Hotel Diana Ustica

... hot sand. The sand here is kind of grey with some black specs, which would account for how hot it gets.

I must say that the Mediterranean Sea is quite warm in the summer, just over 20 degrees. It was quite refreshing and did not make the body cold at all when one just stood in the water. It is amazing how much cooler if felt being by the water, I barely felt the heat at all. We relaxed at the beach until about 7:30pm, when they ...

... send suggestions) also got to cook fresh fish and pasta with an adorable chef who cooks while looking out at the sea from his kitchen. It was quite enjoyable to watch Rutherford rip the guts out of an anchovy that had been caught in the sea that morning. Footage coming soon... The bottom line- Italy has been wonderful. We have walked hundreds of stairs down to the beach, boated to the Island of Capri, ate dinner in an alley in Amalfi, talked about everything and ...

... is not the original. The original was about 5 meters lower and can be seen through a place in the cathedral's floor.
By the time we went outside, the line to get in wrapped all the way around the square. I decided to go to the official Vatican shopping area to get lunch and browse the shops. Bought some Rosary beads and holy water for mom, Rosey and me.
The Vatican was so crowded I opted to take the metro to the HRC for lunch. HRC was ...

... br>I next went to the Monument a Vittorio Emmanuel. It was a big statue of a man on a horse in front of a building with a lot of stairs. I climbed the stairs and took in the views.
I next ate lunch at a cute little outdoor cafe- cheese and tomato panini, which seems to be very popular in Europe.
I then scoped out Teatro Marcello- more ruins. Then Area Sacra- even more ruins in the city ...

... was very important for me to see, I was really disappointed in two things. Out of all the places I have visited, I have never been pushed and shoved so much as in the Vatican. People were taking pictures everyone, even though they were instructed that some places were sacred and photography and talking was not permitted, such as the catacombs of the popes. People would push and shove and take pictures, and then go and pray by the site of a ...

... Tuscany for lunch and then spent the night in the area. We landed in Rome and got very lost trying to find our hotel room but eventually landed there. A brief snapshot of being on the Autostrada (the Italian word for motorways/freeways) with the Fleischmann's... In the back seat: Carol - listening to her ipod, sleeping or watching a movie. Hannah - sleeping, listening to her ipod or a book tape Jack - watching ...

... much at all since they were painted in the 1300's. We then made our way to the School of Athens - one of my most favorite paintings of all time done by Raphael in 1510. It's a great painting that includes several famous philosophers and academics during the time. After leaving the "School of Athens", we headed to the Sistine Chapel. It's truly amazing. Every inch of that place is covered with intricate paintings. I have no idea how ...

... so bright in color and there was so much light that it really started playing mind games on me - and the spiraling down - single file was making me dizzy and a little crazy... (Will - I kept saying to myself "I'm doing this to tell Will and show him some great 'church' photos"!) Finally I pulled over by a little window and let Jim get in front of me - and that helped my concentration a bit. Well - we made it down to the roof - where the elevator is - and wrote some ...

... loads about life in Ancient Rome. Example: During the afternoon at the Colleseum, the people were getting tired of watching Christians getting eaten by lions (How?? How could anyone tire of watching that??) and gladiators fighting, so they arranged some comic relief. This involved a fat woman being thrown into the arena. Then six midgets would be released, all armed with clubs with spikes in them. The fat woman would run, but she would eventually tire. At which point she would ...

... locals know about. Other times I would be drinking coffee at a cafe and exchanging a bit of smalltalk with a couple of local men. Later when I went to pay I'd find that they'd already covered it for me! This happened more than once! Call me old fashioned but that sort of charming behaviour never goes astray! I decided that I'm definitely going to hell after visiting the Vatican. I'm going to offend somebody here but hey this is my story and I tell it like it is. You see ...