Hi again,

We arrived last night on the Amalfi coast, in a small town high above the Golfo di Salerno. A short walk from our hotel last night brought us to a spectacular view of the coastline down to the island of Capri, and our hike today will be through the hills and eventually down hundreds of steps to the water. Photos to come.

We were in Rome until mid-day yesterday, spending one day underground and one above ground. The underground day (Sunday) was a visit to two cool sights. One was a church near the Colosseum, built on the foundations of a church from the 300's, which itself was built on buildings from the 100's. So you go one level down to see the original church , and another level down to walk through the original buildings at the original street level, maybe 30 feet below today's ground level. Later that day, we took a bus down the original Via Appia to catacombes, ancient burial sites from before the 300's when Christianity was made legal. The coolness of both places was nice although the weather has not been as hot as usual, so we were not in desperate need of relief. But we could see how they would be popular mid-day diversions on especially hot days.

Monday was our day in Vatican City (new country for us, but no passports required) and St. Peter's. We visited the Vatican Museum and walked some of the 5 miles of exhibit space, ending up in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo and Raphael everywhere. St. Peter's itself was almost incomprehensibly large, and we were amazed at the thought of its actual construction. But even the Colosseum and some of the other buildings from the first few centuries A.D. were astoundingly large.

Otherwise, we wandered the streets, alleys, and piazzas; looked at buildings everywhere that were older than anything at home but just part of the landscape in Rome; and limited ourselves to one gelato per day. Dinners were late, as were bedtimes. One of our restaurants didn't open until 8:30 (we were in the first seating).

So we're now on our short jaunt south of Rome, for hiking today and Pompeii tomorrow, then we head to the north part of Italy for the next week. Hope to write more soon.

P.S. This is Claire: Rome is full of fountains--famous ones like the Trevi fountain, but also little fountains of drinking water on street corners. Potable water continually flows from a pipe into a drain underneath. You can fill up a water bottle there, and if you use your hand to block the end of the pipe, the water shoots out of a smaller hole on top and you can drink as though from a normal water fountain. The picture included is of me discovering exactly how to do that, and getting very wet in the process.