Day 22

Really exciting day personally.  I am traveling alone to Amsterdam, Netherlands on Thursday and my friend buddy pal Casey will be joining me on Friday.  I was so excited when I woke up that I just packed and started walking towards the train station(50 minute walk).  Ended up giving up after around 35 minutes underneath the dirty looks I was getting and the increasing temperature.  Jumped on a bus(for free) and rode to the station.  Took the bullet train straight to the FCO Roman airport where I came in. Only 14 Euro for the train, but it would have been 45 Euro if i had taken a taxi.

Went through security, preparing myself by taking off my belt and shoes.  Noticed no one else around was doing the same.  Walked through the metal detector with no problems and turned around to watch my bag go through.  Watched the security person who is supposed to watch the monitor turn around and carry on a conversation with someone, completely ignoring my bag.  Realized as I was walking away I had a few lighters, as well as two full vanity bags of all my bath/shower goods that were certainly not allowed.  Oh well...no one will EVER accuse Romans of working too hard.

Waited around watching TV until our flight got in, then boarded a relatively empty flight.  Got a whole row to myself while I prepared for takeoff.

Flying away from Rome, the flight attendants of Air Italia came around.  They asked if I would like wine or beer or another beverage.  Already having argued with a US Airways flight attendant over $8 small bottle of wine on my flight to Rome, I reluctantly asked the price.  "Free of course," the flight attendant replied.  Heck ya.

So THAT is why American airliners are sinking and everyone else in the world is doing fine.  Hmm.



Landed in AMS airport kinda rocky, very windy and our airplane was going back and forth from side to side.  Made it fine though and made my way straight to a train that took me almost straight to my hotel. Even the train surprised me.  If we weren't zipping by cars at around 100mph, I would have not noticed that we were moving.  The train had many gears, and was perfectly smooth accelerating and traveling at high speeds.

Had to walk through the World Trade Centers for Netherlands.  Straight out of the train into the WTC, pretty impressive.  Followed the directions perfect to my hotel.  Very modern and new hotel called CitizenM hotel.

Extremely cool place.  This is a view from my bed(HUGE BED!) looking at the shower and exit.  You have a remote in your room that controls the color of the lights, climate, music genre, TV and also opens/closes the blinds and shutters for the room.  Everything was wireless, including the key which would just be swiped near the door to get in.

Luck or fate? 47 always seems to show up in my life, thats my lucky number from back in the day when I played football.










Went down into town and realized if you do not understand the way the city works very quickly you are looked down upon by the locals.

I have been in alot of places that make me feel uncomfortable to be alone at, but Amsterdam was not one.  Obviously common sense determines what places are okay and not, and I almost did walk down the wrong road.  I was in a very popular square that night and walked the well lit streets nearby and down a few blocks.  Unknown to me, having missed the last tram at 12:30pm by almost an hour and a half, I looked down a few roads.  Seeing a group of people down one of the roads, I thought it would be okay to walk down.

As I walked down the road, I noticed that the people standing seemed to be women talking.   Quick word of reference, there is a red light district in Amsterdam and the world's oldest profession is legal there.  Nearing the group, I noticed that the women were very large, in fact taller than myself.  Taking a second glance, I realized that these were not women at all, very much men dressed in drag.  Umm, turning on the very spot, I ran back to where I came from.  Holy crap, what did I almost walk into??  Perfect craziness for first day experience.

Do not let this 2:30 AM experience negatively affect your view of the Netherlands or Amsterdam.   This is a very late night and a very concentrated street.  Well I want to have material for the next two days, so I will not explain too much of Amsterdam.  All I will say is I was and still am completely taken aback by Amsterdam.  It is not in any way what I expected.  I mean that in an amazingly positive way. Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned for more adventures!!

Day 21

Once again, I apologize for the lapse in blogs.  While traveling the last thing on my mind is blogging, just thinking of what I will write. Working hard to fill in the gaps.

So for today I of course had class, and we visited what was one of the nicest museums and solely dedicated to Roman historical artifacts.

You may remember this picture, from my first day in Rome.  The building in the background and flanking  both sides is called the Capitoline Museum.  They have not always been museums, in the past centuries they were the center of political Rome.  Directly behind this building are the ancient ruins and you would also be able to see the Colosseum.

Man this picture already seems like a lifetime ago.  I even had shorter hair then haha.

These are the remnants of a colossal statue of the Emperor Constantine.  He was known as the first Emperor to accept Christianity, and is quite well known and loved for that.

The remnants of this statue were found in a nearby basilica that had been looted and recycled throughout.  To help visualize the size of this statue in Ancient Rome, a 6'0 man would stand almost a foot shorter than the arm that is on the left if you are looking at the statue.

This is one of many 12 foot tall engravings that would have mounted one of the dozens of triumph arches that were erected in Ancient Rome.  As previously mentioned, there would be a triumph parade for any major victory.  In the Ancient Roman Empire, victories were plentiful, thus arches were as well.

This is a triumph parade during the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius ruled(161-180AD).   The arches were not actually erected in time for the victory parades, temporary ones were in place then torn down.  The real arches were built afterwards encompassing the images of the victory parade.

This is the oldest and probably my favorite statue in all of Roman history.  As I have mentioned before, of course this is a statue of the She-Wolf raising the twins Romulus and Remus.

As the legendary story goes, the God of War, Ares(known as Mars, pictured below) wanted to have children.  A beautiful young woman, Rhea Silvia was forced to mother children by the God of War.  Rhea Silvia was a Vestal Virgin, a very prominent and prestigious group of women who were beautiful and bound to celibacy.

They had two sons, Romulus and Remus.  Because of the expectations of a Vestal Virgin in the position of Rhea Silvia, the twins were ordered to be killed by men.  Romulus and Remus were brought to the Tiber river by a servant, who could not bear to kill the young twins. He instead abandoned them.

This is when a she-wolf found the twins and cared for them for a few years in a cave.  She nurtured the twins Romulus and Remus until they were big enough and a Shepard found them.  The twins grew strong together and became well known.  The twins had the vision to create a great city, but the two differed on the location.  Romulus wanted it near where they were born, while Remus wanted it elsewhere.  In any version of the legend, Remus either dies or is killed.  Romulus then founds the city of Roma and so prospers a great empire.  (Look for day 26 for founding point)


So that is the most popular and my favorite story of the founding of Rome, and has been popular for several thousand years.

Moving on, this is a detailed chariot used in wartime activities.  Thought it was preserved pretty well and would include it.

This is a statue of Marcus Aurelius that was originally outside the Capitoline Museum(look at first picture in todays blog) but had to be moved to avoid deterioration.  Originally it was shown with barbarians or peasants below, and Marcus Aurelius was forgiving and blessing them.  That part has been removed several hundred years ago.

Just finishing up on a large and extremely rare statue that once belonged to Julius Caesar.  To show that Roma had a strong but fair military aspirations, the enemy was always shown in valor defeat.  This is the original, and no duplicates exist, of a young enemy soldier who was stabbed and is nearing defeat in death.  It was found at a villa of Julius Caesar in immaculate condition.  These all point to ideas that it was the personal belonging of Julius Caesar.




Well I hope you all enjoyed this blog, and appreciate every view I get.  Feel free to invite your friends to read or anyone, as I hope I can express what I am seeing and have others develop the appreciation for Ancient Rome that I have.  Thank you all!  Tune in tomorrow's for the Netherlands!

Day 20

Woke up today feeling under the weather again.  Really getting sick of being sick.  Today was not the day to lie in bed and feel sick though.  Today me and a few others are going to the Vatican to complete a class project.  Not just around it, actually in the museum.  Very exciting.

Walked past St. Peters square on the way around to the museum.  That right in front is the actual Basilica, which is not what we went into today.

That is free and you can walk in on any Sunday when they are not holding mass.

First thing that caught my eye was an actual mummy.  I had never seen a mummified body.  Apparently the fluids are first drained then the body is lied in salt for 90 days to dehydrate the body.  A type of preservative is then put on the body and that is that.

Kinda weird to see in a place where they are so strict they chop off the genitalia on statues to avoid offending anyone.

Remember, you can click and zoom in on any picture.

First real stop, monument hall.  Every one of the rooms in the Vatican museum had walls and ceilings like this.

Here is a picture of Emperor Augustus Caesar, adopted son of Julius Caesar.  This is the sculpture I chose to do my project on.  I must write an essay describing everything from his clothes, posture, look on his face, shoes and even his hairstyle.  Then I must compare and contrast Augustus with another similar statue.

One of the interesting things discovered in the past 20 years is that many statues did not originally appear shiny and pure white marble like the one above.  Almost all statues in Rome had colored eyes, dyed clothes and were very much filled in.  Much time and effort has been put into restoring the statues to the white marble look in the past 300 years, only to find that this was not what the sculptors originally wanted them to look like.  As anyone with a car or house can attest, paint wears off a heck of alot faster than stone objects crumble.

A statue that caught my eye was described as a statue from the Nile. As in Nile River.  You can see the many children playing with the crocodile on the far left.  They must have watched alot of Crocodile Hunter to be that brave.  Also some children playing with a mink, front and center.

How did Scooby Doo get into the Vatican museum?

On the way to the courtyard this caught my eye.  It is a sculpture that has been done in the past century and was featured in my game Assassin's Creed as holding the piece of the Apple of Eden.  Obviously fiction, nevertheless it rotated on its own schedule and was pretty cool.

Still wasn't feeling great in the courtyard so went to the store and grabbed a water bottle, nearly finishing it before I got to register.  Then I find out that you are only allowed to sit down and order, which means you pay a waiters fee(no tipping in Italy).  When I asked for the price, they responded 2.50 Euro(around $3.40).  For a bottle of water that nearly was finished.  Ughh, if it wasn't the Vatican I would consider just walking out.  Figure that wasn't a very Christian idea...

 Walked by some beautiful and some interesting tapestry's.  This one is Christ rising to the heavens.  Words are not really needed.

This one is a little more disturbing.  It shows children being slain, and I do not have the knowledge or history to describe why.  It was labeled, "Slaying of the Innocents."  I think this is a little more disturbing then the covered male genitalia.  But who am I to insult art?

Remember: You can zoom in by clicking picture.










Well since we are in the museum, why not visit the Sistine Chapel when we have the tickets?

I apologize for the picture angles and quality, but you are not even allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel.  I could not justify not sneaking in a few shots, especially when Michelangelo spent 6 years of his life painting everyday the roof of the Sistine Chapel. Plus, there were hundreds in the room, and dozens snapping pictures.  You just had to be sneaky.

Pictures will never describe the feeling you get from looking around in here.  Many are crying, I had chills running through my entire body.  Michelangelo, who was actually a sculptor, told no one of his vision or plan, and started square by square.  Many questioned his plans, but they didn't have the vision.

And Michelangelo finished with the picture center(kinda to the right).  It is God nearly touching Adam, giving him the touch of life.  Please click and zoom in on these, they really are some of the most enthralling paintings in the world. Words do no justice.

I even felt less sick leaving this place, and I can't describe the hope that enters your body, no matter what religion, when you are in here.  Breathtaking.

The walls were also painted.  These were not painted by Michelangelo, but were beautiful. This was my most obvious picture, but my favorite.  It shows a battle.  To the left are the hills and to the right is a city.  The city is being rained and hailed on, while the hills to the side have a rainbow spreading across.  Unbelievable.

I had to run out after this because I definitely was very obvious in taking this picture, but there is no resisting that.

There really is nothing else that I want to include in this day of the blog.  I want to leave you thinking of the Sistine Chapel.  It is a place of inner energy and everyone has awe on their face.  Even children seem to understand the unbelievability of what they are seeing.

So that is what I saw and felt.  I encourage anyone of any race or belief to go and interpret their own feelings for themselves.



  I hope this day at least shows a little of the inspiration I felt. Thank you all for reading!  Stay tuned!

Day 19

Quiet day...which I am actually thankful for.  My fingers are starting to cramps from describing the past weekend.  The description was well deserved though, a great time to remember.

Still not feeling great, but thankfully class was indoors for a little bit today.  No public transportation, thats something to be thankful for.  I will never appreciate my car more(which is hard to fathom anyways) then when I get back and get to drive.

So this was our first stop out of class.  A massive amphitheater built by Pompey, a war hero, for himself.  This doesn't even begin to show how huge it was, much longer than the Colosseum.

At around the turn of the millennium in Ancient Rome, it was considered very conceited to build a large monument to oneself.  They didn't even allow the building of permanent theaters.  They would build one for an event and tear it back down.  Pompey got away with this because he put a temple at the back, thus classifying it as a holy place.

Once a great monument attributed to a war hero...it is now where many kittys live.  It is actually referred to as the cat sanctuary.  There is no humane society here, so when a "clean up" of the citys cats began around 2000, an animal activist group asked the city if there was an area they could put the stray cats.

This ancient and historical monumental site is now for the cats of Rome.  Good for them.

Back to history. See anything important here?  Probably not.  Well that structure there was the temporary Senate house for Ancient Rome.  Still no significance?

Alright how about this is the spot where Julius Caesar was stabbed by 16 different people while he was emperor?  The popular myth of him being stabbed in the Senate house in the Roman Forum is false, because it was under construction at the time.  So the temporary Senate house was where meetings were conducted, and fearing he would be a dictator, his 16 Senators each stabbed and killed him.  

So I figured I would throw this on there for my parents and Kilwin's.  This is the equivalent of Kilwin's here.  Our professor bought us some gelato because she felt bad class was cancelled last week.  Very nice of her, because 22 of us certainly was not cheap.  

Well that is really all I have for today.  Spent most of the day catching up on the previous blogs which took several hours, but well worth it.  Thank you all for reading!  Tomorrow will be more exciting, and have pictures that were not supposed to be taken....explanation on that tomorrow!

Day 18

Last night I went to bed early because I wasn't feeling well and when I woke up I felt like I had a fever, joints hurt and some head pressure.  Not a great day to be feeling bad, considering the plan for today was to go boating from 9-4.  Even worse we had to climb down even more stairs than normal(around 650) to get down to the place where the boat took off.  It was raining and anyone that has ever been on the water during a rainstorm knows it is like little pellets hitting you at high speed.

Oh well, no sense in turning back on something like that, just need to keep my head down and ride it out.  Man am I glad I kept that attitude.

We had a covered boat, which was very nice for me because I could go underneath and still was cold.  To not bore everyone with me being sick: one of the girls gave me some advil and after awhile my fever went away and I started feeling 100x better.

This is a beautiful picture of leaving port on a rainy morning in Positano.

 The boat driver had obviously been through the area many many times before, and knew where to take us to show us the best sites.  Here is a cave that we could swim through and he would pick us up on the other side if we felt like it.

It is really hard to describe how gorgeous the water is, so I will just let you enjoy the picture.

Our boat was large and fit the 12 of us and 4 other people.  The neat thing though was that they only rode with us until we got to Capri, which means we had the boat driver for the rest to do whatever we wanted.

Here is another beautiful rock formation that you could drive your small boat through.  It is weird, but these rock structures literally rise right out of the ocean.  That means that the water right next to these rocks could be anywhere between 20-50 feet deep.  That will play out importantly in a few minutes...

Just another beautiful view of us leaving the caves.

A view of the lighthouse as we approach the tourist island of Capri.  There was no bridge to Capri, just ferrys and quite an active port and town.  Very pretty and is not a dirty place at all.  Many many stores and taxis.  As a matter of a fact in the middle of the city is a whole row of stores with high-end luxury stores that everyone knows.  Louis Vutton, Prada, etc.

Spent around an hour and a half in Capri(mostly eating under an umbrella) before returning back.  The rain had finally stopped as we were leaving and I was feeling so much better than earlier.  What does that mean?

That means cliff diving.  I am the last on the right. Checking exactly what I am getting myself into... It was not easy getting up there, many people got cut up on the coral and were bleeding pretty bad. It is a pretty good 18-25 ft drop into the water.  Though about doing my backflip into water or something cool, but I could easily screw that up and end up going around too many times and landing on my back.  There is a picture out there of me jumping, just waiting for one of the girls who took it to put it up on facebook for me to steal it.


Made our way back after this because one of the kids on board got seasick really bad and thankfully we were pretty close to port.  This wrapped up our time in Positano. It was time to attempt to head back to take a bus to Sorrento, a commuter train from there to Naples, then a real train to Rome.  Shouldn't be a problem, we planned this with plenty of time....did I mention how much I hate Italian public transportation?

Our bus ended up showing up 25 minutes late, that's okay we still have plenty of time.  Turns out as we are getting into Sorrento, a popular soccer team was being escorted by police through, stopping traffic for around 30 minutes.  As soon as we got to the bus stop we made a mad sprint to the train station and were happy to see our train still there.  But we still needed to buy our tickets just to be able to get through the gates.  Of course some idiotic American was arguing over the 4 Euro train ticket in front of us and we watched as the train left without us.  Which meant that we would have to wait another hour for the next one, which wouldn't be a problem if we didnt already purchase expensive tickets out of Naples on a real train for the very last train of the day. Wow I have never wanted to hit somebody as hard as right then.

Waited an hour and I literally knocked people out of my way attempting to get onto the train as the others followed as we hoped that we could make it back to Naples in time for our train.  It was a 30 stop mini train, although it would only be at some stops for less than 15 seconds.  6 stops to go...and it was already too late.  We called our roomate in Rome and had him jump on the internet, one train left.  The high-speed railroad out of Naples 9:30 PM, 15 minutes later.  Otherwise we would have to wait in the ghetto train station and my most hated place-Naples- until 4:45 AM the next morning.  All we had to do is rush off and go try and book tickets on the bullet train.  I was not getting stuck in Naples.

Sprinted off the train and ran to book tickets...only to find no tickets available.  "I am NOT getting stuck in Naples", I kept telling myself.  All options looked spent.  Well...not all options.  I could stowaway on the bullet train and just hide in the bathroom for the two hour train ride.  Well, that's what I will do.  While jumping on, we stopped to talk to a lady that checks tickets on the train, and although she spoke broken English, she seemed to indicate we could jump on and stand and just pay a fine. Not sure what kind of fine, but I am getting on.

She comes by halfway through the train ride and I notice her talking to an Italian that seemed not to have a ticket in front of us.  I looked at the charge, 86 Euro!!! We only payed 12 Euro for our original train tickets, I dont even have that much on me!!! Ughh, maybe I should run to the bathroom and hide still.  She got to us and remembered us, I showed her my original ticket and asked for the damage.  Turns out because I had an original ticket and just missed my train, it was only 22 Euro.  What a relief!!

We speed through the countryside under the cover of night at almost 175 mph, but thank goodness I am out of Naples and on my way back to my Rome home.  We arrive after two and a half hours, all relieved(although one did lose his ticket and did hide in the bathroom the whole time).  Back in Rome!  A few of us were so happy we went straight to the McDonald's across the street and bought Big Mac's.  Took a taxi home from there.

Well that was the trip, more of a story towards the latter half of today, but one hell of an experience.  No love here for Naples.  Sorrento was a pretty place.  Pompeii was incredibly historic.  Words cannot describe the beauty of Positano, I swore to myself that I would go back to it sometime in my life.  Great trip.  Thanks all for reading, and as always check out facebook for more pictures of us boating and the waters in Positano.

Day 17

So we made it to the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  Positano.  It is on the other side of the mountain from Sorrento, on the Almafi coast.

Very quiet and peaceful town.  One that you could walk around by yourself and not have any worries.  Beggars and crime are words that are not even known here.  Ferraris, Porches and the English language are things  that they know here.  Sounds like my kind of town.

For our two nights in Positano we stayed at this excellent Hostel called Brikette. Great place, only $25 a night.  Everyone there spoke perfect English and had a gorgeous view like this.  The actual apartment we stayed at was across the street and was only finished about 20 minutes before we showed up yesterday---it's only downfall.  This means the wi-fi didnt reach over there, among other things.  The water pressure was so bad in our bathroom for that apartment that if you turned the shower wand upside down, water wouldn't come out.  I've seen leaks with more water pressure than that.

Because there was no A/C, we had to keep our windows open during the night time--which was fine.  The downfall to that was the location of the window.  The window was right next to a very tight, uphill blind curve.  This means at about 6:30 AM buses would blare their horn coming one way to alert other motorists, and then slam on the gas when going up the opposite direction.  That got old pretty fast.

But all of that combined couldn't change my love for this place one bit.  I would rate the staff a 20 out of 10, they were just excellent.  Even got pancakes and eggs for breakfast in the morning, haven't had that in several weeks.  Plus, showers over there had plenty of water pressure.  Enough with the Hostel!

The first day we went to the beach, naturally.  Spent almost all of the day there and had a great time.  The water was a little cool, but completely swimmable.  Time to go do what I really came for...

A little bit of rock jumping.  Yes that is me doing a backflip off the rock there.  Apparently my specialty, because no one else could do one.  I can thank the time I spent on my cousin's trampoline a few years ago and sadly watching professional wrestling as a kid for teaching me that.  Oh well, good action shot though.







I had a blast going down to the beach.  Town as just as fun.  One thing to note, you may notice in the pictures in the town that the water looks really far away.  Well it is.  I consider the 17 steps walking upstairs in my house to be tiring.  Its 627 steps down to the beach and around 427 down to the town.  Being that it isn't all my money I am spending, I cannot justify spending money on a cab.  So what does that mean?  It means that I walked those stairs several times a day, including whenever you had to withdraw money from an ATM to pay for anything.  Being that the exchange rate is so high for Dollars/Euros(Around $1.45 for 1 Euro), I hate pulling out large amounts of money.  Which means I had to travel all the way down there for any activity we planned.  I already feel like my belly is getting a little bigger from all the food here, but man are my legs going to be HUGE when I get back.  At least we burn off some of that laboring up and down those stairs.

Night life is also cool here, although the one club cost around $35(for guys) to get into and drinks cost around $14.  No thank you.  Plus, if you don't have a sweater wrapped around your neck, your pretty much violating the clubs dress code.  Maybe a little bit too much like HHI...

Anyways, other than that everything was priced very normal as there are no chain stores.  Everyone that has a shop operates it themselves, much like my parents.  Really, really believe this is the most beautiful place in the world, and I swore to myself I will be back in my lifetime.  There is no getting around a promise like that.

I could put 1000 pictures up of Positano, but I feel like it would be of the pretty view.  Go on Facebook for extra pictures!  Thank you all for reading!

Day 16

Excited to finally leave Naples!  Onto a bus heading towards the ancient city of Pompeii.

So brief history on Pompeii.  This was a bustling Roman city nestled between several mountains and sitting right alongside the Mediterranean sea.  There was a large earthquake on August 23, 79 AD.  The following day, Mount Vesuvius started a two-day eruption, thus covering the city in volcanic ash for nearly 17 centuries.

Hard to figure out where to start.  Pompeii was not a small town.  In fact 4 hours was no where near enough to run through the entire city.  We only saw around 40%, which is disappointing.

Unfortunately we have become so conditioned to avoid buying what vendors throw in your face that we ignored the guide book to Pompeii.  Would have been nice to figure out what we were looking at, however we did jump into a few tour groups.

Next place we went is to the Amphitheater.  This...is the small one in Pompeii.  Perfectly preserved, we are very lucky to be able to walk something that literally has not been changed in thousands of years.

 Dang who is that kid with those huge calf muscles ...must walk alot of stairs. And no that is not a man purse, it is my camera case.

Cool activity grounds.

One thing I did manage to catch from listening in on tour guides explained these marks.  The carts used by merchants for travel were pulled by horses and used very large wheels.  The several hundred carts passing by a day would lead to an eventual weardown/shift in the cobblestone road.  Very neat to to see wear that is not recent.  Just another tribute to how beautifully this place was preserved under volcanic ash.

These weird little lion statues may not look like much, but they are the original legs to a table.  However it was not just any table.  The table belonged to the person who was first of sixteen to stab Julius Caesar in his assassination not too far from where I stay in Rome.  The man was exiled and his goods sold, the wealthy family here obtained the table at auction some 2000 years ago.

I put this up because I always think about how long ago the Civil War was for the America.  Pompeii was encased in volcanic ash what seems an amazingly unbearable time ago.  2000 years.  Well, actually when the eruption happened, there were signs of history from nearly twice as long to Pompeiian's as they are to us.  They are currently excavating remains from 3500BC.  Nearly 5511 years ago remains are still there.  That is simply unfathomable to me.  Here is where I see the oldest things that exist in the world.  Rome can't even hold a candle to that.  5500 years ago.  Think about it.

These are the remains of an upscale restaurant.  Thankfully I caught a tour guide explaining this, or I wouldnt have figured out what they were actually.  There are dozens of restaurants around Pompeii and are identifiable by the holes in the serving counter where fire would be beneath.  This is one of the nicer restaurants I found.  If my Grandpa lived in ancient Pompeii, this would probably be one of his favorite places to talk about.

 Pompeii was a town that had nutrient rich soil, and thousands of acres of land for growing food.  The garden has been re-used and reconstructed by analyzing the preserved roots of the old garden.  Some of the plants had to replaced by our modern plants since some of the plants there have changed drastically in genetic structure over the thousands of years.

Did I mention that we were in the small amphitheater?

Camera started giving up on me here, I just need a few more pictures!!!!!!

When the eruption happened, many people ran for cover.  The air was full of volcanic ash, completely void of oxygen.  Most people were suffocated to death.  These are some people who ran into a house nearby and are preserved very well.

Really sad, but look at the child cuddling against his mother while they faced death in the face.  Several bodies of children were in this house.

A determined look on this man's face.  He was fighting until the end, maybe that was his family he is looking over.  Really makes you wish you could figure out what his final thoughts were.

Human or animal, no one made it out alive.  This was a family dog that was found and preserved perfectly.  It is sad to think of, but it is how life and history happened.  We should be glad to have the opportunity to learn and honor the people and animals who lost their lives in this town.








Okay how about some happy photos??

 How does the most beautiful place in the world sound?  The Almafi coast.  This is on the other side of the mountain from Sorrento, and is the very quiet town of Positano.

If Hilton Head Island, SC and Lake Tahoe, CA had a baby, and that baby ended up being a superhero, this is what it would end looking like.  Truly the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life.

The town of Positano is unbelievably peaceful and so beautiful.  Unfortunately this is where my camera gave in.  Don't worry, what are friends for if you can't steal their pictures?  Look for tomorrow's blog for a better description as this blog is already so full of great stuff!










Sorry it took so long to read, but this was one day I will never forget.  I am so fortunate to be able to put this into writing and remember it forever.  By the way: obviously I couldn't include every picture I took in Pompeii in the blog or I would be writing until I left Rome in three weeks. Check Facebook for every picture. Thanks for reading!