Italy 2000

Italy 2000

This section of my site includes pictues and a description of my September 19 to October 8 2000 Rick Steves ETBD tour of Italy. This tour followed the route on the map at the right. To skip to the pictures for any point on the tour, click any subject on the map (picture or place name) to go directly to that subject, or click the start button below to start from the beginning.

I also have some pictures that were shared with me by other tour members:

The pictures included here are all pictures taken on this tour, there are no postcard or other pictures.

Italy 2000 - Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door Best of Italy tour

Our Guide

Our guide for this tour was Ferdinando Menghi ("Ferdi"). Since he wasn't a name I was familiar with from Rick's literature, I wasn't sure if I was getting one of Rick's best guides. These fears were quickly put to rest. Ferdi did a great job, and was both informative and entertaining, and I'd recommend him to anyone else considering this tour. Ferdi is a native Belgian, who's been a coal miner, then became a bus driver for Heidebloem, the company that provides most of the buses for Rick's tours. He's pretty active, also traveling other parts of the world, and talented, for example I learned he's also an accomplished scuba diver. He got such good reviews as a bus driver on Rick's tours that he was hired by Rick as a guide. While young, he spent summers in Italy with relatives, so he speaks good Italian and understands the culture. His talents help him to find interesting things to include in the tour, my tour included the first ever visit to a cooking school by any of Rick Steves' Italy tours.

Our tour group at a stop along the Dolomite Road

Journal: Here are some short notes I made about the tour:

by Gary Strait

What follows are a few short notes about each of my days on the tour. These are notes I originally wrote to my sister, who has been to Italy numerous times. She gave me advice on things to see and do, especially in Florence, which she's visited the most.

Day 1 (The trip over)

The flight was an hour late taking off, the plane wasn't even at the gate until quite a while after the scheduled departure time. The food was good, but Alitalia doesn't provide much in the way of snacks or drinks between meals. I saw other people who had brought their own bottled water (I brought some too on the return flight). This brought me in to Milan/Malpensa later than planned, and they were slow about getting the luggage off the plane, so it was late when I left the airport, and I didn't finally arrive at my hotel until 5:30 PM, after a 1 hour bus ride and a 1 hour train ride, and a long wait between the bus and train. The rest of our group was already gathered for their 5:00 introductory meeting. It was also somewhat rainy late in the day. After our initial group meeting I went out to dinner with a few tour members that I had just met, then went back to get some sleep (I was exhausted due to the long trip and jet lag).

Day 2 (Varenna on Lake Como)

I got up late because I didn't set my alarm (watch) correctly, and it didn't go off. I also had all the shutters on my window closed, so it didn't even get light in the room in the morning. After rushing down to get breakfast before they closed, and then finally taking a mid-morning shower (my first since leaving home), I finally set off to start sightseeing late in the morning (this was a day when we were free to do what we wanted, with boat passes for the nearby towns). After a bit of walking around town, I hiked up to the castle above the town. I then did the boat ride to 2 other nearby towns, and came back for some more hiking. I went past a cemetery to the source of the shortest river in Italy (Lattefiume), which comes out of a cave and runs down the hill into the lake. It only runs "during the summer", but was running when I was there only because they had a pump house pumping water up to the top! (None was coming out of the cave). By this time, I had to duck thunderstorms on my way back to the hotel. We had dinner together in the hotel, with thunderstorms outside, and the lights went out briefly during dinner.

Day 3 (to Dolomites via Verona)

We left first thing in the morning on our tour bus with some discussion and the obligatory playing of a song about Belgians (our bus driver and guide are both Belgian), and after our first of many stops at Autostrada rest stops (Autogrill), we stopped at Verona for lunch and to see the town and Roman colosseum. I just ate a quick Olivia Panini for lunch to save time (lunch was on us), in fact I was still finishing it as the group reassembled to get back on the bus. We then continued to our hotel high in the Dolomites, up a lot of crooked and narrow roads after leaving the autostrada north of Bolzano (this region of Italy is formerly part of Austria, still German speaking, and still looks more like Austria). Dinner was with our group at our hotel.

Day 4 (Dolomites)

This morning we went back to Bolzano (which we passed the afternoon before) to see the Ice man museum (the 5000 year old body they found back around 1991). I also ate lunch there (Gnocci in broth). We then went back and started a hike (3 hours at least) with most of our group. A few opted to go with our bus driver back to the hotel, but almost everyone did the hike (actually, a few also skipped the trip to Bolzano to do a full day of hiking). We had nice clear weather for the hike, perfect temperatures, and great views. Dinner was with our group at our hotel, and this is where we did our "buddy introductions", and also some got to try "diesel", similar to grappa elsewhere in Italy, and to aquavit that we tried in Denmark on my Scandinavia tour.

Day 5 (Dolomite Road to Venice)

We left first thing in the morning, and took about all day getting to Venice. It was a long drive through crooked, scenic mountain roads, with a stop for a picnic lunch (sandwiches), and final arrival by private boat to near St. Marks square, where we walked the rest of the way to our hotel. We also had a short introductory walk through St. Marks square with our guide (who isn't allowed to guide in many places like this, Italian law requires they hire a licensed local guide - while we did hire a local guide here and many other places for 1 to 2 hour talks, there's still lots of other times where additional talks are helpful, and Ferdi did his best to fill in, in fact, I liked his talks better than some of those done by the licensed local guides). We met for dinner near our hotel, where most of us had assorted seafoods, and a little birthday party for Megan, the youngest girl in our group who just turned 23. Several rose vendors came through the restaurant, and she ended up with several roses. Our guide also gave her a little doll of a guy in Lederhosen who yodeled when you squeezed him. After dinner we went out for a night Gondola ride with about 5 gondolas, 6 people per gondola. One of them included an accordion player and singer, and one of the songs once we got the gondolas together in the grand canal was happy birthday in Italian, and Megan ended up with a kiss from the gondolier. The other songs were of course traditional Italian/Venetian songs.

Day 6 (Venice)

We began today with a guided tour by a local guide (Elizabeth, who also appears in one of Rick Steves' TV shows about Venice) who led us from our hotel to the Rialto bridge, with various stops and discussions along the way. Our own guide then led most of us back to St. Marks square for a glassblowing demonstration. We were then set free for the rest of the day. I went into the Doge Palace, went to the top of the Campanile (bell tower on St. Marks Square), and went through other museums on St. Marks square that were included on my Doge admission (I thought I'd just take a quick peek, but due to their one-way layout, I ended up going through more than I intended and wasting too much time, so I didn't make it into the church). I also wandered the town, rode a Vaporetto between the train station and St. Marks, rode a traghetto and visited Santa Maria Della Salute (across the canal from St. Marks). I visited San Zanipolo with our local guide, and San Francesco della Vigna on my own (two churches I'd heard about and wanted to see). I saw two Internet Cafes here, but didn't use either one (I did see Megan in one while I was passing by). I had a nice dinner a couple of blocks behind the Doge palace, on our canal to hotel route.

Day 7 (Ravenna and Florence)

We left Venice first thing in the morning (after noticing our tour bus was parked next to another Rick Steves tour bus) and drove south along the coast for Ravenna to see its mosaics in some old churches, a newer one with the best mosaics, and an older one with Alabaster windows (with another local guide - a German woman whose name I forgot). They were by far the best mosaics I've seen anywere. We also ate lunch in Ravenna (I had pizza at a fast - food type place, again to save time, I tend to opt for quick meals to allow additional sightseeing time, some others preferred slower, more leisurely meals), and some gelato, and saw a few other things like Dante's tomb. We then got back on the bus for the trip into Florence, where we were dropped off near the train station to walk the last couple of blocks down narrow streets to our hotel. Our guide said it was a nice 3-star hotel, but the sign inside the door of mine said 2-star, and while it had some nice public spaces, the rooms seemed relatively basic to me (mine had a TV, but no bathroom - that was down the hall). It was only about a 2 minute walk from an Internet Cafe ("Your Virutal Office") that quite a few members of our group, including our guide, used (I was there twice, on our arrival day and again our 2nd day, where I set up a Yahoo account for mail for the trip). At one point nearly half the computers in the place were in use by our group - everyone but one couple on our tour are email users, and I joined them to do my first-ever mid-vacation email to friends and family, a convenient way to exchange messages back home, faster (if I send the same message to everyone) than phone calls, and much more immediate than postcards. I actually got several responses back to my emails that I received the next day or at another email stop in Siena. This evening, our group ate dinner together then went for gelato together.

Day 8 (Florence)

We started by going as a group to the Accademia, but the line was so long, we decided to go back later in the day. We then walked over to the Duomo where our guide talked to us a little about the bronze doors on the baptistry, the church, etc. We were then set free with a meeting time later in the day for the Accademia and late afternoon tour of the Uffizi. I headed for the dome of the Duomo, and got in quickly since the line was short (later in the day, I noticed that it was much longer). Some other members of our tour climbed Giotto's tower. After the dome, I toured the inside of the church. I also went in the cathedral museum behind the duomo, wandered the area around the Uffizi and bridge over the Arno, visited Santa Croce, and saw the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, etc., and located I'cché C'é C'é for lunch. I had a first course of spaghetti, a second course of Salmon, and some kind of lemon cake or pie for dessert. I also showed the waitress the picture of you and Rob with Gino, Mario, etc. She liked it, and soon Gino stopped by to talk briefly (he was still busy with cooking, so we didn't talk long, but said you were in love with Florence, and also asked when you'd be back). I didn't see Mario at either lunch or dinner, and didn't get to ask where he was. Gino liked the picture I made with my photo printer and wanted to know if he could keep it, so I left it with him. I don't know who the other people working there were (I didn't ask names). They said your picture was old (and I could tell, since Gino's hair, especially his moustache, is now turning grey). I could tell it was a good restaurant, because most of the people there seemed to be either local people who knew Gino by name, or people who came there on recommendations (at dinner, I sat next to some people from Arizona who were also there because a relative recommended it to them). My dinner was I think the best of the whole trip, and also the most expensive (I ordered quite a few things, and asked for a recommendation of what's good, instead of just picking something from the menu, that's how I ended up with the sea bass). The sea bass was good, and I liked how it was served (brought as a whole fish, and then the waiter removed the meat from the bones for me). I'cché C'é C'é was definitely a good recommendation. I didn't get much chance to talk to Gino at dinner either, since I arrived at opening time and he was still pretty busy in the kitchen when I finished eating, so I didn't hang around waiting for the cooking to end. I never figured out what Gelato place you meant for your favorite, though. This afternoon, we gathered back at the Accademia, and after waiting in line, got in and saw David and the rest of the museum (our guide managed talk to us there, even though again he wasn't supposed to). We then walked to the Uffizi for our guided tour with our official local guide from England. Like many of the local guides, she new her facts well, but was harder to hear and understand and not as entertaining as Ferdi. Most of our group followed our guide to an optional (not paid for by the tour) dinner across the river, but as I describe above, I went back to I'cché C'é C'é.

Day 9 (Florence, Pisa, Vernazza)

We had a few free hours in the morning before our 11:00 AM departue (too early for another lunch in Florence). I went with David and Barbara to the Science Museum and saw lots of interesting stuff (Galileo's finger, his telescopes, inclined planes, etc.) We then left for Pisa. After a stop for lunch at an Autostrada Autogrill (which also had another Rick Steves tour bus stopped at the same time, on their way from Vernazza - the tour 2 days ahead of ours heading in the opposite direction, we met a few of the tour members in the restaurant), we we stopped at Pisa. I didn't get into the church or baptistry (I might have, but our stop was kind of short, and they hid the ticket offices way off to the side so I couldn't figure out how to get in right away). After this, we continued toward Vernazza, and then had problems with the bus (the fan bearing failed, and the bus started to overheat), so we stopped at an autostrada exit. By this time, our guide and driver had already summoned another Rick Steves tour bus from Florence to come to our rescue via cell phone (the bus belonged to a Best of Europe tour that was spending the day in Florence). It was while we were broken down at the toll booth that I made my birthday phone call home (we were conveniently stranded by a pay phone, I didn't explain where I was calling from). It took about an hour and a half for the rescue bus to arrive, then we rode in it to accompany our broken bus to a nearby Volvo repair place, and picked up our driver for the trip to our hotel. We then went on the borrowed bus to La Spezia, instead of our planned transfer point (to make it easier for the borrowed bus to get back to Florence) for the train into Vernazza. It was dark when we arrived, and we climbed to our hotel at the top of the hill to the right of the harbor, then ate dinner together on a nice terrace overlooking the ocean (should have been a sunset view, but due to our later than planned arrival, it was dark already).

Day 10 (Cinque Terre)

Today was hiking day. I set out with 3 other tour members to hike north to Monterosso. We stayed there a while (meeting up with another tour member for lunch), then got on the boat to the southernmost of the 5 towns (Riomaggiore). Getting off the boat, we met other members of our tour getting on (they had hiked the other direction). We then began our hike north. Two people got on the train at Corniglia, and I and one other person hiked all the way back to Vernazza. I believe Paula and I were the only 2 to hike all 5 towns. By then it was getting near dinner time, and I was tired, otherwise I might have tried swimming in the Mediterranean. We ate dinner together at a restaurant on the harbor square, and watched masons finishing new decorative paving in front of the church with the year spelled out in Roman numerals in stone: MM.

Day 11 (San Gimignano)

We left Vernazza after going out for breakfast (this hotel didn't serve breakfast, so we had to go and get it elsewere). We left Vernazza by train (which was maybe 30 minutes late) to meet our bus (now repaired) for the trip to Siena. The road out was very narrow and crooked, and hard for our bus to get through when we met oncoming traffic. Ferdi got to show off his Italian skills and considerable knowledge of Italian hand gestures getting into arguments with other drivers when we got into tight spots (some other driver apparently asked him what we were doing in here with this big bus), and we got to watch trucks slowly creep past with just inches separating us. Raymond did a really good job too, driving our bus very skillfully in these difficult conditions. The first stop was our familiar Autogrill restaurant along the Autostrada (the same one we stopped at two days before). We then continued to San Gimignano for a stop of an hour or so. This is a town with lots of old medieval towers, I went into the church in the center of town, and up to the castle above the town for the view. This is also where I got my best gelato, on the square in the center of town our guide pointed out an award-winning gelateria. Inside, they had various trophies and things they had won for their gelato. It had chunks of real fruit, or chocolate, or flavor in most of them... I liked it so much I went back for a second cone to try some more flavors. We then left early because it looked like a thunderstorm was moving in, and continued our drive to Siena. We arrived, put our bags in a van, and walked to our hotel where we were met again by the van to unload. This was our night to visit the cooking school, and we were late, so we immediately got on a small bus (and more in a van) to go to the cooking school, which was in the countryside quite a ways outside town. Their cooks actually did most of the work, but we watched and helped some (mostly with stirring, and putting the food on the plates). We cooked various seafoods, including octopus, squid, sea bass, tuna, and I don't even remember what else (I have the menu at home), and risotto, and some kind of an apple dish for dessert. Oh, and we used lots of olive oil. It was all good, and was really too much to eat. We then went back to our hotel for the night.

Day 12 (Siena)

We started out this morning with a walk around the town with a local guide, stopping at a few squares, going into the Duomo, and visiting Il Campo where the Palio is held (the Palio is a horse race around the square). I saw a movie about the Palio later in the day. There was also a surprise today, when while visiting the Baptistry of the Duomo I was met by someone I used to work with! We just happened to run into each other, neither of us knew the other was going to be there. Today was a rainy day, especially in the afternoon, I ate lunch under an awning in front of a restaurant on Il Campo with a few other members of my tour, and got kind of damp because it was raining so hard and the wind was blowing the rain around some. Later in the afternoon I got laughed at by a few members of my tour when I came walking back to our hotel in the rain eating gelato. I also walked around town, visited the church of San Domenico where I saw Saint Catherine's head and her finger on display in a glass case (her body is in a church I visited in Rome on the last day of the tour). I went into the cathedral museum, the best part of which was climbing on top of the wall of the uncompleted addition to the Cathedral, which had a good view. You wouldn't have liked it up here, it was not a good place if you're afraid of heights, because you're on top of this wall with only low walls on both sides, and it was also crowded. From here I could see people at the very top of the tower by Il Campo, that looked even more scary because they were standing on a platform completely above all the stone work, under the bell. This was another place I found an Internet cafe and did some email during the rainy weather. I spotted a restaurant sign with Wild Boar, but ended up eating with other members of our tour at a restaurant that didn't have this on the menu. Instead, I had a beef steak, which turned out to be huge, hanging off the edges of the plate. This was in addition to appetizers and I think soup if I remember right. We walked around after dark (the rain had stopped), and saw preparations by one of the contradas for a celebration the next day (the district of the town that had won the last Palio). The day wasn't over, even after going to bed. There was a group of girls doing a bachelorette party that we saw earlier in the evening walking through the town singing and making a lot of noise. They spent hours doing this, we saw them a couple of times while we were out. Around 1:00 AM they decided to stop underneath the windows of the back of our hotel, and while continuing to sing Jingle Bells and I Want to Teach the World to Sing (in Italian), they filled the street with ground-up styrofoam.

Day 13 (Assisi)

We left Siena early, sending our luggage back to the bus by van and walking to a bus stop outside the town wall. We then drove to Assisi, stopping first at the Santa Maria degli Angeli church below the town. This big church is built over the little original Porzinucola Chapel (St. Francis' original church), which sits right in the center of the floor. Again, it was raining a little. We then continued up to Assisi, which was extremely crowded when we first arrived, it took us a while just to get parked, then we walked up the hill to the Basilica of St. Francis among a large crowd of people some carrying crosses, etc., and there were also some people dressed as St. Francis, one speaking to the people passing by. The Basilica itself was so crowded it was hard to get in and see everything. There were lines waiting to get down into the tomb, etc. It was some kind of special day with lots of people visiting for religeous reasons. It was a Sunday, but still I think this was more than your typical Sunday services. Our guide said he had never seen Assisi so crowded. Later it cleared out and wasn't so hard to get around. The upper Basilica had been basically restored following the 1987 earthquake, but some areas of frescoes were repaired with plain white patches. Most of the frescoes were still there (either original or restored, I don't know how much restoration they had done). I also walked around the town, visiting other churches. Santa Chiara was closed, covered by scaffolding, and engulfed in fog. I went into San Rufino, around the Roman Arena, and out to the Porta Perlici for the view. I also visited the Temple of Minerva in the center. I grabbed a quick lunch of Pizza slices at a take-out place. We left as another thunderstorm appeared to be approaching. We then went to our hotel, Agriturismo Le Cassette, out in the countryside on a farm. We played Bocce ball on an official Bocce court (this court even had lights for playing at night), and I looked around a little at their Olive and Walnut trees, there were also grapes. Dinner was included in their dining room, a nice room in the basement they told us had been converted from a cow stable.

Day 14 (Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio)

We left in the morning heading first to Civita di Bagnoregio, stopping first at a scenic outlook in front of a church with Civita visible across the valley. This is where we lined up people and cameras for our official group picture, but the camera person (our assistant tour guide) didn't get the picture with my camera (didn't push the button all the way down, I suspect). But I do have that other group picture only a few of us got in the Dolomites, and I got a copy of a group picture from this spot later as a Christmas card from the same assistant tour guide). We then continued to Civita itself, having to walk through the new town first before crossing the bridge to Civita. I walked through the town, down and through the tunnel under the town, and visited Maria's garden, and Vittoria's olive presses. Our guide took us back here for Bruschetta, we each got 2 different pieces with garlic and olive oil, and another with a kind of olive paste (kind of like peanut butter made from olives). This is where I could have tried truffle Bruschetta. They didn't have enough truffle for everybody, but offered it for L.5000 to anyone who wanted it (only a couple did, I didn't because I had already had 2 pieces of Bruschetta, but maybe should have anyway). I also got some gelato in this town. We then went back to the bus (a few took a city bus to avoid the walk up the hill), getting back to the bus just as it started to rain (getting to notice the weather being pretty rainy)? We then went to Tenuta Le Velette, a winery outside Orvieto (we never actually went into Orvieto). It was pouring rain at least part of the time we were here. First, they (Cecelia) took us into their cellars, one under the house (entry through the kitchen) was very old, I forget how old, but I think easily 1000 years. It was full of old aging bottles of wine, we were given 3 25 year old bottles to drink that evening (it was OK, but not great - they said you can never be sure what you're going to get with wine this old, the 3 bottles of the same wine actually varied from each other). We then visited another cellar which they had recently excavated, finding it contained an early Christian altar from post-Roman times (hid here before Christianity was fully accepted). This cellar was full of wine barrels. We also saw them bring grapes into the modern press, went through their warehouse, and then went for our wine tasting. We had snacks to accompany about 4 different wines. I bought 2, and a bottle of olive oil here (Gerald got the wine, I had some when they had me up for dinner to see my pictures). I got one white wine and one sweet dessert wine. It was then past Orvieto back to our agriturismo hotel to play Bocce again. Dinner was included again, made partly with things from the farm, and we also tried the 25 year old wine.

Day 15 (Pompeii)

We left the agriturismo place first thing in the morning, and were soon on the autostrada headed south to Sorrento with a stop on the way at Pompeii. After a few hours, and another stop at an autostrada Autogrill rest stop (these were getting pretty familiar by now), we passed Naples and Mt. Vesuvius (the city and its suburbs go right up to the base of the volcano) and continued south a bit further before arriving at Pompeii (which is actually further from Vesuvius than much modern development). By here it was becoming obvious that southern Italy is different from the north... We saw people selling things to cars stopped at traffic lights, as soon as we got off the bus there were people coming up to us trying to sell us guide books, tour guides offering their services to us, etc. Kind of like walking through the latin quarter of Paris at dinner time. The local guide our guide wanted to use wasn't on time when we arrived, so we entered the site without him and were met soon after by him. He actually was a very entertaining guide, and the best of any of the local guides we had anywhere, interesting and entertaining, like Father Guido Sarducci of Saturday Night Live. We spent a few hours in Pompeii, including a lunch stop at a restaurant in the middle of the old city. The outdoor tables were watched by several stray dogs (yes, inside the Pompeii site) that waited for scraps dropped by people. This is a place that I could have spent all day. There are a lot of interesting things to see here. Herculaneum, nearby, also sounds interesting. After leaving, we continued to our hotel in Sorrento, a long slow drive on overcrowded streets where your Boston driving skills would be really put to the test. Our guide sat in the front of the bus making bets on whether drivers entering from side streets were going to cut us off or not. The final turn to our hotel was onto a street with a "no buses" sign, but we went anyway. The hotel was an older place, not quite in perfect condition, but with a beautiful scenic overlook right at the top of a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples, and a 10-minute walk from the town center. Our dinner this evening was with the group, on the terrace outside our hotel with a nice view of the sunset. We stayed 2 nights in this hotel.

Day 16 (Sorrento)

Today was the slowest day of the tour.

Our guide recommended against making a day trip into Naples, he said there was too much trouble in the city and the army was in there trying to clean things up. Naples supposedly has very high unemployment. With that introduction nobody requested to go, so the guide got out of taking anyone in there.

Some people went on a boat to the island of Capri, but since it was a rainy day, I decided not to bother, and stayed around Sorrento for the day. Some people on our tour did go to Capri, and weren't that impressed, it was crowded both on the boat and on Capri. I didn't hear if anyone got into the famous Blue Grotto on Capri, but I didn't think it would be so good in the rain, which is partly why I didn't take the boat out there. One person in our group took a bus to Positano for the day. I hiked out to the remains of an old Roman fort at the end of the peninsula, looked over the town, including finding a band playing and looking over the harbor. Lunch and dinner were on our own today, I had lunch at a Pizza place recommended by our guide (I believe I had a calzone), and dinner at a fancy restaurant that one of our tour members had a recommendation for from from someone they knew. It was a good place (Il Mulino), complete with live music. There was another tour group inside having their final dinner. It was a bigger group than ours, with only one guide, and it sounded like the guide was worn out. The guide, from Milan, was sitting apart from the rest of the group on an upper level, where we were also seated. The whole group was from Texarkana, with heavy southern accents. The guide announced the schedule for the next day: Wake up call at 4:00 AM, be in the lobby with your bags at 4:15 AM, and in the town square on the bus at 4:30 AM. Breakfast would be served on the bus. The bus was taking the whole group to the Naples airport for their return flight. After dinner we joined our group for a musical at a theatre, an optional extra-cost activity arranged by our guide. I think everyone in our group opted to attend. This, and the gondola ride in Venice, were about the only things we did as a group that weren't paid for by the tour.

Day 17 (Amalfi Coast and Paestum)

This morning we departed on a special smaller bus for the Amalfi coast drive, our regular bus met us in Paestum at our next hotel. We spent several hours driving along the scenic Amalfi coast, past the homes of the rich and famous. The road was crooked, winding along the steep hillside through towns built onto the slopes. We got through pretty easily, but during the busiest season in the summer the traffic jams can get pretty bad, buses especially have problems when they meet at sharp turns. We stopped briefly by Positano, and had a longer stop in Amalfi where we visited a church and some of us got gelato (me included). We then continued through the rest of the Amalfi coast road, past Salerno, finally leaving the hillside and traveling through flat land covered with an amazing amount of litter before arriving at our hotel in Paestum. We visited the ancient buildings (3 greek temples, plus remains of a newer Roman city built around it). We also spent another hour in an adjoining museum with another local guide that our guide made a deal with. I also got more gelato here. Lunch and dinner were both at our hotel here (before and after our visit to the site and museum). A few people went in the pool at our hotel, but I stayed too long at the museum. Lunch included fresh Mozzarella di Bufala from the hotel owner's farm. Note: I believe Paestum is being removed from the 2001 tour to allow more time in Rome.

Day 18 (To Rome, the Vatican)

First thing this morning, we headed to the Mozzarella farm owned by the owner of our hotel. We saw the water buffalo that they get milk from for their Mozzarella di Bufala, and we waited while they finished making the morning's batch of fresh Mozzarella so some of our tour members could buy some. We then left for our drive to Rome. We stopped at 2 more Autogrills along the autostrada, one for a rest stop, and another for lunch (where I had some of that fresh Mozzarella) before paying our tour bus tax and entering Rome. After being dropped at our hotel and saying goodbye to our bus, we headed for the subway to go to the Vatican. This was later described as the next best thing to bungee jumping. We waited quite a while for a train to show up, and by the time one arrived there were a lot of other people waiting, and the arriving train was already full. The only way on was by pushing and shoving your way in, it was so packed you could hardly move. It was here that pickpockets hit one of our tour members, and they lost their wallet. Our assistant tour guide also had their pack partly opened, but nothing taken. This despite being warned in advance to be on guard for pickpockets. This kind of pushing and shoving makes it easy for pickpockets to work unnoticed. Getting back off required more pushing and shoving, because the train was still full at the Vatican stop. We then had a short walk to the Vatican where we entered after passing through security even better than what they have at airports (metal detectors, X-ray machines, etc.). We had a quick guided tour of the Vatican museum (by the time we arrived it was already mid-afternoon), visited the Sistine Chapel until closing time (4:00 PM), then went to St. Peters where I visited the catacombs and climbed to the top of the dome. After some more time in St. Peter's square (our tour guide talked to the Swiss Guards and got tickets for those members of our group who stayed in Rome past the end of the tour to come back and see the Pope talk to the visitors in the square), we got taxis to Piazza Navona. Since it had started to rain, taxis were scarce (when it rains everyone wants a taxi) and we had to wait a while to get going. We split up for dinner (I ate with some tour members and our guides at an outside table on one of the streets leading into the piazza), we then met again and most of us got Tartufo at the place you recommended. By this time it was dark. We then continued on foot to the Pantheon, then the Trevi Fountain, then back to our hotel on foot.

Day 19 (Rome)

This morning we were given an option: take the subway again (paid for by the tour), or take taxis (on our own) to the Colosseum and Forum. Most (including me, and the person who lost their wallet the day before) took the subway. It was less crowded this time, and our guide did a good job of fending off a group of teenagers who were hanging out in the station and approached us as we boarded the subway. No more losses on this trip. We gathered our group back together and entered the Colosseum, where our guide gave us a good talk, even though like other places he's required to hire a local guide to do the talking. He also talked to us in the forum, and wasn't challenged by anyone to stop. After passing by some other things like Trajan's forum, and some more recent excavations to the forum, we left by the monument to Victor Emmanuel II and walked back to the Pantheon. After a discussion by our guide, we were set free for lunch and to do what we wanted for the afternoon until meeting for our final dinner that evening. I visited the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, and would have gone into San Ignazio to see the famous dome painted on a flat ceiling, but it was closed for siesta. After a quick sandwich near our hotel, I visited the spanish steps, Cappuccin crypt, and the National Museum near the train station before returning to the hotel to meet our group going out to dinner. After dinner, I went back to the hotel to pack for my early departure the next morning.

Day 20 (Return Home)

I got up around 6:00 to get ready to leave, having a quick breakfast at our hotel at 7:00 (breakfast start time) before taking a 7:15 taxi to the airport. I could also have gone by train, but our guides matched us up in groups leaving around the same time to share taxis to the airport. The taxi was L95,000 (extra charge for Sunday), but was quick since there was practically no traffic at that early hour on a Sunday, and was also fast because our driver was going nearly 100 MPH on the highway to the airport. He wasn't really that crazy like people told me Rome's taxi drivers would be (after getting used to the Autobahn in Germany, 100 MPH really doesn't seem crazy, it's only crazy if everyone else is doing 55 MPH). At least our driver stopped and waited for red lights, even when the intersections were empty, but we did see some other drivers who didn't. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. The airport was nice, and the plane was nearly on time taking off. Like the flight over, Alitalia's food was good, but drink and snack service between meals was pretty scarce, this time I brought water and a candy bar with me, and finished them both by the time I got home.

Our Bus It was a nice, but cold, day when I got back (much colder than when I left), and Gerald was there waiting to pick me up when I got back to the train station. I ate a quick meal and got to bed early, and was right back at work early the next morning.

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