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Date: 15 May 2010 10:57:29
Title: 41 27.303N 012 39.725E Nettuno / Roma, Italy
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Saturday May 1, 2010 Nettuno Italy. Well the weather forecasts are finally working well. Unfortunately it is calling for a two day blow so although we are ready to go, I find myself with plenty of time to do some writing. George's friend from Chicago, Joann, joined us in Amalfi and we all walked over to the American cemetery here in Nettuno.

America has done a super job putting it together. It is like going to a pristine Oasis in the middle of an other wise less than sparkling Italy. Neat tidy and not a blade of grass out of place. I met the superintendent and had a chance to talk with him for about a half hour. He has been here for almost 20 years and works for a special department of the US government... I can't remember which one. Right after the war the remains of almost 22,000 Americans were brought here from all the major Italian / Sicilian campaigns. After shipping many back home for burial about 7,800 remained. The Italian government donated the site for the cemetery ( I suppose we still had about a couple of hundred thousand troops here then) and the US maintains it. Great diagrams and maps of the history of the Italian campaigns also. The superintendent was concerned about an economy push to turn the grounds care over to local contractors... I think I'll also write my congressman (go Cliff) and tell him what a great job we are doing here.

We took the train into Rome the next day for 7.00 Euros, round trip fare including use of the Rome metro system for the day. George and I went to the Coliseum / Forum and Joann and Antony went to the catacombs. Although I had seen the Coliseum before this was my first time actually crawling around in it. It was even better with an architect to feed my techie side. Big and impressive. The forum which is always impressive, had been stripped of most of it's grandeur by centuries of 'pickers' taking whatever could be moved. We all met at the Trevi Fountain and had dinner at a nearby pizza joint.

Antony and I took the train back and Joann and George stayed in the city for a few more hours exploring and setting up a hotel to stage their trip back to the states on the 12 th.

Antony and I went into Rome again two days ago to finalize a place to pull the boat out of the water for the summer. We rented a car at the airport complete with GPS and made for a marina on the Tiber river south of Rome that had been recommend by the owner of the boat store here in Nettuno. He played minor league baseball for the Boston Oriels in Florida and before that played with the Italian Olympic baseball team and spoke good English. He said the Americans had established a little league system here in Nettuno in 1944 that is still active today. Go America. I wonder how you say baseball in Arabic?

I settled for the next marina up the river where the owner who had worked for Halliburton for 30 years spoke great English. We then drove to Ostia Antica, the original port of Roma built under Emperor Claudius. It is spectacular and likely the best 'ruined' Roman city we have yet seen. (lots of mosaics and detail) You can explore into the bushes and find stuff that has not yet been on display and otherwise walk all over everything. It is so big I actually got lost in the side streets - lucky I had bought a map.

Here are a couple more of George's pictures which I can't seem to get in order:

The business end of Mt. Etna - Mt Etna in Sicily is so big it is hard to get a picture of all of it. This is one of the many eruption craters at the top. Last eruption around 2007.

The bigger boat - This is the main harbor in Capri - 200 Euros a night for us to stay there - we anchored on the other side of the island.

So what - The Amalfi coast is pretty spectacular.

Pompeii fresco - A short train ride from Amalfi, Pompeii was buried by an eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. There were about 60,00 people living there then, now there are over 3 million!.

Pipedream anchored - our boat anchored on the south side of Capri. Exposed to the open Med but the weather was good.

Parking the Dingy - a bit of a problem.. they don't have anywhere to put dingies on this side of the island likely to force you to go to the high priced marina. We tied up a restaurant had lunch there, and they let us stay for the day.

Greek temple - Paestum reached from the port of Acropolis is the best Greek ruin in Italy built around the 6th century BC. Very impressive at least as good as the Parathon in Athens...

An idea - Italian school bus - I wonder if this would make a good campaign poster?

Who has the right of way? - My AIS showed this guy going 36 knots. At 4 knots on Pipedream you don't have much time to get out of the way. While at the anchorage in Vulcano there was one in about every 15 minutes during the day.

More later - way too much this time...sorry I got carried away!
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