Mount Etna

We took a tour from the boat up near the top of Mt Etna.Very  bleak landscape and quite cool.

Civitavecchia (Port of Rome)

Sunday July 21st

We caught a regular train to the port.This train stopped at 1/2 dozen stations before arriving 70 minutes later at the port. We had some pleasant views of the country side and later travelled alongside the sea side.

Boarding went very smoothlyand we left on time at 5 P.M.

It turns out our supper table will be shared by a family of 7 people from England.

The ship is very nice, similiar to the others we have been on.

Our B+B

We had a great time here at Armonia All'Opera. Paolo was great and steared us towards many of the places that we ended up seeing.

The furniture shown in the photo below was made by his family's company in a town near the city of Perugia.I hope the other places we stay are this nice and give us the same kind of service

Last full day in Rome

Today we took the metro , then a local bus and went about 30 km outside of Rome to the hilltop town of Tivoli.In this town there are 2 very important places to see; the first is the ruins of Hadrians villa (we skipped that) while the second was Villa D'Este. This villa  was built by a Cardinal about 400 years ago and the important thing about it is its fabulous gardens and fountains. Some of the fountains are truly outstanding (see below for a photo or two).After seeing that we walked the streets of the old town.These streets were amazing as they  were NARROW and hilly and because it was siesta time there weren't any people around. A wonderful hour was spent just going on street after street never knowing where you were going to end up.

We prepurchased tickets for next weeks train trip from Rome to Venice on one of the super fast trains; should be fun!!!!

Blog updates for the next week are going to be spotty as I will only update if I can find wi fi when we are on shore excursions.

Rome at night

We walked down to the coloseum and around the area taking some night shots. We discovered a very busy bustling side street to walk back up, but not before indulging in gelato.Mmmmmm

Friday in Rome

Today I am posting earlier than normal because we are planning to walk back to the colosseum in the night time to see it lit up

First off, our thanks to Vanessa for the skype call. It was great talking to you even though it must have been scary seeing us at our 0445 best!  I  am laughing as I wrote that!!!

After breakfast we walked to a nearby church where Bernini is buried. The ceiling of this basillica is supposedly guilded with gold brought back on the first treasure ships from the Americas.

After some souvenir shopping we walked in the rain and thunder (first time this vacation) to one of THE greatest places we have seen.It is called Galleria  Doria Pamphilj. This gallery is a palace of the Doria Pamphilj family who 's wealth started accumulating with the first important member of their family Pope Innocent X.  The audio guide was pretty cool as it was narrated by the present prince of the family and basically talks about his family collection of paintings and statues.The most important painting is a Valazquez painting  of the pope and it is magnificent.Unforetunately no photos were allowed

After that visit we saw more churches, then stumbled upon the ruins of the theatro di Marcello  (photo below)

On our way back home we purposely stopped at a church called St.Peter-in-chains which contains a Michelangelo statue of Moses (photo below).

Thursday in Rome

I am running out of superlatives to describe our days here.I guess the best way to describe it is AWESOME.

We took the metro, then a train to the old port of Ostia which used to be Rome's port but now is a ruin.It was described to us as very similiar to Pompeii (which we have decided not to go to).It was another amazing place which let us see what the lives of the ancient Romans used to be like.I will post some photos below of it.

After getting back to our place we showered again (another hot rain free day again) before heading about one block away to the National museum of Rome where we saw many statues and also frescos and mosaics recovered from a couple of well to do peoples ruined houses.

After that we took the metro to near circus maximus and then walked to the Trastevere part of the city and enjoyed exploring the narrow streets before finding an area full of tiny restaurants located on tiny streets. We had an awesome (there is that word again) pasta meal before walking back here again, this time arriving after darkness.OMG