The island of Capri is a huge mountian in the sea, covered with lush flowers and tourist traps. It apears to be some folks idea of paradise, but as for me, I’ll take Alaska any day. The ice cream available on the island is great. It’s the best I’ve ever had, and ice cream is sold everywhere.

The Coloseam was much bigger than I thought, the roman ruins were bigger than I thought. Italian drivers like driving their scooters through inbetween lanes of traffic. The food was good at supper tonight. Finaly, I’m so sleepy I can’t write another word!

As we were about to leave Saint Peter’s, John was given directions as to how to go back to the museam to get his pack back. Twenty minutes later, as we were out in the square in front of the Cathedral, he suddenly appeared, and noted that he got lost. After getting directions again, he ran of into the distance, and return another twenty minutes later with his pack, having ran a long, long, way every time.

We are headed back into port now - a two hour nap was wonderful!

So far, the Vatican security has the keenest x-ray crew in Europe - they found two of our three Leatherman Wave pocket tools (nobody else has even found one). We had no idea that it would be like trying to get aboard an aircraft to enter the Vatican. John had to check in his mighty pack before we could continue with the tour.

We went through just three of the galleries of the Vatican Mueseam. Greek and Roman statutes, followed by tapastries, followed by favorite of all - wall sized map paintings. The galleries were sumptious beyond description, and my eyes could not take in all the details. The tapasty makers of that time period had a taste for bloody knives and gore. It’s a rare tapastry without a few of each.

The Sistine Chaple was so far above my expectations. Photographs cannot even come close to showing the shear size of the paintings, and the intense detail in each little part. Like the Grand Canyon, when you see it, there is no need to tell you that is a wonder of the world.

As I entered Saint Peters Catherdral, I was again in awe at the size of the thing, the magnificence, and yet the detail in every part. It’s HUGE! I knew that the dome was big, but in truth, the dome is just a little part of the whole thing. The funniest thing I saw is little gold stars in the floor showing the size of all of the catherdals in the world. Naturly, all of them fit inside Saint Peter’s. Hehe, I bet that “It is strictly forbben to” build a bigger cathedral.

The whole point of the Vatican Museams and churchs seems to be a shouting out of power, of in internet gaming lingo, “ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US…. You are teh pwned!” Its as if they say that kings bow to us, and bring their treasures here….

One thing we have observed, is the practice of sending two guids with each group. It actualy works out very well, since one of them leads the main group, while the other hunts down strays, buys tickets, and takes care of problems.

Almost as soon as the pilot jumped into the ship from the pilot ship, the Constellation began to turn away from the port. A half hour later they announced that “Due to high winds and large waves, the ship is unable to enter the port, local authorities have advised us to wait outside the port for a few hours….” Yay! We get to go back to sleep!

We are pulling into the port of Civitaecchia, near Rome. The sea is active and I walk, I feel light as a feather and then staggeringly heavy - because the side of the ship I am on rolls down and up, down and up. We will disembark the ship as the sun rises, but today is the last day we have to be up soooo early.

Wow! The leaning tower leans! It’s tilted at such a noticable angle that I wondered if it had suddenly shifted in the last week - photos do not do it justice. The catedral, baptastry, and bell tower are in a large open square in one corner of the town. This allows you to really get a feel for the size and beauty of the buildings.

Florence is a dirty, grimy city. Thousands of cigarette buts line each street along with a general sprinkeling of other trash. You think of Italian citys as bright and carefree, but Florence feels more like a semi-bad section of New York. The public buildings were often magnificent, but it’s not a place I’d like to call home.

The drivers are bit agressive, In Nice they have no hesitation in driving a few inchs beside a crowd, but in Florence they have no hesitation in driving right through one. Pedistrians do not have the right of way at all!