Ancient Places

Well hello there! I apologize for the delay in "blogging". I will try to get you caught up quickly.

Sara and I are currently in Rome. We arrived around noon on Saturday and we leave tomorrow afternoon for Florence. Our last day in Naples was splendid. We took a guided tour of Pompeii in the morning. It was rather informative and lots of fun. February is the perfect time to visit Pompeii. It was near empty which made our pictures nice and erie. I look forward to sharing them with you. (This internet point does not support memory cards.) We learned quite a bit about the ancient city and, as a result, we are pleased to be so far from Mt. Vesuvius.

Our first day in Rome was fun. We managed to view the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. I threw another coin in the fountain to make sure I return to Rome. It worked last time and as they say, "If it's not Baroque, don't fix it." The Pantheon was more spectacular than I imagined. Truly awe inspiring. It may be my favoite ancient site because it isn't a ruin. It's so well preserved. And the church inside is beautiful.

Yesterday we took a tour of the Colosseum. It was quite good. Our group was small and that allowed our guide to go a little more in depth than she would have gone with a larger group. It was my second time visiting and well worth the duplicate trip. You see something new each time. We also roamed (or romed) the Forum and Palentino Hill. Both were stunning in their own way. No guides her so we made up the details. I'm pretty sure we were right.

Today we visited Saint Peters. We didn't know ahead of time but they were holding a big service today at 4. We waited in a large, unruly line for an hour and a half to get in the church. We were only allowed access to a bit of it. I was very sad to miss a closer view of Michelangelo's Pieta. Oh well. Next time! We learned that Italian lines are very subjective. Apparently you can join up wherever you like, particularly when you are old. Age also gives you the right (and perhaps the obligation) to yell at all young people. I'm sure you can tell this was our favorite part of the trip.

Well, more later from Florence!