Today we toured St. Peter's basilica (and hiked all the way to the top
of the dome) and went inside the actual jail cell where Peter and Paul
were imprisoned. We head to the airport at 3:30am tomorrow morning so
please pray that all the connections, shuttles, and flights go
smoothly.
As I write we're a block away from the Trevy fountain in the middle of a great night walk across Rome on the pedestrian only streets past all the sights that are lit up at night--led by Rick Steves of course. This morning we heard that the pope was coming out so we headed over to the big square where everyone in town was going and had to have reservations to get in, but somehow we ended up within 10 feet of him. Then went through the sistine chapel with no lines. Enjoyed a good pasta dinner with everyone at our hostel up on the roof overlooking the colosseum, pretty good location for a dinner..
We really like Sorrento!
The afternoon we arrived the whole town seemed to be closed. We made the short walk from the train station to our B&B and no one was around. We were very happy to have air conditioning for the first time since Interlaken (and we didn't need it then). And happy that
there was a dumbwaiter to lift our bags up the 4 floors to our place. When we went back outside after getting settled the whole town was out and about. I guess they were all having their afternoon siesta. By 10pm the streets were really packed and closed to cars. All the shops
were open and we had a great italian meal down a nice back alley.
At dinner we met a southern italian couple that we could hardly communicate with but had a great time nonetheless. We ended up dancing the night away with them and the old-timer italians in some kind of huge outdoor ballroom dance\line dancing event. Lots of fun. Today on the beach and tomorrow Capri--gotta go, dave and nat
...that I might touch that cheek." We went to Juliet's balcony a few days ago, under which Romeo said something like that... actually it's
a fake to bring in the tourists, but it looked nice and romantic and at least it was in Verona. Our friends in vicenza made a wonderful fareawell dinner of bigelli (a local pasta, basically is what it sounds like, big spaghetti) for us that night; it was wonderful to stay with friends for a few nights and rejuvinate after a few weeks of travel.
Yesterday Natalie and I hiked through all 5 towns of the Cinque Terre, amazing. And to our suprise our room in Vernazza was right in the middle of town with an incredible ocean view. Only problem was the four flights of stairs after 4 hours of hiking around the mountains. We also got some time in the afternoon to relax, swim, and lay by the beach. Sorry we weren't on internet in Cinque Terre, the beach was too inviting.
Today we stopped for an hour in Pisa on our way to Florence. We saw the real statue of David today! It's much better and bigger than I thought it would be, and we followed around and english tour group to get the history. Then checked out the Duomo and saw the sun set over
Florence from the piazza michelangelo.
Tomorrow we're doing a little wine tasting tour in the Tuscan countryside.
