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Hard Rock: Rome & Florence

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Hard Rock: Rome, Italy

If we are in a big, cosmopolitan, international city and we’re
not too sure about what food we want to eat for an evening meal, we usually
make our way to the Hard Rock Café. From experience in foreign countries, we
know we will get a good, satisfying meal. We truly enjoy experiencing native/regional
dishes, but evening meals can be SO expensive, and why pay $30 a person or more
for a meal that you might not enjoy when you KNOW you will enjoy a meal at the
Hard Rock Café even though it can be expensive as well?

Hard Rock Cafe: Florence, Italy

In Italy, we ate at the Hard Rock Café Rome multiple times
this trip, and we ate at the Hard Rock Café Florence twice during our stay
there. We were never dissatisfied, and we always left those restaurants full
and satisfied. We also bought our city tee-shirts! The music is always good,
and Carter and Ammon have a good time with the music and the food as well.

During this quick visit, Venice’s Hard Rock was only entered to buy t-shirts and to use the toilet facilities. ;o)

My family and I have a penchant for Hard Rock Cafes and other European destinations.

Some of my Parenting with Pride (please cruise and peruse!) favorites include Stunning Santorini, Oslo, Norway, Dollywood (Country Music Singer’s Theme Park) in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Marriage Equality in Tennessee .

Give me a “Google” with “Haven Caylor”. Blessings! -Haven

Ammon, Nana, & Carter: Hard Rock Venice, Italy

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Carter & Ammon’s Halloween Party

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Ammon and Carter had a great Halloween Party at school on Thursday. They had a parade in their costumes then a party. Jeanne Ann Hartzog (Jillian’s mother) and I were the co-hosts of the party. It went well: They had snacks and made their own masks with Halloween stickers.

Noah Cate, Jillian Hartzog, Shefaan Dhanani, Sofia Melendez, & Sophia Volz

Ammon, Carter, & Mrs. Paula

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Princess Cruises Promo with Ammon & Carter

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I hope you all enjoy Ammon and Carter’s commercial for
Princess Cruise line’s Reflections video channel, and I hope you all have a great Thursday. Haven, Carter, & Ammon

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Floreat Roma (Let Rome Flourish)

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Trevi Fountain Tuesday October 4, 2011

RomePyramidCestius

Cestius Pyramid & San Paulo’s Gate (Ostiense Gate)

I don’t know exactly what to say about Rome except for the
fact that it is overwhelming. I know there are cities which are older, but its
history is amazing. The area of the Palatine hill, of course, had
settlements way before 753 B. C. (Rome’s official “settling” year), but Rome has seen growths, fires, triumphs, tragedies, desolations, and flourishings. Last Saturday, I stood between theCestius Pyramid and the San Paulo Gate which the Ostrogoths marched through to make the final “Gothic” plunder of Rome, and imagined the  Eternal City’s gates locked and the city desolate. However, a 21st century motorcycle interrupted my image.LOL

I’ll write more about Rome near the
end of the “Fall 2011 Caylor-Brown Travels” blog compilation. By the way, it’s
great to be home! Hope everyone is well, and Happy Tuesday.

Inside the Sistine Chapel Halls (October 5, 2011)

One of Sean and Haven’s few “alone” times (October 4, 2011)

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Catching up 10-7-2011 (Florence/Firenze)

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Sunday-Monday

Good plane trip. Carter and Ammon slept well. Good nap at
the Hotel Raffaelo in Rome. It is near the Train Station Termini (McDonald’s
food, gelatos, all sorts of souvenirs).

Tuesday

The Roman Forum. We got to see a “discovery” from 2009. It
appears that the Emperor Nero may have had a rotating dining room. It sits up
on the Palatine Hill. They are excavating and studying quite slowly. The Roman
tour guide, Vivian, we had in October 2010 was not there, but her excavation
site is. Her dig is right across from the Temple of Romulus. After Nana,
Carter, and Ammon returned to the hotel for lunch and rest, Sean and I made a
trip back to the Colloseum. This time we were able to take our time and enjoy
the site. It was interesting “stealing” some tour guide information from the
other English speaking tours. Dinner at the Hard Rock Rome.

Wednesday

Up fairly early for the Vatican. Guess what? We missed
seeing the Pope by 15 minutes. He spoke at St. Peter’s Square at 10:30 a.m. ;
however, we headed to the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel at 10:15. The Sistine
Chapel was magnificent! If it wasn’t for the crowd, I could have stayed in
there for hours. For years, I thought Michelangelo’s “Final Judgment” was in
another “chapel” but it is right there (many of you already know that…LOL) on
the wall under the ceiling! Dinner was at an Italian restaurant around the
corner from the hotel. I had lasagna, but I can make better lasagna that they.
I think our American taste buds have a “mind of their own”. I have been in
Italy several times and eaten quite a few Italian meals, and I still think our
Italian food in the U.S. is just as good if not better than here.

Thursday

Eurostar Italia to Firenze (Florence). We are staying near
the Piazza de la Repubblica, and it has a carousel. Because we did not see it
last October, we put our bags down and headed straight to the Arno River with
the Ponte Vecchio. It was so cool! I could just imagine ol’ Dante Alighieri running
over and over the bridge trying to catch a glimpse of his Beatrice….so close
and yet so unobtainable. As we headed back into Firenze, we stopped for some
delicious gelati (strawberry, hazelnut, pistachio…yum, yum, yum!). We strolled
around the Brunelleschi’s Dome and Giotto’s Bell Tower and listened to an accordion
player. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Florence then Carter and Ammon rode on
the carousel at the Piazza de la Repubblica.

Friday

After breakfast, we went straight to San Lorenzo’s chapel
(Medici Chapel). It took me 25 years to see Michelngelo’s “Day, Night, Dawn
& Dusk”, but I finally saw them! Woo hoo! Around noon, Carter, Ammon, Sean,
and I went to the Mc Donald’s at the train station. It was a great stroll. This
afternoon we have tickets to go to the Galleria dell’ Accademia to see “David”.

“Night & Day”

“Dawn & Dusk”

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Ancient Rome…it’s Ammon & Carter again!

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It is so much better when we leave for long trips on a
Sunday. Our burdens to get things done on Saturday are “lifted” a bit with
having both Sean and I to get things accomplished.

House Sitter Guy, thank you! You are a blessing. Mamaw and
Aunt Karen your vigilance when Guy needs a break is SO APPRECIATED, and
neighbors, your helpful eyes are a blessing as well.

This time the cruise itself is only 12 days. We start with an
Italy terrestrial tour: Rome, Florence, and Venice. Then the cruise: Croatia
(Dubrovnik), Mikonos, Santorini, Ephesus, Rhodes, Corfu, and Napoli. After the
cruise, back to Rome. The ships’ Internet is sooooooo slow, and I will not be
able to send photos. It will just be status updates. However, before and after
the cruise, I MIGHT be able to send some photos if we have Internet access.
Everyone take care and God bless. I am looking forward to sharing when we
return. Haven

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Roma est Antiqua, Roma est magna (Rome is Ancient, Rome is Great)

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(sung to
the tune of “Ten Little Indians”)

Unus, duo,
tres Romani

Quottuor, quinque, sex Romani,

Septem,
octo, novem Romani,

Decem
parvi Romani!

From 1989 to 1993, I taught 6th Grade Exploratory
Latin at Bagley Middle School in Chatsworth, GA. My forte had been Spanish, but
the state of Georgia requested that I teach two languages for the middle school
level. I had to teach myself enough Latin so as to teach 6th graders
for six weeks. You know what? I loved it! It also helped that a teacher who was
an expert in Latin and had helped create the Georgia Teacher’s Certification
Test for Latin at that time taught right down the road from me, and she helped me tremendously. Woo hoo!

I was singing the above song to Ammon on Friday night in
preparation for Rome on Monday morning. In my classroom, we use to sing that song as well. I was thrilled that I could remember the numbers! We are also pulling out our photos of our day in Rome, Italy last October when we cruised the Mediterranean so as to build Carter and Ammon’s schema as well. Enjoy your Saturday!

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Friday!

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Gotta love a Friday! Yeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaa!

Oh, man! I wish the frost would hurry and get here so it
would kill my grass! LOL It’s the only chore outside I have left to do before
the trip, and I doubt very seriously that the 13 acres will be mowed. While we’re
gone, our house sitter helps clean house, feed the dogs, and do a few things
outside (cutting grass NOT INCLUDED!) ;o) Oh, me…but I digress

It’s been a busy but enjoyable week, and it’s Friday. Once again,
Carter and Ammon spent a day and a half with Mamaw and Aunt Karen. They
returned late Thursday afternoon. They like Fridays as well. Sean will finish
up at work today, and we will be “out and about” buying the last few things we
need for the trip.

I know it’s just our culture that causes us to work Monday
through Friday with most of us having the weekend off, but I wonder if the
other days ever get jealous of how people prefer Fridays? ;o) Happy Friday
everyone!

 

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Shopping with Carter & Ammon

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Okay, Ammon and Carter still want to play “You can’t catch
me” around the clothes racks, touch mannequins, and grab and snatch things on
displays. While walking around Ammon usually runs ahead of me while Carter dawdles behind me. However,they both come when I call them and hold my hands when I ask them to. Buggies work the best especially if we are in a grocery store or Wal-Mart. Ammon likes
to sit in the “chair” and Carter sits in the buggy section no squabbles have
ever occurred.

I noticed a HUGE change in Ammon and Carter’s listening
habits (for the good) around Labor Day. Carter and Ammon had gotten their
pictures taken, and we needed to find new tote bags for the school year. It was
“raining cats and dogs” because of Tropical Storm Lee, and hardly anyone was in
the store where we had the pictures taken (one of those portrait studios where
they are located in a larger store). After the photo shoot we three took off
to look for tote bags. Ammon and Carter were actually fixed on the task and
stayed near me. We were looking for bags with Sponge Bob, Dora, Disney Princesses,
whatever. I couldn’t believe those were my two children actually shopping with
me. We didn’t find what we needed, but I found/discovered something more
valuable: Two children who can control themselves, listen to me, and not go “hog
wild” in a store where I’m worried about them getting lost. I am not taking
anything for granted, and I am keeping my Daddy H “hawk-eye” on my “babies”,
but please pray for our safety as Ammon and Carter grow up and learn to shop in
crowded, public places.

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Happy Tuesday!

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I don’t know about you all, but it’s very busy here in the Caylor-Brown household! I hope and pray everyone is healthy and happy today.