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I am only posting 3 pages of layouts here but there are 4 more pages in my gallery (very bad photos of the pages) which have the insert pages with photos – the journaling at the bottom of this description goes with those pages.
Saturday, April 20th – It really felt great to be back in Naples. I enjoyed it when we were in Italy in 2009 but I didn't realize how much I fell in love with Italy until I saw the old city walls! The old ruins and ancient architecture were my favorite things about Italy before and those were the things that drew me into the allure of Italy again as soon as we were off the ship.
We purchased a round trip ticket (red ticket) to get from the ship to one of the squares in Livorno.
Once we were in the square we bought a bus ticket (Spazio Riservato Per La Pubblicita on them). We got off the bus at the train station and had a 20 minute train ride to the train station in Pisa (large tickets).From the train station in Pisa we took another bus a very short distance (CPT tickets) which dropped us off at the gates to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
As we got off the bus and started walking to the gates we could see the famous tower peaking through the arches. It literally took my breath away - this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments that you never forget! Once we went under the arch all I could do for the first few minutes was stand there and stare. The tower was so much more beautiful and ornate than I ever imagined it would be.
We spent several hours walking around the base of the tower and through the courtyard cemetery and the big church in the complex. I don't have the words to describe what that was like!
The McDonalds Bathroom Nazi
When we walked away from the complex to the bus stop there was a McDonald's right outside the wall of Pisa so we found a park bench and grabbed a Coke and fries and ate the sandwiches we brought with us from the ship. When we got through eating I told Bill that we had both better make a bathroom stop. Every other bathroom between Pisa and the ship cost 1 Euro to enter (even at both train stations) so it was ‘make a stop here' or wait an hour and a half to get back to the ship.
Bill threw our trash in the garbage can on the way to the bathrooms, including our receipt. Who would think to hold on to a McDonald's receipt after eating? When we went to the bathrooms we found that the men and women's hand-washing stations were together and shared the same sinks.
To the right of the hand-washing area was the women's room with two toilet stalls and to the left was the men's room with two toilet stalls. The stall areas were not visible from one bathroom to the other but people standing to get into the stalls were could be seen from one bathroom to the other.
Even more odd – next to each of the stall doors was a combination key pad! There was a small sign that said, “For customer's purchasing food only”. To enter you must key in the code on your McDonald's receipt. Okay, except – we had thrown our receipts away!
Bill could see me waiting to go into a stall and yelled to me, “The code is E-1”.
Someone came out of the 1st stall and I started to punch the number in but the bathroom attendant demanded to see my receipt. I tried to explain I no longer had it but she didn't care - she told me I couldn't go in.
The attendant went into the 1st stall to check it and clean it if necessary (she did that every time someone came out of one of the stalls). While she was busy for a few minutes someone came out of the other stall and held the door open for me.
I felt like I was sneaking in somewhere but we really did buy food and throw our receipt away.
Then I met Bill in the middle of the two restrooms where we washed our hands. Bill pulled down a paper towel to dry his hands when the bathroom Nazi (that is what we called her) yanked it out of his hands and told him he could not have one.
Gypsy Baby Scam
On the way to Pisa when we got off the ship's shuttle bus a group of 20-25 of us were standing together waiting for the next bus when 2 middle-aged gypsy women with small babies wrapped in blankets walked up to Bill. One of the women placed the baby against him almost pressing the baby into him.
She was holding the baby with one arm supporting the bottom of the child and one side over the top, the way most mothers do when they carry their babies when they are sleeping.
Then Bill saw another arm come out from under the blanket and go right into his pocket! (She thought she had blocked his view with the baby so he wouldn't see the “other” hand.) He grabbed her by both shoulders and gently pushed her away and said, “Stay away from me!” Then he warned the entire group to stay away from these two women with babies – they were pick pockets!
As the two women tried to move about in our group everyone parted and no one would let them get close to them. None of them were able to steal a penny from our group.
Later we saw several more gypsy women pulling the same scam – they were holding babies with one real arm and one fake arm so they could reach in pockets with the other arm.
One of the photo pages has a picture of two brother and a wolf.
Romulus and Remus are the twin brothers and central characters of Rome's foundation myth. Their mother is Rhea Silvia, daughter to Numitor, king of Alba Longa. Before their conception, Numitor's brother Amulius seizes power, kills Numitor's male heirs and forces Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, sworn to chastity. Rhea Silvia conceives the twins by the god Mars, or by the demi-god Hercules; once the twins are born, Amulius has them abandoned to die in the river Tiber. The river carries them to safety, a she-wolf (in Latin, lupa) finds and suckles them, and a woodpecker feeds them. A shepherd and his wife find them and foster them to manhood as shepherds. The twins, still ignorant of their true origins, prove to be natural leaders. When they discover the truth of their birth, they kill Amulius and restore Numitor to his throne. Rather than wait to inherit Alba Longa, they choose to found a new city.
Romulus wants to found the new city on the Palatine Hill; Remus prefers the Aventine Hill. They quarrel and Remus is killed. Romulus founds the new city, names it Rome, after himself, and creates its first legions and senate. The new city grows rapidly, swelled by landless refugees. As most of these are male, and unmarried, Romulus arranges the abduction of women from the neighboring Sabines. The ensuing war ends with the joining of Sabines and Romans as one Roman people. Thanks to divine favor and Romulus' inspired leadership, Rome becomes a dominant force, but Romulus himself disappears or dies in mysterious circumstances.
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November 14, 2013
November 12, 2013