Villa d'Este Bed and Breakfast Tivoli

... government since the last real King of Italy abdicated in 1943. Silvio is king now, owns the largest private broadcasting companies and controls all the public ones. Soccer and game shows with big breasted women account for most of the TV programming. News is for Albanians.

The place can be so profound and so trivial. Piazza Navona, an oval laid out 2000 years ago as an arena, and occasionally flooded for battle re ...

... theatres, two bath houses and a running track Underneath it all were tunnels which we ran around in. It was pretty impressive, plus it was another World Heritage site to tick off of the list !!! Up the road from there was Villa d'Este . Inside were loads of murals, but it is the outside that we really wanted to see. In the gardens are all these fountains of various sizes. There was one called the organ fountain, and at 16:30 it went ...

Because of the driving laws and such like things we left our driver in Florence, so today we caught public transport into the city. They'd arranged for another coach to take us to the train station, but we didn't really need it because only about 1/3 of us actually went into the city. The rest were either so sick they couldn't make it, or sleeping the last night off. There had been possibly 3 other contiki groups in the camp ground with us last night. One camping and 2 other ...

... left side of the painting shows souls being lifted up into heave, while the right side shows souls being sent down into hell. There was some controversy over the fresco when revealed because of the number of naked figures behind the altar of the most important church in Catholicism. A few of the Pope's right-hand men wanted to censor the painting (their efforts known as the "Fig-Leaf Campaign"). Biagio da Cesena, the ...

Today, once again, I awoke early for another Italian adventure. Today we were going to Tivoli, a little town about an hour outside of Rome, where we heard of tales about hot springs. So of course, this sounded like a very pleasant trip and we were all excited about it. This trip included myself, Laura, Kat, Natalie and Angie. We ended up taking a bus, the metro, and then a few more buses (because we kept getting off too soon or too far). When we first ...

... to do, confined to English as I am save a little German, but I stood up now getting the picture that she had been robbed. Her purse was missing. Just then an Italian family nearby intervened and helped her communicate with the station personnel and then later, the police. Her husband soon returned from wherever he had been and was naturally upset as well. I saw the two a couple of times on the boat later. What a terrible thing to have happen on a vacation. I felt so bad for ...

... things here, so we will have lots to see when we come back (hopefully the coin in Trevi fountain works). We are off to Florence and travels further north. We wanted to thank everyone for their comments and well wishes. It is great to know people are checking in on us and getting a laugh or two out of our adventure. We talk about family and friends on the trip often. "Nutella" (not really an Italian word, but we have been eating a lot of it and plan to keep doing so) Shi and Gabe

... have been terrifying especially for those who may have left it too late. We stayed for the whole day, wandering around and were probably the last out by which time a mist was shrouding the town. You could feel the ancient pompeiians, willing us to go. Definitely a plce which deserves a return visit. Our plans for the next day involved catching the train back to Naples then on to the Eurorail and off to Milan. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans.

... and get delayed so dramatically unlike any other countries. What I want to speak about is the ones within a city such as Milan or Rome. For foreigners who are trying to use any of the Italian transport, the first shock will be the fact that there is no ticket office in or nearby the station (except for some places). In Rome, you can find a few machines that sell metro tickets, but it's so rare to see a ticket counter. In fact, metro, bus and suburban train ...

... I am enthralled by the exquisite, delicate craftsmanship of the cameos, especially the ones on blue stone. However, prices for the good ones start at about $300, and, of course, I really want the great ones, which are roughly $800 and up. Oh, well, I can look, anyway. After a thin-crust pizza lunch, George visits the Palazzo Vecchio. The huge, ornate rooms contain works by Donatello and other Renaissance greats. He visits Catherine de Medici's rooms and the very elegant ...