The last two days - Rome and Amalfi Coast

Saturday July 26th
Saturday was Rome day. Dianne and the kids took a four tour that included a 2 hour bike ride in Tarquinia - Dianne is still a bit sore and they had a great time viewing the countryside. Jeanne and John stayed on the ship to recover from the long walking day in Florence on Friday. Mom Fitz and I took a Rome tour to visit the Sistine Chapel. Being Saturday the traffic in Rome as very light so we made good time getting around. We visited the Vatican Museum which is a huge museum with many statues, Tapestries, Paintings, Fresco's and of course the Sistine Chapel. We took a few pictures of the Museum and no one is allowed to take photo's of the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel is wonderful. It is a huge room with very high ceilings. The fresco's by Michelangelo are amazing. If you ever have the chance to visit it is highly recommended. We then visited St Peters which is a wonderful church, very beautiful inside and out. We then had a great lunch at a local Rome Hotel and moved on to the Colosseum which we had seen last year. It is enourmous and amazing. We took a couple of pictures included the one of Mom meeting a couple of nice Italian men.

Sunday July 27th
On Sunday - Yesterday we all took the same tour of the Amafii Coast and Pompeii. The drive along the Amalfi coast was scary. The road is about 15 feet wide with cars and scooters parked along the sides of the road and large buses like ours going in both directions trying to pass each other. To top it off that 15 foot wide road is twisting and turning with constant switchbacks to climb and descend the mountain pass. The Road is about 75 miles long and took us several hours to completely navigate. We made a stop in Amalfi so we could each lunch and do some shopping. We also drove by the famous town of Positano (Picture above in this post), which is breathtaking. This is the town that Dianne's Aunt and Uncle (Rita and Bud Guzzi) paint. I have uploaded pictures of the whole Amalfi drive.

After completing the Amalfi drive we headed to Pompeii. Pompeii is an ancient city that was destroyed when the nearby Mt Vesuvius erupted burying the city. The locals discovered the ancient city and have been excavating it for years. As we walked in I was expecting a few small rooms and a short walk would be it and then we would return to the ship. Boy was I wrong. The excavation is huge and as you will see from the pictures it is impressive. There are pictures of many areas of Pompeii to the right. This is another must see for anyone that is traveling to the area of Naples. You will see a few pictures of dead bodies that were pulled from the site. They used a process that injected Plaster around the bones found in the ground in order to remove the remains intact. There is also a picture of a recovered dog.

We then returned to the ship had dinner and stayed up watching the Piano player and other shows, They were all wonderful. We slept in this morning and moved our clocks ahead as we move further west toward our next stops in Greece. Today we are at sea so we have some time to rest.