I got home Friday, May 31, at 2300, had been up 24hrs. A very long and exhausting trip. When we left Tampa there was some problem with the flap switch and we were delayed 1 1/2 hrs. We barely made the next flight from JFK to Rome. When we got to Rome there was no evidence that our luggage had been seen in JFK. About the time I was wondering what I would do for 24 hrs without luggage it finally showed up. Our connection was so close that it never got scanned at JFK.

Rome is old, narrow streets, but facinating. The Sistine Chapel and St. Peters' Bacilica are breathtaking. I even threw a coin in the "Three Coins in the Fountain" fountain. The traffic is unreal. Gasoline is about $5.00 a gallon , so there a lots of mopeds. They zip around everywhere weaving in and out of traffic. You couldn't pay me to drive there.

From Rome we saw the tower at Pisa. It really does lean impressively. They have a bunch of weights on one side with wire cables around trying to counter balance it. You'd think that they could go under the low side and blow in concrete or something to shore it up.

Spent one day walking about Florence. Saw the "David" statue and the tomb of Michealangelo. He sure did beautiful work.

From Florence we went to Verona (of the Romeo and Juliet balcony), Padua and Venice all of which I had seen before.

From Venice we went down the east coast thru Ravenna where there is a beautiful church with glass mosaics to Ancona where we caught the ferry to Patras, Greece.

It is a 20 hour trip across the Adriatic Sea. Of course I use the term Ferry loosely. I lost count of the number of semi's I saw drive on, plus cars with trailers. There were two decks of state- rooms all with outside view, two resturants, a casino, disco, duty free shop, and swimming pool. Unfortunately, it was a little too cool and windy to swim.

From Patras we went to Olympia. I saw the ruins of the first games and took a picture of where they lit the torch for this year's games. It's really mind boggling.

From Olympia we went to Tolon. The Motel was right on the Aegean Sea with the dinning room and balconies overlooking. I did get my body in the Sea just to say I did.

On the was to Athens we stopped at Mycenae to see the ruins where to story of Helen and the War with the Trojan Horse took place. These ruins date about 1500 BC. One really feels so insignificant when seeing it all.

We had a bus tour of Athens and a trip to the Acropolis to view the Parthenon. Our last night in Athens we went to an ethnic resturant where we ate and was entertained for 3 hours. Most of the time I had no idea what I was eating as it was all Greek foods plus all the wine you could drink. The entertainment was great with a lot of Greek dances and songs.

On a light note, the big challange of the trip was trying to figure out how to flush the different toilets. There are push buttons, pull buttons, pull chains, tanks at the ceiling that empty by gravity and who knows what else. All in all an intersting and educational trip.

One thing I forget to mention re: Rome airport. It looked like a battle zone. The place was filled with guards with side arms and machine guns. I think it has been several years since a terroist attack, but they sure weren't taking any chances.

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