Lufthansa

Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona (Day 4)

Given that it was Christmas Day we had planned to sleep in a bit and meet my family a little bit later (10:30) near the Vatican.   Our plan was to meet outside the Vatican walls and proceed into St. Peter’s Square in order to listen to the Pope give his Christmas address. Amazingly, our plan worked.

We met outside of the walls and walked as a group into St. Peter’s Square finding it to be less crowded than we initially had feared (still about 30-40 minutes before his speech).  We managed to get within 10-15 people of the northwest corner barricade, all-in-all a really good spot to watch.  As the time for his appearance and address approached the square became more and more crowded, to the point that it was filled out to the very edges. Pretty neat to be as close as we were. (I should clarify that I am not Catholic but do find it very neat to witness events like this)

I definitely count myself incredibly lucky as this is the second time I have been able to watch a Pope deliver a religious holiday address in St. Peter’s Square. (My wife and I saw Pope Benedict give an Easter Mass on our honeymoon)

Some pictures from our time watching the Pope.

St. Peter's Christmas Morning

St. Peter’s Christmas Morning

Waiting on the Pope

Waiting on the Pope

Pope Francis Christmas Address

Pope Francis Christmas Address

Once the Pope was finished giving his Christmas address we had decided, as a family, to have a long late lunch for our Christmas day meal.  We met the owner (Frederico) the previous day and he was at the restaurant when we returned ensuring we were well taken care of.  It was a good experience and I think we all enjoyed the chance to spend a couple of hours together celebrating Christmas.

After our long meal (2.5+ hours) we strolled leisurely back towards the Spanish Steps doing some window shopping along the way.  We were surprised, but happy, at the amount of people out and about on Christmas Day.  Made for a very fun atmosphere.

Beautiful Ceiling

Beautiful Ceiling

Sorry for the quality of the above picture but the lighting was difficult to capture just how magnificent the ceiling of this church is.  We went there on the recommendation of the aforementioned Frederico and it was amazing.  The church is tucked into a small piazza behind and to the left of the Pantheon.  Well worth it to go out of your way to find this church.

Elephant statue

Elephant statue

My wife really liked this one 🙂

Christmas Day - Trevi Fountain

Christmas Day – Trevi Fountain

Alright, one more day in Rome with my family to blog and then we head our separate ways. My wife and I went on to Barcelona and the family continued onto Florence.  Hopefully, I can get our Day 5 post out tomorrow. Until then, enjoy!

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Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona (Day 3)

After a full day visiting the Vatican, we had planned on meeting my family the following morning in the Roman Forum.  It was our day to visit Ancient Rome (originally our day was the day of arrival but due to flight delays Christmas Eve turned out to be just fine).

Our plan was for my family to arrive a bit earlier than my wife and I as we had already toured the forum during our honeymoon several years ago.  We were going to try and meet up with them inside the forum, at least that was the plan.  Due to an inability to reach each other via phone, we had significant issues finding them.  I would guess my wife and I spent close to an hour searching for my family only to be startled to hear our names being called out from the Coliseum.  Turns out my family sees things quickly and they were already inside the coliseum waiting on us!

Some pictures from our day:

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Coliseum

Coliseum – Interior

Lunch with the family

Lunch with the family

Cool church tucked between buildings

Cool church tucked between buildings

Wife and I with niece

Wife and I with niece

Pantheon at night - Christmas Eve

Pantheon at night – Christmas Eve

Trevi Fountain at night - Christmas Eve

Trevi Fountain at night – Christmas Eve

I know these are coming out slowly but it has been difficult to find the time to put them together.  Next up will be Christmas Day in Rome, with a special guest appearance from the Pope.

Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona – Rome (Day 1)

As mentioned in my introduction post, we were to spend 5 days in Rome with my family for Christmas.  Our plans didn’t exactly work out as expected though.  My wife and I live in Atlanta and were departing directly from there on Lufthansa (connecting in Frankfurt) while my family was flying Delta from Gulfport, MS – Atlanta – Rome.  We had planned to meet up with my family in the Atlanta airport as our time there was going to overlap by several hours, however, their flight was cancelled out of Gulfport due to a “slight” fog.  As there were no other flights out of Gulfport for the day it was up to Delta to find suitable rebooking options for 9 passengers.  Amazingly, they found space on a New Orleans – Atlanta flight and paid for a van to drive them to New Orleans from Gulfport (1.5 hours).  My family did not make their original Atlanta – Rome flight, but did make it onto the late-night departure from Atlanta to London with a further connection on Alitalia to Rome.

As for the flights, we redeemed United Miles for our Lufthansa flights (100,000 per ticket roundtrip in Business).  The Lufthansa flight from ATL is operated by an A340-300 and the flight from Frankfurt to Rome is operated by an A321.  Lufthansa business class was OK for the most part, the seat was infinitely more comfortable than coach but is lagging other more modern business class seats from competitors.  However, the food was pretty solid and the service was fantastic.  All-in-all I felt like we received good value for our miles.

Lufthansa ATL-FRA

Lufthansa ATL-FRA

A little planespotting from the Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt.  ANA 787.  Sorry for the quality of the picture, it was taken with my iPad.

ANA 787 in Frankfurt

ANA 787 in Frankfurt

My wife and I arrived in Rome on schedule around noon on Sunday, 12/22, while my family did not arrive until nearly 10 PM due to the complications mentioned above.  They were supposed to arrive at 8 AM so ended up losing one day on the ground due to the flight cancellation.

Car Service

Prior to leaving for our trip I had booked a car service from the airport to our hotel based upon the reviews on Tripadvisor, I must say it did not disappoint.  I would highly recommend using www.transfersrome.com for travel to/from the airport in Rome if your hotel is not near public transportation, such as the Rome Cavalieri.  The cost is 50 euros and the driver was standing outside of customs with a sign with our name on it.  Flawless experience.

Hotel

We booked the Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in Rome for 5 nights prior to the HHonors devaluation.  I don’t have the booking confirmation with me but I believe it was 50,000 points per night for a standard King room.

Upon arrival to the hotel a bellman assisted us with our bags and guided us to the check-in desk where we were promptly assisted by the front desk associate.  The associate explained the features of the hotel, our benefits due to my Diamond HHonors status, and provided us a slight upgrade to a “City-view” room.  I must also give credit to the hotel for allowing us to check-in before the standard time.  It was quite nice to be able to get in the room and shower after a long-haul flight.

Overall, the hotel worked well for us since my wife and I had previously been to Rome.  I would not recommend it to first-time visitors due to how far outside of the city center it is (the hotel does offer a complimentary shuttle hourly to Piazza Barberini).

Exterior of Hotel

Exterior of Hotel

Our “Rome View” wasn’t quite as exciting as I had hoped.  We were only given a room on the 3rd floor.

View from Balcony

View from Balcony, Rome is just over those trees!

City view King

City view King

City view King

City view King

Bathroom

Bathroom

Rome

After getting settled into the room and cleaning up, my wife and I headed out to walk around some.  Since we had been in Rome only two years ago for our honeymoon we weren’t that interested in rushing out to see different sites.  We took the hotel shuttle down to the city and began walking from the drop off location in Piazza Barberini.  Nothing too exciting today but we did get a couple of good pictures of Rome decorated for Christmas.

Rome Christmas

Christmas Lights in Rome

Christmas Market

Christmas Market

Stay tuned for Day 2, when my family finally joins us and the madness of travelling with 11 people through Rome begins!

Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona

Due to our normal Thanksgiving/Christmas rotation Christmas fell this year with my family.  My mother decided it would be a good idea to gather everyone together in Rome for Christmas.  We would spending 5 nights in Rome with 11 people (My sister and her two children, my brother and his wife and three kids, my mom, and my wife and myself). Needless to say, I expected a little bit of chaos!  After our 5 nights in Rome, my wife and I left for 5 nights in Barcelona while my family continued on to Florence.  It was a refreshing way to spend Christmas.

Our itinerary (and blog breakdown) was as follows:

12/21 – ATL-FRA-FCO Lufthansa Business Class (A340-300 Old Business Class)

12/22-12/27 – Rome with my family.  Stayed at the Rome Cavalieri, part of the Waldorf-Astoria Collection

12/27 – FCO-BCN on Vueling (A320)

12/27-1/1 – Barcelona with my wife.  Stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar.

1/1 – BCN-FRA-ATL Lufthansa Business Class (A340-300 Old Business Class)

Rome Christmas Barcelona Christmas

Blog Update – July 2013

So, it has been a disgracefully long time since my last post.  Close to 6 months.  It was the result of a combination of factors and the most significant of those is that my wife and I relocated to Atlanta, GA this spring.  Selling our old house and setting up shop in a new city presented a lot of time-consuming activities, plus I started a new job which has kept me quite busy for the past several months.

That being said, I am making a commitment to begin posting more updates to the blog and will begin with this post detailing some of the upcoming travels we have booked through the end of 2013.  In addition to those specified below, I am going to try and put out a few more in my travel photos series.

July: Starwood status challenge results

August: Hotel Review: Westin Birmingham

September: No travel plans as of yet but I may try and get my wife to do a guest-posting review of the hotel she is staying at in Miami.

October: The Saint Hotel, Autograph Collection from Marriott in New Orleans, LA.  The Roosevelt, Waldorf-Astoria in New Orleans, LA

November: No travel plans as of yet.

December: Trip report from Green Bay, WI for Packers vs. Falcons game.  Lufthansa Business Class from ATL-FRA-FCO, return from BCN-FRA-ATL.  Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf-Astoria in Rome, Italy. Hilton Diaganol Mar in Barcelona, Spain.  Trip report from the Rome/Barcelona trip.