The Black Horse of the Blog World

The next day we docked in the Port of Messina, on the Sicilian coast. Our tour guide was Australian, and although he’d been a tour guide for decades, he had no sense of pacing. He rambled on all the time about things that were not necessarily relevant, or that he had already said three or four times. You’d think he was being paid by the word. It did make it difficult to actually stop and look at what we were seeing and take pictures, because the only time he stopped talking was when we had to move on to the next spot. Regardless, we really enjoyed the area, and would be happy to go back. We also did some shopping. Next time you come over, remind me to show you the tablecloth.

From Castelmola and Taormina

Our first port of call was Naples. There were shore excursions to the area beaches, and of course to Pompeii, but we decided on the tour to Herculaneum. Why? Everyone goes to Pompeii. Any time you travel to that region you can easily pick up a guided tour of Pompeii. Herculaneum was a smaller seaside resort for the wealthy that was also destroyed by the 79 C.E. explosion of Vesuvius. The site is smaller, having been excavated less, and having the modern day town of Ercolano still on top of it (literally – they can’t excavate some areas because they go under people’s houses), but it does have some things to recommend it. Primarily, it was buried by mud, not ash, so is much better preserved, including original timbers that charred and fossilized, but did not burn away. Having a classics minor, and knowing an expert on the area (she was in a PBS special narrated by Leonard Nimoy!), we took more pictures here than at any other spot, I think. I’ve posted the gallery up at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurion of course.

From Herculaneum

Before boarding our cruise ship, we had a day and a half in Rome. Airline hassles, hotel rearrangements, and camera battery outages kept us from seeing or doing as much as we’d planned, and raised our frustration levels. Not the best way to start travels, but the good outweighed the bad, including good food, good tour guides, and actually getting to see some amazing sites.

I’ve posted most of the pictures we did get, but as I mentioned, the camera battery ran out halfway through our tours (my fault!), so we didn’t get that many pictures. Again, posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurion

From Rome

I’ve uploaded the first wave of pictures to Picasa for you all to see. These are the pictures from the wedding itself, taken by the professional photographer. If you were there, and you took pictures, please let me know, and send copies to me – we’d love to collect them all together!

Over the next few days I plan on going through the pictures we took on the cruise, and will be posting them as well.

All of these can be found at : http://picasaweb.google.com/laurion

From Wedding