Rome and catching up

We've either had sattelite problems or the internet cafe was busy so haven't been back to you for a few days. I also thought I had posted the other day but ran out of minutes so computer cut out before it went through.

Our balcony breakfast went well. A great variety of foods, coffee, juice, champagne etc so we had a great time. It was a little windy so we spread things out on the bed for the 4 of us (the couple who had to buy joined us). The rest of that day was at sea - our last one.

Yesterday we were in Cagliari Sardinia. What a beautiful island although only got to see a small part of it. Main part of the tour we took was to the archelogical site of the ancient city of Nora. Seeing the ruins made us think a little of Mayan Ruins but these were quite different. It is quite amazing to think of what they built with the limited tools back in the BC days. They are still excavating this site as it was discovered by accident in 1956. Part of it is still under the sea and part on a military site. There were still some of the houses that showed the mosaic tiles in place and to think of that work is mind boggling.

Today we went to Rome. Seeing the ruins in the old city, the colleseum, and Vatican City and St. Peter's Basillica was an experience that is hard to describe. History come to life both past and present. Helen being Catholic did get a little teary eyed standing in the area of the Vatican we all see on TV when the Pope is doing something with the masses. Being Sunday and with something special going on unfortunately we could not get into the Vatican Museum so they subsituted the Dominica Catacombs instead. That was something quite interesting and walking through them was amazing. There are still about 2000 original grave sites dating back a whole bunch of years that were not vandalized for the marble which the other 4000 sites were (including the bones). Needless to say we did not walk through all of the catacombs but did get to see enough.

This was a great tour but we sure did some walking today! Plus leaving at 7:30 AM so figure what time we got up we are all tired. And we get to do this again tomorrow in Livorno (port of Florence). We are doing a tour of the Tuscany Region (I think) since we have been to Florence last time and we get to sleep in. Tour starts at 7:45. Tuesday is Marseille France (another long tour day) then it's time to pack since we get evicted from the ship early Wed to fly home.

Again, I got some good pictures and hope to be able to share some of them with all who visit this BLOG.

For now though, CIAO!