Jeff and Reiter in Europe 2013

Woke up at 6, ate a quick breakfast, and ran to catch a train to the Vatican.  Got there at 7:45, and there was nobody there, no line.  Fantastic.  St. Peters Square is just how you see it in the movies, but a bit smaller than I thought. St. Peter's Basilica is where it's at. St. Peter's Basilica is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.  It completely and utterly dwarfs all other Cathedrals in size and splendor.  It's hard to keep it all in scale until you look around at how small all us mortals look in comparison. Each of the hundred or so statues are as big or bigger than the David, perhaps 15 feet tall.  They each have a majestic and artistic splendor that equals or exceeds the David.  It's breathtaking.  The Cherubs that circle over some statues are bigger than me. The central altar for Peter, as well as the back design, are incredible.  Somehow they are extremely different from all other Christian wor...

Great day but bad headache, so I shall make this brief. Woke up at 7 to catch bus to train to metro to Pompeii.  Once there, got audio guides. Pompeii is utterly fantastic.  It is huge. The most destroyed stuff still maintains shape, while the preserved stuff has frescoes, fountains, paint, and statues.  We saw an amphitheater, two theaters, a necropolis, a brothel, several houses, the forum, a temple, two baths, the wall, roads, plumbing, and much much more. The audio guide was amazing - perhaps 80 or 90 separate sections averaging 3 minutes each.  Easily enough that we could have gone for  2 days and not seen it all.  Narration was great and the facts both interesting and informative.  When the eruption happened, two meters deep or pumice fell, then two meters of ash.  That's about 13 feet! The detail on the flash-ashed guys is amazing. You can clearly see sandals, toenails, and folds of clothes. Stray dogs ...

Today was a pretty easy day, in part due to general exhaustion and in part due to Jupiter. We had planned on waking up at 8 and making our way to the colosseum.  However, we woke up shortly before 8 to the sounds of one of the most torrential and intense thunderstorms I have ever seen.  The thunder was so frequent at first that I assumed it was the constant sound of cars or machinery.  We checked the weather.  Strong thunderstorm all day, then rain for the rest of the week. We immediately knew we couldn't go out in this, but seized upon the chance to sleep in!  We slept until about 10:30, then got up.  Our B&B guy made us an excellent b-fast: bread, prosciutto, cheese, fruit, cereal, milk, tea, coffee, etc... The rain died down to a drizzle, and we decided to head out anyway.  We got to the colosseum, which was very interesting. They had trap doors and everything to bring bears and trees up from the floor!  I...