Megan and Joe

We got back to Rome on Friday around 3:00 and found a hotel near the train station. We didn't have much time in the city so we headed out for a walk and then early dinner. Our walk was thru Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon neighborhood. We had hoped to get some different lighting in the Pantheon this time but it was overcast and a little rainy. It was cool to see the rain coming into the dome. They rope off the area under the dome. Probably so people don't slip and don't block the drain wholes in the floor. We ate at a really good restaurant and had pasta and red wine for our last meal. After that we had the "world famous" gelato suggestion from our guide book. It was ... read more

we are at the sorrento internet bar having italian beers with chris and becca! the italian guys are dancing to nellys song its getting hot in here...its midnight on thursday night. AWESOME! we cant use the card reader since its party time but we will try to post pics tomorrow from rome. we are leaving at some point tomorrow morning (friday) from sorrento to rome. we will fly out from rome on saturday morning and be in chicago saturday around 3pm. joes friend adam is picking us up from the airport and hopefully feeding us some chicago dogs. well be home around 10 on sunday. we are sad the trip is coming to an end but also ready to come home. today we did the cliff hugging amalfi coast drive thru positano up to ravello. positano ... read more

We finished our hike! It is 7 miles long between the 5 (cinque pronunced CHINK-weh) towns. The first two were about an hour to an hour and a half. The third was 45 minutes and the fourth was 20 minutes. We stopped off in each town as well. Favorite town was Vernazza and favorite part of the hike was our start from Monterosso to Vernazza. Joe had a hard time fitting on the trail in some parts. He has actually had trouble fitting most places here! The 2nd hike we did was a little annoying because there were tons of school kids taking the hike in the opposite direction. They were not very polite in letting us go so we had to wait for class by class to pass us. If we kept walking, they would ... read more

We took the train from Florence to Venice and got to Venice around lunch time. It was easy to find our hotel and we left to get a bite to eat. The Rick Steves travel book has been very helpful and we would recommend it. We had heard mixed reviews about Venice so our expectations were low. For those of you that dont know, Venice was man made by driving piers into the clay underneath the ocean in 500 a.d. They did this to escape barbarian attacks. Really amazing. Bad things about Venice--tourists (we cant imagine what it would be like in the hot-high travel season). Smell--the canals arent bad but there are some nasty smells that jump up from the grates in the walk. Sickness--people seem to get sick from the boats and miss the ... read more

On Thursday we drove to Assisi and Cortona. We wanted to do more but Assisi took time to reach and we spent more time there than expected. It was the prettiest town we have seen. Very clean. The balconies of the homes all have flowers and they have a competition once a year for the best front door-balcony. We walked thru the town and made our way to the Basilica of St. Francis. For those of you that dont know, St. Francis taught equality between man, woman and animal thru Gods teachings. He is the Saint in the brown robe and usually has birds around him. The Basilica was really pretty and on the edge of the hill town. His tomb is in the lower Basilica which was amazing to see. Several people make a pilgrimage ... read more