Week One: Italy

Well, the week has flown by! Full of furious touring, magnificent art, and amazing gellato. All in all we are ready to get going to the next country. Italy has been fun but we all agreed one more week here and that carefully planned budget of ours would go right out the window. We spent the first day getting our bearings and wandered down to the Roman Forum. The second day was Florence where we wandered down almost fairy tale streets and saw The David, truly astounding! Every day took shape the night before as we decided on each course as a group. Our teamwork has been easy and although the Pettit's and Janis' clans each have had their own squabbles nothing to speak of :) Day three was the Vatican and we descended upon the heart of the Christian empire with much glee. The complex holds the housing quarters for many of the Catholic faithful as well as the armed guards of the palace, and the Pope, of course. But, the most amazing part of the complex is by far the Vatican museums which hold the masterpieces of many an artist. The complex stretches far and wide and is filled to the brim with tourists. The Transfiguration by Raphael was almost the immediate favorite of our little group. However, the Sistine Chapel left us awestruck and we all tried to savor the few moments we had to gaze at these world famous frescoes. We ended the day with a tour of St. Peter's Basilica, the seat of papal power and the biggest Basilica in the world. Walking around the basilica we came across the tombs of the popes, who each designed their own remembrance. Sculptures of the saints stood tall around us and we made our way to the front where the Catholic's remember the first pope, St. Peter. Here they say Peter lies entombed and so here the rest of the popes wish to be lain as well. The grandeur of the church is to say the least overwhelming, and make Jerusalem's churches and the holiest of them all the Church of the Holy Sepulcher look like its in the sticks. Abby said it was like the super-sized box of french fries. I think I agree with her. Everything is too big, to magnificent, to overwhelming, it seems like they are compensating for something. I wonder what the Apostle Peter would think if he saw myriads of people standing in line to rub the foot of his statue. Anyway, my second trip to the Vatican answered allot questions and provoked new ones. Day four was a little bit of a chill day and off to wander Rome, see the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and wander around. We definitely did our bit of wandering as almost every street we tried to turn down was blocked off by police officers. Pres. Bush was in town and apparently that meant we all need to walk around in circles :) Regardless of the extra man power we all found our way to the spots of interest and then some. We wandered into an anti-Bush/war rally and so we documented it as one more interesting part of our journey. Stephen was excited to see his first protest for peace. However, the poor attendance and overzealous flag wavers soon took the excitement out of the air and left him thinking it was all a bit pathetic. I agreed. Yesterday we drove about two hours down the coast and took the day to wander around the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Abby and Dave were by far the most excited I'd seen them. Pompeii is a city that was preserved for two thousand years when Mt. Vesuvius exploded and covered the city in ash, killing all the inhabitants and preserving the city in close to perfect condition. Besides the rooftops,which have basically fallen in, the ruins are almost perfect. Wandering through you can almost feel the ancient people weaving in and out of the streets going about their daily business. It definitely takes you back. We spend a good five hours wandering the site.

So today is clean up and pack day. The rest of the gang headed to an open air market (I get enough of those in Israel) and I decided to write this epistle to all those out there who would like to read it. There are several photo album documenting our trip at www.evenezer.myphotoalbum.com if any of you are interested in a visual journey. As they say in Italy, Ciao!