Assisi and Civita di Bagnoregio: Day 5

On day 5, we ventured to the cities of Assisi and Civita di Bagnoregio.

Since I'm not Catholic, I didn't know much about Assisi before we went. I learned that Assisi is the birthplace of St. Francis, and a popular place for pilgrims to visit. We had a tour guide for our visit who taught us more about St. Francis and his life.

The entrance to St. Francis's birth place. It's said that he was born in a stable like the Savior. Apparently when he was born it wasn't uncommon for women to choose to give birth in stables to emulate Mary. Personally I will stick to a hospital!

We visited many churches in his honor, and we even got to visit his burial site. Since these sites are sacred in the Catholic faith, we were asked not to take pictures while we were there.

I didn't know anything about St. Francis beyond there being a hospital named after him in my hometown. It was interesting to learn more about him and the stories around his life. For the rest of the trip, I noticed he was featured in a lot of the artwork we saw--in particular, in image of him receiving the stigmata--identical wounds to Christ.

Later that day we ventured to Civita di Bagnoregio, which might be my favorite place we visited. Here's a distant shot of the city:

It's another hilltop town, but the hill is very steep, and the only way to reach it is to hike up the bridge:

At 6 months pregnant... this was a feat. I was dragging by the end, but I did make it up there! The city really is like something out of a fairy tale, or at least out of history. These days, only 10 or so people are permanent residents. But over a million tourists visit each year, so there were other people around. There's still restaurants and shops operating inside. Mostly we just wandered around marveling, but we also made time to stop for gelato (of course.) I think I had gelato everyday I was in Italy except the day we toured the Vatican.

Civita is incredibly photogenic. Here's some of the pictures we got while we were there:

Montpulciano and Pienza: Day 4

On October 10, we headed out to visit some nearby towns: Montpulciano and Pienza! Both are beautiful hilltop villages similar to Orvieto. We spent some time in each just wandering the streets and the shops. I can't get over how gorgeous these little towns are. They are like something out of a fairy tale!

One key feature of Montpulciano is the city clock with a Pulcinella figure on the top.

And Pienza is where they filmed part of the original Romeo and Juliet movie, which was fun to see.

Some of our pictures:

Orvieto: Day 3

On October 9, we took a taxi van over to Civitavecchia (I will never learn to say that right!) to meet Eric and Kathy for the next part of our adventure. We ventured on to the Tuscany area, to a beautiful little town called Orvieto.

Here's a view of the town from a distance:

How is that for picturesque? It's like something out of a fairy tale!

The most beautiful part of Orvieto is the gorgeous duomo there. Here's a few pictures of it in all its glory. Just look at those colors!

We stayed at a beautiful Airbnb in the town with room enough for all of us that looked like it came out of a fairy tale itself.

Driving through the streets of Orvieto and the other little Italian towns was an interesting experience. There's essentially only one lane, and it's also where people walk around--there's no separate sidewalk or anything. The drivers and pedestrians there are unphased by it. Here's a video I took:

We started our time in Orvieto with a delicious lunch at Trattoria Vinosus. I tried the cabonara and thought it was delicious. Genuine Italian pasta is amazing.

On our first day, we took a tour of the caves beneath the city. Orvieto sits on a hill, but there is an entire network of caves underneath, all man-made. In the earliest days of the city, people dug the caves to access water. Many people still have a cave cellar in their home today. Our tour took us through some of the largest caves. We also went through some caves that used to house pigeons! Pigeon meat was popular and people would raise the birds for their meat.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the caves. (I was a little jumpy and afraid I would pass out again... The cave floors didn't look like a soft landing space. But everything was fine.)

Then we spent some time inside the duomo, which is lovely inside as well as out.

I really loved this statue. The emotions captured are very lifelike.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant where we went to dinner... but it was great. I opted for a traditional Orvieto dish, wild boar cooked in a dark chocolate sauce. As Amber said, it was basically a pregnant woman's dream. I think we should cook all meat in chocolate sauce!

That night I got the best sleep I'd had since we landed. Jet lag gone, finally! It also helped that the window shutters blocked out 100% of the light. The only downside was that it was so dark when we woke up, we assumed it was still early morning and went back to sleep. We woke up very late for our adventures the next day (but well rested and happy!)

Bedrest

Today I had a bit of a scare.

Trevor and I were in charge of planning the Stake Youth Conference, which happened today. Poor Trevor is sick with a nasty cough, so he stayed home to rest while I went to the conference. And... I guess I pushed too hard. I've been pushing too hard for the last month or so, to be honest... My job is project based, so in order to take time off for the Europe trip I had to finish some things up early and get ahead on other projects. So work was a bit stressful, and at home I was spending every minute preparing for Europe or making sure the youth conference was ready to go, since we would get back just a couple days before it happened. And honestly... Europe was wonderful, but it was hard on me too. The jet lag, the amount of walking, the occasional 2 or 3 pm lunch because we were just too busy to eat before...

Anyway, it all added up, and towards the end of the conference, I started having short, sharp uterine pains. I wasn't too alarmed at first. But 3 hours later, they still hadn't gone away. I was back at home trying to take care of Trevor, but things got bad enough that I decided I'd chat with Kaiser's free online doctor service to see if I needed to go in. The doctor immediately transferred me to the 24/7 Nurse advice line. And after asking a few questions, the nurse arranged for me to go in for a labor and delivery triage at my local hospital.

I was pretty much freaking out. I'm only 26 weeks along. Baby is viable but he isn't supposed to come anytime soon. I felt bad dragging Trevor out of bed, so I had my dad come pick me up and take me to the hospital.

In the end, I am okay. They think I am having something called round ligament pain from too much walking and probably from some dehydration too. The doctor recommended a few days of bedrest. Only a few days, so I'm not one of those people who will be in bed for weeks. Still... this was a bit of a wake up call. I've been pushing myself pretty hard, but I need to take it easy for the rest of my pregnancy. That means cutting back on a lot of things. Maybe giving up my temple shift, maybe... I don't know. Going slower, taking on less volunteer things, letting the housework go.

I feel guilty slowing down but I need to let that go and just focus on protecting my baby.

Rome: Day 2

Our second day in Rome did not go according to plan.

It started out okay. We went on a City Wonders tour of the Vatican.

Our tour guide, Gio, was amazing. Very animated, very familiar with everything we saw, and 100% ready to defend her clients. Trevor had some trouble going through security because somehow he kept setting off the metal detector, and she was ready to jump in to help out (but didn't have to in the end).

The Vatican is filled with beautiful artwork everywhere you go.

It was also packed with people! I think it was the most crowded place I visited during the whole trip. It was hot too, since there is no air conditioning in there. Trevor and I brought a water bottle to share between the two of us, but pretty soon we were almost out of water, and I decided I better save the last bit for later on.

And then we were in one of the Rafael rooms (I think that's what they are called?), crammed into a corner surrounded by other tourists. I started not feeling so good. I had shooting pains in my legs that made it very uncomfortable to stand. (Thank you, pregnancy?). And then I started feeling very light headed. Oh dear, I thought, I'm not going to pass out, am I? That's when everything went very dark. I could still see, but it was like I was looking through dark glass. Oh no. I am not going to pass out. I will not I will not I will not... Should I say something to someone? Trevor was just in front of me, and I tried to lean my head on his shoulder.

Then I passed out.

I've only passed out a couple times in my life, both for hardly any time at all. It's crazy how being unconscious for such a short amount of time still resets your brain. I swear both times I've had short dreams as my brain tries to make sense of what just happened to me. This time I opened my eyes to Trevor and Amber leaning over me, helping me up, and the rest of the tour group looking down. I thought, oh, I must be having a dream that I am visiting Europe. It'd be really cool if I were really there. It took me a little while to remember that I actually was in Europe. I was pretty out of it at first. Everyone was asking me if I was okay, because of course that's what you ask in that situation. I thought this was hilarious (I was out of it, remember?) because clearly I had just passed out, so... I probably wasn't okay, but I had no more idea what was going on than anybody else. How should I know if I was okay?

A very nice British guy from our group gave me his water bottle and let me have some water. Gio found me a security guard who escorted me to sit on a window ledge. She asked me if I wanted to see the medical team but my brain was too fuzzy to come up with an answer. I tried asking Trevor what to do but he couldn't answer either--maybe he was in shock. Finally I asked her if seeing the doctor would cost money, and when she said no, I agreed to it. Gio strongly recommended that I stop the tour and go back to my hotel to get some rest. Another guard showed up and asked me in Italian, with gestures, if I'd hit my head. I didn't understand him, but Gio came back over to translate for me and get everything taken care of. The second guard brought me a wheelchair and whisked me off to the medical room. He gave me a bottle of water to drink that I guzzled down. I got to lay down on an examination table. Trevor stayed right with me, of course.

I was lucky. I landed on my side when I fell, so I didn't hit my head or the baby. My arm took the brunt of it, but the pain went away very quickly. The only other time I'd passed out, I'd hit my head and it had hurt for hours, so this seemed like a great sign to me.

Three very kind female paramedics came to look at me. They suggested I'd collapsed either due to the heat or to exhaustion. They offered to take me in a wheelchair straight out to a taxi. I really considered it. During their examination, they had me sit up, and all of a sudden I felt very hot and dizzy again. But at the same time, I didn't want to leave the Vatican without at least seeing the Sistine Chapel. And, I didn't want Trevor to miss out on everything. So I asked if there was any way they could take me to see the Sistine Chapel before I went, and they agreed to set that up.

Somehow, they found Gio again. She came to visit me with a map of the Sistine Chapel. She told us she'd meet us in about 10 minutes under the section featuring Noah. Gio was amazing.

Then the medical team escorted us straight to the chapel.

And... I mean, people have great stories about their experiences in the Sistine Chapel. For me, I just sat down and worried about whether I was going to pass out again and how we would rejoin our tour group. I guess someday I'll have to go back and try again.

The good news was our tour group did find us again! And Heather gave me her bottle of Sprite to keep me hydrated, which I thought was really sweet.

After the Sistine Chapel, we ventured to St. Peter's Basilica.

I think that blond guy is the one who shared his water bottle with me. Not sure since I was really out of it!

It is so big!! And so sparkly--there is real gold everywhere.

Gio says they believe it is really built on St. Peter's tomb. In the 1960s or so, they excavated and found a tomb underneath with a man inside who was in his 60s when he died, and who had no feet. Since Peter was crucified upside down, it's likely they cut off his feet to take him off the cross.

I wish I could share more than that, but... unfortunately I was still really out of it and scared and freaking out. Gio gave us a brief explanation, and then turned people loose to explore. But I needed to just go back to the hotel and rest. Fortunately Doug wanted to go back to the hotel too, and so I asked if I could go with him.

Trevor worried about me being alone at the hotel ("What if you pass out again?") but he had spent so much time planning the perfect Rome itinerary. I knew he'd be devastated if he had to miss out on it, so I convinced him to stay with his sisters and keep touring.

The walk out of the basilica to the taxi stand was SO LONG. I regretted not taking a wheelchair out there a little bit. But eventually we found a taxi and got back to the hotel. I collapsed on the bed for several hours, only taking a couple breaks to order lunch from room service (some guilt about this, but the cost wasn't too bad at our hotel and I wasn't up for leaving the room) and to maturely... call my mother crying and wishing she was there to take care of me. I was pretty shaken up and scared for the baby. Trevor tried to call me on Amber's phone to check on me, but their cell reception was bad and it didn't go through.

So yes. This was probably the worst day of the trip for me.

We had an appointment to go see the Borghese Gallery at 5 pm, and I did make it to that. Doug and I met back up with everyone else at the Gallery. I really loved seeing the art there. I am a major Greek and Roman myths fan, and I loved recognizing the stories in a lot of the art displayed.

We also got to see one of my favorite sculptures in person: Daphne and Apollo.

In the ancient myth, Apollo picks on Cupid, and in revenge, Cupid makes Apollo fall madly in love with Daphne... and makes Daphne completely loathe Apollo. Apollo tries to chase her down. When he comes close to catching her, she calls out to her father (a River god of some kind, I think?) for help, and her dad turns her into a tree so Apollo can't have her. It's hard to create a realistic sculpture of a woman turning into a tree, but I think Bernini did an amazing job! The sculpture is absolutely beautiful.

After the Borghese Gallery, we took a taxi to the new LDS temple in Rome, which just opened last year. It was closed for cleaning so we couldn't go inside, but we did get some amazing pictures of the outside and we got to go inside the visitors' center too.

It is so gorgeous. I loved the visitors' center too. Besides the usual Christus statue that is in most visitors' centers, there are also statues of the original 12 apostles (well, with Paul in place of Judas). These statues are copies of the originals, but it was still really cool to see them in person for myself.

At the end of the day... I certainly didn't see as much in day 2 as day 1, but I took stock and decided I'd seen the most important things. I got to see the Vatican, even if I missed a few parts of it. I got to go to the Borghese Gallery, and I got to see the Rome temple. I fainted, but I didn't hurt myself or the baby. It was a difficult day, but I decided to call it a win.

Rome Day 1: Colosseum and everything else we could pack in

Way back in April, Trevor's family invited us to join them for a trip to Italy. Eric and Kathy (my parents-in-law) were going on a European cruise with Eric's parents and all of his siblings, and when they landed, they wanted to take all of us to Tuscany for a few days. We needed to meet them in Rome where their cruise ship was going to dock, so Eric encouraged all of us to come a few days early and enjoy some time there too.

When Trevor and I first got married, we dreamed of going on lots of big trips in our first two years of marriage before kids came along. One of the places we wanted to go the most was Paris. Since we were headed to Europe anyway, we decided to add on a few days for a trip to Paris for ourselves. While we were at it, we decided to stop in Venice too, since we'd be in Italy.

We made all of these plans without realizing that I was going to get pregnant that very month, and without having any concept of what this trip would be like for a 6 months pregnant lady! It was still wonderful, but my stamina was not great and parts of it were very hard for me. Still, I'm glad we went. Once the little one comes, I don't think we'll be doing anything like this again for quite a while.

We were proud of the good deals we found to get us to Europe. Pro tip: Norwegian Air has cheap flights, but their planes are awesome. They charge for any upgrades like checking a bag or choosing your seat (kind of like Frontier), but we were able to get by without any. Somehow we fit everything we needed into two little carry on duffel bags--packing light Rick Steves style! We knew our Airbnb in Orvieto (Tuscany-ish) had a washer and a dryer, so we only took enough clothes for a week and washed them while we were there. No baggage fees. We left Denver at 8 pm on a Saturday night, so then we just went to sleep on the plane and didn't worry about ordering meals. We found that the cheapest way to get to Rome was to take a Norwegian flight to London, and then to catch a regional EasyJet plane from there that took us the rest of the way. We found a cheap Norwegian flight from Paris direct to Denver. That one we could have used a meal, but we took 6 (!!) pain au chocolat with us that got us through the flight. :)

Rome Day 1
For the Rome leg of the trip, Trevor and I were traveling with his sisters Heather and Amber, and Amber's husband Doug. (Right now his brother Tanner is in podiatry school, so he and his wife Misty weren't able to make it.)

We started our first day with a City Wonders tour of the Colosseum!

It was so cool to see it in person after a lifetime of seeing it in pictures! It's also a bit surreal seeing this ancient building next to a modern road, packed with modern tourists. :) I liked imagining all the millions (?) of people who visited the Colosseum before us. Although for some of them, it was not at all a pleasant experience. 😕

A key to visiting Rome--beware of street vendors. They are very aggressive and in your face. They try to trick you--like, they'll offer you a flower or something as if it's a gift, but if you take it from them, they demand money for it. In Rome, our main experience with the street vendors was at the Colosseum. As we were waiting for the tour, it started to rain, and suddenly we were overwhelmed with street vendors selling umbrellas and ponchos. I almost grabbed an umbrella by accident because the guy thrust it right in my face.

Fortunately we left them all behind as we entered the Colosseum with our awesome tour guide, Maria! We had to pass through security on our way. Security was strict. People even had to take off their money belts. Unfortunately, since I don't have a waist right now, I had a neck wallet instead, and I was wearing it cross body under my clothes to make it harder to grab. I tried going through security without taking it off, and it mostly went okay. But there was a miscommunication with the security guard afterwards (language barrier) and I thought he wanted me to take it off. I forgot that this was impossible without taking off my shirt (since I had it looped over one arm under all my clothes). I made a valiant effort to get it off that ended up pulling up my shirt quite a bit and exposing my garments and my bra (not my skin though, since the garments I wear under my bra keep me pretty covered) until the guard told me it was fine and to please just go through. I think he was laughing a bit at me haha. Dignity gone!

Shortly thereafter we had another misstep... We were maybe 10 minutes into the tour when Trevor told me he was going to run real quick and get a better look at something the guide had showed us. He wanted me to go with him, but I was worried about getting separated from the group. So he went for his quick look and I followed the tour guide on, walking backwards and looking for Trevor's blue coat, waiting for him to reappear. He... didn't. We wandered farther into the Colosseum and stopped to look at something else. Trevor still didn't appear. As the guide started to move to the next location, I pushed my way to the front of the group to let her know I'd lost my husband. She suggested that I call him, but... we'd never turned on the international service for his phone! We'd turned on a TravelPlan for me, but in the rush of things to do before the trip, somehow we never got to turning on Trevor's. So there was no way to contact him at all.

Maria held our tour group back for a few minutes while I doubled back to the last place I'd seen him. There were three different pathways he could have taken from there, and I had no idea where he'd be. I ran a little ways down each one with no luck. Finally I decided to head back to the group and hope Trevor had appeared. I was wearing a headset to hear the tour guide, and in my dash backwards I'd wandered out of range. As I came back into range, I could hear the guide saying, "Oh dear, now I've lost 2 people. I could let more of the family go back to look, but I don't want to send all of you or else I'll have lost 5 people. Does one of you want to go?" And so I ran into Amber on her way to come help me look. We tried running upstairs to look for him there--still no Trevor! I started to think I'd never see him again. How in the world could we find him in such a big place? But then Amber's husband called to let us know Trevor had found his way back to the tour group. He'd gotten confused and gone up the stairs, while the rest of us stayed on the main level and headed to the elevators. Fortunately because our group stayed in the same place, he figured out where they were based on where his radio went in and out of range. I made sure to hold his hand and keep him close to me after that! :)

A few things I learned about the Colosseum--it used to have a roof! Women who came had to sit in the nose bleed seats since they were second class citizens. The whole top floor was just for the women to sit. Access to the games were free and extremely popular, but people still had to get tickets that directed them to specific doors for seating. The audience was well protected from the action on the floor by a metal net, and archers stood ready to shoot any beasts that tried to escape into the crowd. The floor had multiple trap doors so a new gladiator or beast could dramatically enter into the ring.

It's very weird to think about crowds cheering as people died before their eyes in the arena. I hope we don't get to that point again in our society.

After the Colosseum, we moved on to the Palatine Hill where the Emperor's palace used to be, and also to the Roman Forum. There's not much left at either place now, but it's impressive anything has survived after so much time has gone by.

Once the tour was over, we had an action packed day filled with as many things as we could see in Rome. We ended up walking for 10 hours straight (!!!), because we'd walk to something new, walk through it, and then walk to something else. My feet were okay for about the first 6 hours... by the end they were totally fried and we girls took a taxi back to the hotel. I don't think my feet ever recovered for the rest of the trip. But it was worth it to see all that we could.

Our first stop was Altare della Patria (Altar to the Fatherland!). I am ashamed to admit I added this to our list mainly because it has free admissions and even better, free bathrooms!! Most bathrooms in Italy cost 50 cents or so, and I didn't have any change.

But look at this beautiful building!

This building is a monument in honor of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy after it was unified. This is where they have their tomb of the unknown soldier.

Other highlights of the day:

• Visiting the Basilica of Our Lady. I didn't take any pictures because they asked us not to in order to respect the reverence of the space. This was one of my favorite churches we visited--it felt peaceful and I felt like I could feel the generations of people who had worshipped our Savior there.
• 2 rounds of gelato! While in Rome, right?

• The Trevi fountain! I couldn't resist throwing a coin in. They say if you throw a coin into the fountain over your left shoulder with your right hand, you'll return to Rome someday. :) Trevor resisted. I guess I'll have to go back to Rome without him sometime.

• Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore--another gorgeous Roman church. I loved the stained glass.

• Piazza Navona

Never Forget

I was only 13 when 9/11 happened. Of course at the time I was shocked and sad about the great loss of life that day. But I find the older I get, the better I understand just how terrible 9/11 really was.

Last night Trevor and I watched a documentary called "9/11 Calls from the Tower." The documentary interviews several families who lost loved ones, and we listen to the last recordings of their voices--often voicemails left to say goodbye to loved ones, but also 911 calls, and audio from the fire fighters as they tried to rescue who they could. It's so powerful, and terribly, terribly heartbreaking. The anguish in their voices as they say goodbye... The fear... One call to 911 ends abruptly with screams when the tower collapses.

One story that really struck me was that of Orio Palmer, a firefighter who managed to find one staircase in the south tower that made it up past the impact zone. He reached the scene of impact and immediately calls for more help to rescue and treat the injured survivors there. Unbeknownst to him... the tower was just minutes away from collapsing. Oh man.... Just picturing that, these suffering people so relieved to see a firefighter arrive to help. His team rushing up the stairs so they could help too. The brief flicker of hope that some of these people could make it out, that the firefighters could save them, that those above the impact area had a path out of the building...

And then. The tower came down. All those people perished after all. That is a truly haunting thought.

Watching the documentary lead to me rewatching the original 9/11 news reports from that actual day... and then watching all the survivor testimonies I could find. I learned more about 9/11 today than I've ever known, I think. And... it didn't leave me in a very happy place, let me tell you. Really studying stories of the horrors people saw and experienced, really pondering the stories of people who couldn't escape and knew they were doomed.... Ooof.

I never want to forget that happened that day. I never want to forget those who were lost. But maybe next year I can find a more positive way to remember.