All roads lead to Rome

After an early wake-up call and another wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit, cheese, panettone and of course the ever popular cappuccino we headed to our water taxi that was to bring us back to the mainland of Italy to board our waiting coach...( doesn't coach sound so much more elegant/romantic than a tour bus?) funny isn't it how people use such different words and expressions for the same thing. Some other different expressions that come to mind are caravan for travel trailer; lollies for candies; boot and bonnet for the trunk and hood of the car. I know there are quite a few others but none that come to mind right now.
We have left the mountains behind us and are rolling along on fairly flat terrain that is dotted with old buildings, occasional castles, fields of wild poppies, rows of Lombardi poplars and cypress trees and acres and acres of vineyards and apple and pear orchards. Crops in the rolling fields are wheat and maize. We have just crossed the Po river with the Adriatic Sea on our left.
I am trying something a little different today. Trying to blog on the iPad as we drive along and possibly insert the pictures this evening if we have internet....we'll see how that works. At the end of the day by the time we load the pictures from the camera and delete the bad ones and prepare for the next day, I am so tired that I have a hard time to remember everything we have done.

Note:(2 days later)
Obviously the idea of taking notes on the coach has not worked...what a packed 3 days it has been. Two very busy days in Rome included the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus(where the chariots raced...picture Ben Hur), Pantheon (totally mind boggling), the Vatican, Sistine Chapel with Michael Angelo's paintings, St. Peter's Basilica, the Trevi Fountain (yes I threw a coin in!), supper with live opera singers to entertain, and another evening with supper and live local entertainment. Again, I know there is more, but that gives you an idea of how busy we were.

From Rome we went to the Isle Of Capri, Naples, Positano and Sorrento. Wet our feet in the Mediterranean and even took a bit of time to walk the beach and find some sea glass. (the water was a little colder than I expected and a small wave caught me a bit off guard) If you have ever wondered if the Mediterranean is really as blue as what you see in pictures, wonder no more. It is the prettiest blue you will ever see!
The vegetation is wonderful, lemons bigger than grapefruit, cacti as tall as our trees at home, bird of paradise flowers...a feast for the eyes!

Today a morning spent in the original archaeological site of the uncovered city of Pompeii. Totally stunning and so perfectly preserved for so many thousands of years.

Mt. Vesuvius.

We are spending the evening in the hilltop city of Assisi and visited the church of St. Francis today and yes folks for a parting shot I leave you with another bathroom photo. It seems bathrooms and coffee stops have been the biggest topics of conversations among many of us and this has been a first. Toilet stalls with traffic lights and inside the toilets have automatic self covering toilet seats with plastic seat liners. One stop has toilets with no seats ( we have nick named these ones "squatters" and then the next stop with traffic lights and self covering seats...ah Italy!
Tomorrow we are off to Florence!