June 4, 2012: Rome (Day 3): Ancient Rome
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Our five-week-long cruise and visit to Italy has sadly come to an end. Although we have seen a great many incredible places, and although there are a huge number that we didn't get to see, we are ready to head home.

Before we leave the apartment to head to the train station, though, there is one more bit of business to attend to. There are the doorknobs and doors of Rome to chronicle.

The Doors and Doorknobs of Rome

By now you are familiar with our penchant for recording the doors and doorknobs that we have encountered across Europe, with Fred concentrating on the doorknobs and me photographing the doors to which they are affixed.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Once again, I have used a slideshow for these pictures so that, if you are interested in them, you won't have to click and close innumerable windows. Most of the show will be Fred's doorknob pictures, while the last few slides will be my pictures of the doors themselves.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Our Trip Home to Dallas

Our trip home began, as you might suspect, with a train ride to the airport. We left the apartment about nine in the morning to catch a train at ten for a flight at one-thirty. We walked up the now-familiar streets to the station, found our train (for which we had purchased tickets days earlier), found some seats and settled in. I record everything for posterity, so I have two pictures and a movie:

Fred and Greg

Myself and Greg

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) On the Train to the Airport

At the airport, which is about twelve miles west of the city on the coast, checking in was easy; with Greg's "Executive Platinum" status on American, we had a nice lounge in which to wait, and of course our seats had been selected long ago. Greg upgraded to Business Class, while Fred and I had spacious seats in the first row of the economy cabin.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

It wasn't until we got on the plane that Fred took pictures, but then he took a lot of them. Basically, he took pictures on the ground, pictures in the air and pictures of the display screen just above us. I've selected only a dozen of these pictures to include here in a little slideshow. In the show, the pictures are in the order that Fred took them, as you may be able to figure out from his pictures of the TV display on the bulkhead in front of our seats. Fred took quite a few pictures during the flight, but the most interesting ones were as we were climbing out of the Rome airport over the Mediterranean, and while we were passing the western portion of the Italian Alps

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

And that's about it.

We arrived in Chicago right on schedule, cleared Customs, and rechecked our bags on our onward flight down to Dallas. That flight was uneventful, and we arrived in Dallas about 8PM. Greg's friend Paul picked us up and dropped Fred and I at home.

It is hard to express how interesting the entire trip was, and if you have been through most or all of the album pages, you'll understand how amazing it was. As of this writing, in mid-2013, having just spent a huge amount of time sifting through all our pictures, organizing them and adding narrative, it seems a bit unreal- amazing that we could have done so much in the space of five weeks.

We will remember this trip always.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	June 4, 2012: Rome (Day 3): Ancient Rome
	Return to the Index for Our Week in Florence and Rome