Power Vacation in Italy

I haven’t been posting on the Blog for the last week, because we just did a six day “power vacation” in Italy…

We saw many of the sights in Rome – we went to see the Coliseum, Forum, Arch of Titus, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican, Spanish Steps, etc.  In addition, we visited Florence, Naples, and Capri.  While it was very warm in Italy (the day temperatures were typically in the high 80s), the sights and food were very enjoyable.  You can see some of the snapshots from our vacation below.

The coliseum is always impressive since it is such a large edifice to have survived almost 2000 years of weather, wars, vandalism, and pollution.  Most people don’t realize that the coliseum was financed by the precious metals that were stolen from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, or that it was built by Jewish slaves indentured into servitude.

I’ve spent my share of time in European hotels, but frankly I find it hard to get used to them. We stayed at the International Palace, which is a recently remodeled 4 star hotel on Via Nazionale in the heart of Rome.  To say the least, the rooms are sized for the minimum of use.  Our two rooms (did I mention that I had to pay for two rooms!) were each approx 9’ x 9’, enough for a single queen-sized bed and two night stands.  There wasn’t even enough space for me to layout my garment bag on the floor.