Bella Roma II

Tuesday August 15-Saturday August 19

Tuesday saw a bus, train, train, bus, plane, bus, train, and finally another bus. Nine hours of traveling and only an hour and a half of it in the air!!

But the result was that in the morning I was at home in Freiburg and in the evening I was in a campsite in Rome with Kelso and Alisha (Alisha had come to visit from a few days before). I loved Rome, as I said in my last Rome entry, its a city with a big reputation that manages to live
up to it. Unfortunately it's not as good the second time. When you know what to expect you can't be so easily pleasantly surprised. However, the ability to say a prayer in Saint Peter's Basilica, walk around millenia old ruins, take in amazing the architecture of churches, fountains and bridges, drink from a street fountain and wander cobbled lanes past multi-coloured, faded flaky-painted houses is one unable to be matched by other cities of the world.

Of course much of it I had seen and experienced my last time in Rome in June, however it's not a "been there, done that" city so I was happy to go back. Regardless, the highlight was the parts I had not seen before, especially the catacombs. These were underground tunnels built by the Christian on the outskirts of Rome during times of persecution under the Roman Empire. The tunnels were filled with Christian graves and places of worship and the spirituality and commitment of the early Christians is inspiring. After the Catacombs we took a wander to the longest remaining straight stretch of ancient roman road. Ninety kilometers later and we were ready to head back! Whoa, glad I'm not a Thent-yu-wian! (Welease Woger!)

The weather was beautiful, a little warm if anything, as it was last time in Rome, and it was a nice change from the recently-but-consistently-turned nasty weather in Freiburg. The campsite pool and a couple of cold beers turned out to be a nice respite from the day's heat.

Saturday the group split and while Lish and I took a train to Firenze (4 hours and €15 - not bad!), Kelso flew back to Stuttgart to complete his internship with Bosch. He will return to meet us in Madrid.