Odds and ends

Sunlight coming through the oculus at the Pantheon

Wednesday, 11 July, 2012

Well today was Children’s Day part 2.  Though it was a hard thing to do:  come up with things to see that cost little or no money.  We went back to the Pantheon--they wanted to see it again.  Then Annie bought more postcards (yes, that was on the list) and we had to get stamps (we went to the Vatican post office so our postcards will have a Vatican postmark).  Then we went to the little museum in the Victor Emmanuel monument which was also free.  The museum was about all of the wars and revolts in Italy from the early 1800s to today.  The statue of Victor Emmanuel on his horse is supposed to be a big deal, so here's that photo:

Last night Randy and I went for a walk while the children stayed in the apartment.  We stumbled upon a band concert in a small little piazza.  They were playing “Come Back to Sorrento” with a native Italian singing the words in Italian.  Right behind them was the flat front of a church and behind the audience were several curved apartment buildings about one room deep--like elbow macaroni.  Acoustically it was ideal, and my eyes going upward from the musicians, sweeping up the stone church to the stars above and the music in my ears--it was kind of magical.  We’ve gone out walking every night and it is amazing that no matter where you walk, there are people--way past 10:00 even during the week, with lit up ristorantes with sidewalk dining every other block or so, even in the darkest little alleyways.  People are everywhere--it reminds me of Paris--except much hotter--even late at night.  

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Verona (as in Romeo and Juliet) where in the evening we will board a night train for Paris--arriving there in the morning.  We will need to walk with our bags a few blocks to catch the bus to the train station to catch the train for Verona.   They are supposed to have a bag check person there that you can leave your bags with, but you need to be sure to get them before the bag check person leaves at the end of the day or your bags will have to stay there until the next day.  We’ll have to stay on top of that.  We are all beginning to look forward to returning home.