A whirlwind visit to Italy

We spent last weekend in Italy. What a luxury, to be able to just jump on a plane and in a couple of hours be in Rome!

Both of us have wanted to see Pompeii for a long time - me, since I was 6 and saw a National Geographic picture of a plaster cast of one of the bodies; Ron since we listened together to the audiobook of Richard Harris's Pompeii. So that was what we did.

We landed in Rome around noon on Thursday, Feb. 2, and took the train from the airport to the central train station. We wandered around a bit by metro and foot that afternoon - saw an unexpected pyramid, the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum - then went to Naples by high-speed train.

Friday morning we were picked up at our hotel by a guide and joined an agreeable German mother-son pair to do the sights - Vesuvius in the morning, Pompeii in the afternoon. Whew! But it was the best time of the year to do it, we learned. Once the high tourist season begins you can hardly move in both places for the crowds. We were among a dozen or so people - who in their right mind would tour Italy in February?

Next morning back onto the train to Rome. We checked into our hotel next to the Vatican (we could see the top of the dome of St. Peter's from the bathroom window) and headed off to do the tourist thing there. We were too late for the Sistine Chapel, but we got into St. Peter's. It had its holy spots - the Pieta was wonderful - but there were an awful lot of monuments to fat and power-hungry popes. There was so much of what I don't like about the Church in the air that I found it hard to find God there. Still, the place has been polished by prayer and it shows in places.

And the next morning it was back to the airport by city bus (the best way to see a city) and train, and home again. We can't really say we've seen Italy, but at least we've breathed the air and picked up a couple of stones from Vesuvius.

That's it as far as travels go for this month, I think. Next month we need to renew our visas so we'll do Athens quickly; then we'll go to Cappadocia to see the solar eclipse, and finally we'll spend a week or so in Spain. Then it will be getting on for time to start shipping things home. We haven't even got a Turkish carpet yet!