Returned!

Oh yes, I'm BACK! And I'm TIRED!
We travelled in Italy for three sublime weeks.
Rome, Venice, Stresa, Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena and back to Rome for a final week where Spider, Jeff and I rented an apartment.

I wrote this post last night whilst still very tired so I thought I'd come back and fill in some gaps:
Spider Girl, her husband Jeff and Pol' and I all decided several years ago that we should go travelling together. We decided this was the year.
Pol had to leave after week two from Firenze (Florence), but the remaining three of us went on to spend a day in Siena and then on to a week in Rome in our very own apartment.

There are SO many pictures to choose from I can hardly decide on which to post.

I was thinking of doing a post for each city/town we spent time in...maybe I'll do that.

So to begin.

2 days in Rome and Ostia Antica *:

This is first picture is a detail from the fountain in the Piazza della Rotonda (outside the Pantheon)



And this one is me and one of the three 'faces' on display at Ostia Antica. I loved Ostia Antica. You could climb on the old walls and race around really exploring the grounds close up and personal. Though, truth be told, there wasn't much 'racing' going on as it was hot. Damn hot.


And the next two are from the forum. Blue sky, ancient marble and poppies.

Thanks to Spider for this picture, it's beautiful!

There will be more to come, I promise! But right now jet-lag has me cornered and cowering sleepily in a corner (yes, jet-lag. Still. But I think the cold I caught just before we left might have something to do with it as well.)

*Ostia Antica stood as a major port town for Rome from about the 3rd century BC. It was even larger than Pompei; about 3 times the size at one point. But times changed, of course and the Tiber began to silt up making it's use less reliable. By the 9th century Ostia was almost completely abandoned. Then came the tourists!

Oh, here's an interesting fact: The Leaning Tower of Pisa (never did see that, though we were at the train station in Pisa for about an hour!) was entirely built of material originally belonging to Ostia.