Today was a catch up day. We knew our Rome schedule was a tight one, especially the first day. We had the extra day in vacation days, so we put the buffer time in at the end. I'm glad we did as we didn't get everything done on the first day in Rome. It was…

Well maybe. Actually no, he's not even in town. But the title sounded good. Today we toured the Vatican. The Vatican is a walled enclave inside the city of Rome. ½ square km, population is less than 1000 made up of mostly catholic clergy and swiss guard. It is the smallest internationally recognized independent state…

Back in Rome we had a solid breakfast and I'm enjoying the automatic espresso machine. Just outside of the metro station, the Spanish Steps lead up from the Piazza di Spagna. They were there, but closed. Renovation time. We had to buy a postcard. Right there is also an interesting boat fountain. Just up the…

Today it was back on the train to Pompeii station for a volcano day. We boarded a shuttle bus at the train station. It had very limited seating and we all had to stand for 15-20 minutes. Quite a bumpy ride too. Then at the National Park entrance we changed our voucher for a park…

Today we took the regional train out of Naples which was stuffy and hot. But it got us to Pompeii. Pompeii was a resort for wealthy and powerful Romans (senators on vacation!). After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the city was covered by volcanic ash for 1700 years until excavations begun in…

Today was another move day. Usual European breakfast in the garden patio and then back on the Vaporetto for 2 stops to the train station. The TrenItalia FrecciaRosso is a bullet train from Venice to Naples with quite a few stops but mostly in Venice, Florence, and Rome. Very smooth but 5 hours total travel…

Venice is made up of reclaimed land and islands. Today we toured two of the outer islands. Murano is known for glass works and Burano for lace making and its multicolored buildings. We took the Vaporetto from right outside our hotel to Murano. We'd read that some of the galleries are tourist traps and fakes…

We are staying at a very small hotel just off a working canal. Very quiet but we've finally hit the European Breakfast. Pastries, bread, coffee and tea. Nothing for Eric and light for us. At least there is yoghurt so we get some protein but not as good as we've had. Again, nobody left hungry,…

Today we packed up in Cortina drove down to Venice. Dropping the car off was far easier than we thought it might be, besides trying to find a gas station that would take my Canadian credit card. There is a bridge that connects Venice to the mainland. We drove it three times. Once to find…

Today was all about mountains. Tall ones. Spiky ones. Beautiful ones. The Dolomites can be compared to the Canadian Rockies in size. The mountains were once the floor of a shallow sea covering much of Europe. They were thrust up into the sky due to earthquake activity millions of years ago. Our first stop was…