Hotel Stargate Rome

... 2 to get back. But we did get to experience the ghetto of rome and then one block over rome's wall street...interesting how fast the areas can change!<br><br>Now it was time to head to the train station to catch our overnight train to Interlaken Switzerland...and this time we were in a sleeping car! So now its official we have travelled every way possible by train after we do the sleeping car!<br><br>Now its off to Switzerland!!

... run down on the GPS system and an admonition to keep on the right hand side of the road, we got onto the Rome ring road, and headed in the direction of Abruzzo. Dora, our cheerful GPS avatar, tried to get us to make several U-turns, but that was because we were following the Peugeot guy's instructions to the nearest gas station. Dora soon settled down.

... a very narrow straight between Corsica and Sardina.  It was really cool to see both islands!  They were both very beautiful!  I then headed back to the cabin to chill out and take a shower.   Two hours before arrival, we were asked to come up to one of the decks so the ship's cabin could be cleaned.  Fernando and I hung around the lounge until the ship docked in Civitavecchia.  It was interesting because all these high school students were shouting ...

... but it was cool to go there, and the river looks lovely winding its way through the city, with high stone walls rising from its banks and leafy, green trees hanging down over them. Day two was the Vatican City. We thought we'd better do that before we ran out of energy. We started off with St Peter's Square and Basilica. The Square was very impressive - a huge concrete area with a big obelisk in the middle and ringed by rows of Corinthian columns. The queue to ...

... at bedtime since the activity continues well into the night. The world cup of motoscooter racing appears to be based here and the heats run until at least 2 am. Saturday was the time to try Ancient Rome. Buck and I made the trip in, taking the Metro to the Colosseo stop. At the Colosseo, we found big crowds of people. Nothing on the Vatican scale, but enough to put the wait for admission to the Colosseo at about an hour. We took ...

... briefly. its cool, completely preserved as it was when it was built like, 2000 years ago, because it has been turned into a church. the hole in the roof acts as a clock, which is pretty cool. so i hung out there briefly, because by this stage the germans had been released from the vatican and were all at the pantheon... i think they are following me. but i figure if they were at the vatican today, then it will be safe to go tomorrow, so that is where i am headed!

... his bones. It is unbelievably surreal to walk on ancient subterranean paths that existed in the beginning of time, almost. There are pagan funereal monuments as well as Christian tombs. There's an inscription on a tomb that the guide reads out to us - "he never quarreled and had a joke for everyone". After walking on fairly level ground, we are made to walk down a narrow staircase to get to the vicinity of St. Peter's tomb ...

... road, but hidden away in behind some houses, and with plenty of space for tourist buses. That was the first clue. Pienza was just a speck of a town in the middle ages, and known as Corsignano. The local people never felt the need to develop it into anything more, there was no economic or military reason. It was enough for their needs. Then along came the Piccolomini family. They fled Siena after some political torubles, and as this was one of their posessions, went into exile ...