Quick Update to the previous post

Dinner was awsome. What great bread. (the wine wasn't too awful either)

I forgot to mention before that when we were leaving the train station this morning - where the taxi dropped us off to pick up the rental car - we ran into someone that we know from NY.

This damn world just keeps getting smaller and smaller.

The Amalfi Coast

Getting out of Rome was as interesting as expected.

We picked up our rental car (just getting it was a whole story) and then proceeded to make several orbits of the same area trying to find our way thru the maze of streets, one ways, and dead ends. After the third time of saying to each other: "didn't we just pass by that building 5 minutes ago?" we found our way onto the Autostrada and finally out of the city.

The problem with my Garmin was that I had forgotten that I programmed it for walking and forgot to turn it back to automobile mode. It was figuring that since I was supposed to be walking, that I could go down one way streets and alley ways only 3 feet wide.... Whoops! Didn't remember that till we were out of town.

A few hours later we found ourselves in Paradise. What a great town - a beautiful hotel - and a room bigger than many apartments. The lap of luxury and a balcony overlooking the Med. The picture of the ocean was taken from our balcony. The picture above it is downtown Sorrento.

We just got back from walking thru town, stopped at a grocery and picked up some italian bread, cheese, capicola and salami, and some vino. Now for some alfreso dining on the balcony enjoying the sea breeze.

Tomorrow we take the train to pompeii.

Time for dinner.

Visit to the Vatican

Today we visited the Vatican.

We hired a guide in a small group which allowed us to skip the lines to get in and really get a great insight into some of the artwork.

One could spend a lifetime just looking at the collections of art. In our short 4 hours we only saw a very tiny fraction of what there is to see.

Over 25 thousand people a day visit so it was quite crowded. We arrived early however and at first had St Peters Square almost to ourselves. By the end of the tour it was another story.

Tomorrow we are off to Sorrento (south of Naples) for a few days and a visit to Pomeii.

See you there.

Roma

Rome is one heck of a town. We had a great flight. That is after we played Monty Hall "lets make a deal" as US Air did exactly what I was afraid they would do and give Kate and I seats on different sides of the plane.

Once we got our seating issues straighted out all was well. First class seats are really someting special. The seats are electrically adjustable and have about 12 different adjustments. They lie down flat so after my meal of lamb chops with mint jelly it was off to bed for a good 5 hrs of sleep. Then wake up time for breakfast then we hit the ground running. The space allotted for a seat in first class is hugh. It is at least 3 times the room of coach. Its like having 2 rows in front of you with no seats in them.

We took the train from Rome airport to the city center, then hopped a cab to the hotel. It rained a good part of the day and we walked around with our unbrellas and still got to see lots and lots.

The city is a maze of streets and it is really easy to get lost (as we did) but even getting lost worked as we just bumped into more sights that we wanted to see anyway and once we knew again where we were we were able to find out way to the next attraction. We covered over 7 miles today per Mr Garmin.

After a nice dinner at a side walk cafe on a beautiful square with a statue and fountain in the middle (as almost all are) it's back to the hotel for blogging and bed. Another busy day coming up.

Tommorow is the vatican and more foot tours then Saturday we pick up the car and head South to Naples, Pompei, and of course - Salerno Province.

The wine is great, the food is great, and the city is a hoot.

Ciao

Never Mind....

Silly Me

I guess it's not going to be a Molly after all.....


It's a Gracie!


I suppose that is ok as long as Kate doesn't start calling me George.

Its a Molly

After much negotiation we have decided on the name Molly for the new pup.

We pick her up on June 21st which is incidentally the day after we get back from Europe.

Talk about Jet-Lag... We'll get home about 9pm or so, then set out Saturday morning for a 10hr round trip to pick up Molly. Then comes the inevitable crying during the night new pups are famous for.

Looks like Ambien and earplugs for Papa :-)

First Post

Well here is our first post. I thought that this would be a good point to put a photo of Mr. B when he was just a pup and to thank him for being such a great friend and companion for the past 8 years. We sure are gonna miss you big guy.

We started this blog so that we could share our upcoming adventures (or lack therof) with our friends.

If you enjoy it then by all means feel free to compliment me on my wonderful talents.