Today is MUCH better

Greetings from Roma!

Today has been much better than yesterday… much, much better. Last night while we were trying to fall asleep, we were brainstorming ways to get home sooner. Luckily, things worked out better today. Duncan is my hero as he has taken care of navigating all the trains and whatnot.

But let’s start at the beginning.

We left for the Pompeii ruins around 8 am this morning. Visiting Pompeii was one of my dreams- and well worth that honor. We opted to just walk around and explore on our own. It was amazing! See the preserved artwork was astounding! We only spent about three hours there. The Italian heat is a big change from Dublin rain, but the heat is more bearable than the steamy humidity at home. We’ve been drinking lots of water (Mom, you’d be proud).

We made our train for Rome, no problem. It was only a two-hour ride that passed quite pleasantly. Duncan slept half the way.

A shuttle bus picked us up and brought us to the campsite. After dumping our stuff, we immediately hit the pool. Yes, there is a pool here, and it was amazingly refreshing to take a dip. It was quite crowded and a couple was haphazardly hitting a ball around us, but still just grand.

Then we cleaned up a bit and enjoyed an Italian dinner at the restaurant on site- Duncan had pizza and I had lasagna. All was very tasty (and sooooooo much cheaper than Dublin; we both ate for €15)!

We also bought a €2.50 bottle of wine which we plan to drink all of, if possible, tonight so that we don’t have to carry it around tomorrow. But what better way to wait to see the Pope than drinking straight from a bottle of vino? Just kidding, we bought plastic cups… and we’re only drinking as much as we see fit tonight.

But, we’re off to watch the sunset and drink that wine. Thanks for prayers, as I am sure they helped make today go much smoother than yesterday.

Love you all!

Duncan and Whitney

P.S I would like to say this trip has made me less high-maintenance about… a lot. I am no longer a snob to tap water, I’ll take whatever I can get. I am sleeping in a tent, and glad to be… and I didn’t wash my hair this morning. I’m a new woman! ☺

From my last day at work- Helen, me, Fiach and Steve

A view of the Alps from the plane

Pompeii

Duncan at Pompeii

And the darn volcano that did it (Jen, I imagined you up there when I saw it)

Duncan swiping water from Pompeii

A dragon of sorts on the wall

These were some really neat tiles

Gorgeous trees...

A mural we found that seemed to depict the birth of Venus

A really neat mosaic on the floor of a room at Pompeii

One last view of some ruins before we left

Here we are after our dip in the pool outside our humble abode

I'm proving that we're staying in something the length of my armspan

Getting ready to go out for dinner