Some cool things happen when you travel. For example, my friend Yonatan was supposed to be in Italy at the same time as me, but we had no way to get in touch about where we were in Italy, so I thought there is no chance I will meet up with him...WRONG! Right in the middle of the train station in Florence is Yonatan walking around with scone in hand.
Continuing on then...we left Florence for Venice where we went to the old government building which is part art museum, part historical museum about the political and judicial life of Venice. We went on the second day to the glass factory on the Island of Glass where the girls continued on to the glass museum and us guys drifted around on the water bus. Here, another incredibly funny event happened. As Steve and I are getting gelato on the main island, we see a Native American troupe playing music in the middle of the square...weird...very out of place, but interesting none-the-less. The second day in Venice also signaled the end of פסח which meant the two people on our trip keeping kosher for Pesach could finally eat bread and drink beer/wine. We caught the overnight train to Naples and so began the second half of the trip.
We arrived in Naples and had a taxi driver with his first day on the job and had no idea where he was going, but eventually we got a train out to Pompeii which was an incredible sight. It is hard to describe in words, but to walk down the streets where so much history happened and so well preserved! There are actually bodies still there, forever frozen in time...absolutely incredible and a must see on any trip to Italy. You need a full day at Pompeii to understand the scale of the disaster there and also to just get through the area (it is massive). The second day we visited Herculaneum where the explosion of Vesuvious also caused extensive damage and burial of nearly the entire city. Again, this is another must see sight in Naples, though it wont take you the whole day, you will need several hours at the very least to enjoy it.
Finally, we ended our trip in Rome. The first day was a tour of the Colosseum and ancient Forum of Rome. The Colosseum is an incredible sight to see, though without a tour there isn't much to derive from it other than just another pile of rocks in a formation. The tour was fantastic with great stories and history. The tour of the Colosseum was immediately followed up by a tour of the Forum and Emperor's palace which is very well preserved, thanks to the Vatican covering it in dirt to literally blot out paganism. The Vatican also "recycled" stones from the Colosseum, the forum, and other ancient Roman buildings in order to build St. Peter's Basilica. The next day was the Vatican tour. The Vatican, with all the money it has, does not have very good metal detectors so we ended up being stuck in line for an hour and a half or so because one of their metal detectors broke down. The Vatican was mainly a massive art museum, but it was beautiful with tapestries, very detailed and accurate map paintings, and ceilings so well painted it actually looked like parts of the ceiling was protruding when it was simply painted flat. All in the perspective!
Each room got more and more detailed and fantastic until finally we ended at the Sistine Chapel. Some great stories about the paintings, but I will fill in those stories another time.
All in all a great trip! Italy is a great place with lots to see!
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