire day at the Coliseum and Forum walking tour (Frommer's Rome of the Caesars)
  • Coliseum, but not easy to get a good picture though, close up can see it all and too many trees in the way to get it from a distance
  • Temple of Saturn, which was my favourate picture

• The Appian Way and the Catacombs of San Callisto
• on the way back, at Circus Maximus as the Italian fans were getting ready to watch the world cup finals (was neat to be there when Italy won)

• Church of St. Peter in Chains (chains that bound St. Peter in Palestine and Michelangelo's Moses), The Pantheon, Victor Emanuelle Monument

• finished up by walking through the park Galleria Borghese before heading to the airport before taking the train back to the airport
• Austrian Airlines OS504 – Rome to Vienna (20:05 to 21:50)
• Hotel - Vienna - Renaissance Penta Vienna Hotel (Ungargasse 60,Vienna), just off the city centre
• Getting to hotel was easier than expected, since we were traveling between European Union countries we didn't need to go through customs, so just needed to grab our luggage and catch the S-Bahn S-7 (elivator to the track straight in front of the door to from the luggage carrossels & kiosks for tickets, €3 each) to the Rennweg station (behind our hotel), so we were at our hotel room within an hour of landing

• Vienna's sightseeing web site, Vienna Metro System ("72-hour ticket" at €12 each for Wednesday-Saturday) and Frommer's - Destination Vienna
• Belvedere Palace with its Gallery of 19th and 20th-Century Art (featuring the works of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele) and an amazing botanical garden (from 2003 trip)

• Tentative - Imperial Vienna from Frommer's wlaking tour

• Side trip to the Vienna Woods, where we took a streetcar to Grinzing, a suburb of Vienna, and a bus to Leopoldsberg (an old fort high on a hill overlooking the valley into Vienna), then we walked through the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods) to Kahlenberg where we had lunch at a cafe overlooking the valley (much more convienent than 2003 when the bus only went to Kahlenberg)
• Shopping & other touristy stuff

• go to the City Airport Terminal, at Wien Mitte, near our hotel and check in for our flight and check our luggage (nice to have that option and have used it in both Hong Kong and Soeul)
• Finish up in Vienna – a few more hours to tour around Vienna, shop, eat & get our last views in of Europe
• head to the airport on the City Airport Train in midafternoon
• Flights -
  • Austrian Airlines OS77 – Vienna to Toronto (17:20 to 20:40)
  • Air Canada AC135 – Toronto to Edmonton (22:20 to 00:25on the 16th)

For more information e-mail us at : joanneandlee@shaw.ca

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