Day 9: Today is our last day in Italy. Classically I do not plan the day for our group. It is a free day for them to spend, as they like. We started the day by heading back to the Vatican. We wanted to spend more time in St. Peters. Three thousands of our fellow travelers had the same idea. There was a switch back line that covered the major part if the outside, in the hot sun on St. Peter’s Square. If we had planned in advance we could have reserved entry tickets but we did not. We satisfied the attempt with a few pictures and of the square and consoled ourselves with an Italian lunch of pasta and pizza. Our group got smaller and Laura, Ted, Nancy and I headed to the Borghese Gallery. The

Day 8: Today the group headed to the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. They had downloaded Rick Steves tour of the area and used it as their tour guide. I decided to stay close to home. I have toured the Colosseum and Palatine Hills on each of my previous visits to Rome. My broken toe needed a rest. Our apartment is located at Campo de Fiori. The location is the greatest. There are shops, restaurants, and outdoor markets just outside our door. I reserved the day to explore the area. Chris and Merrill kicked back with me. On their way to the Colosseum, the group ducked in a side door of the "wedding cake". The Wedding Cake represents the unification of Italy. Inside, they found a maritime museum.

Day 7: We continued our tour with another trip outside of Rome. Today we headed to Florence by train. We took the first train out in the morning and a late train back to Rome. This gave us a full day in Florence. One day in Florence is never enough. I called this a “wet your whistle tour.” If the group liked Florence they can plan to return again in their future. This is my second trip to Florence in less than 12 months. I do love the city. We started our day with one of the best stops in Florence, the Galleria dell’ Accademia. We wanted to visit Michelangelo’s David in all of his splendor. I love the unfinished works as well. Each time I visit the Accademia they have added to the exhibit.

Day 6: Today we headed out of Rome for a trip South. We reserved a van and driver to drive us to Pompeii. Our guide met us there and took us on a tour of the Pompeii ruins. Pompeii was a large city that was covered by 20 feet of volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The city was preserved because of the lack of air and moisture that the cover of ash afforded it. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layer that once held bodies. The casts were of the people and animals in the position in which they died. The area is visited by 2.5 million people each year. We had a guide that knew her way around, so we were able to avoid the crowds. We the

Day 5: Today we woke up in Venice. We met our guide for a visit to the highlights of Venice. We headed to St Mark’s Square and into the Doge’s Palace. The Palace was more their “Congress Building, White House & Courts. The building was over the top with one of its rooms to be the largest in Europe and one of its paintings to be the largest in the world. We left the opulent part of the building and descended into the basement prison to see the cells that once held some of Venice’s most famous criminals. We crossed the Bridge of Sighs. It had been given this name because it was the last view of outside world that a prisoner would see as he left the court to be incarcerated in the prison. Venic

Day 4: Today we headed to Venice. Since we are short on days with a long list of places and things we would like do and see, we decided not to check out of our apartment. We left our things in the apartment and packed a backpack with only the things that we would need for an overnight in Venice. Today was a day of buses, trains and boats to get us to our final destination. We took a city bus to the train station and the earliest train to Venice. We got in to Venice for our first vaporetti, Venice’s equivalent to a bus, but is actually a boat. The vaporetti took us on a trip through the Grand Canal. We disembarked at St Mark’s Square and immediately joined our guide on a ferry boat that took

Day 3: Today we decided to scrap the original plans for this day. After the very structured visit to the Vatican yesterday we decided to take it easy. We had planned a trip to Ostia Antica, an area of Roman ruins outside of Rome. We had made plans for this visit before we decided to make a trip to Pompeii. Ted and Laura headed out early for breakfast and ran into two of our patients/friends. What were the chances of that? They were wondering outside on the square trying to find the stop for the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus they had booked. They were invited up to the apartment to say hello. We decided to do the same. We signed on for the very tourist tour on a Hop-on-Hop-Off. We circled the city and

Day 2: Today was dedicated to the Vatican. On Saturdays the Vatican offers a special tour and so on our Saturday, we signed up for this tour. We have tried hard to do each day a little different than the usual and customary tour of Rome. This one was different than my other visits. We started out at the Vatican Museum when it opened. Most of us made a bee-line to the Sistine Chapel before the crowds. We almost had the place to ourselves. We sat back to enjoy the experience. The tour comes with a great audio guide that did a fabulous job of explaining the overwhelming ceiling of art. The tour schedule was very tight timewise. St Peters was not included in the itinerary. We could not leave t

Day 1: We arrived in Rome after an overnight nonstop flight from Atlanta. We went to sleep and woke up in Rome. I love living in Atlanta because it is so easy to leave. That sounds a little odd, but true. This is our annual office trip. Italy was the unanimous choice this year. I love Italy. This is my third visit to Italy in the last 12 months. Each visit can be completely different than each of the previous visits. We hit the ground running, which is my style. We first checked into our apartment. We have rented a five bedroom apartment with the four much needed bathrooms. We will need that many to make sure that we make all the early reservations that we have made for the week. It is in