They're here they're here they're here!!

On our first day in Rome, we decided to go to mass at St. Peter's. It was complicated... even though it's St. Peter's, it took us a while to find one!

Enjoying some pizza at Piazza Navona. So Italian!

After lunch we walked to the Form, where Becky engaged in my favorite activity: touching old stuff.

And how could we miss the Colosseum?

Reunited and it feels SOOOO good.

After dinner we take a walk by Castel Sant' Angelo and stop to appreciate one of my favorite spots in the city.

Later on in our Rome adventure... we climb the dome of St. Peter's! I've done this twice now and will still do it again. It's worth every cent of the five euro they charge.

And then, of course, we head to the Vatican Museums. Christine and Becky, two of the founding members of Holy Cross's Manuscripts, Inscriptions, and Documents Club, peer wistfully through the locked gates of the hall of inscriptions.

After Rome, we took a train to Naples. Our first stop? Pompeii! We took the wrong train and got off at the wrong stop... but eventually we got there!

Pompeii!

Via Abbeia. This picture could also be captioned as, "My friends are brilliant," or "Holy Cross students are the funniest students."

It was raining a lot, but that did not keep us from having a good time exploring Pompeii!

Most of what we saw in the site were these big Roman atria. This was once a house.

Pompeii was a very sad, scary, and wet experience... but it was also a little bit beautiful.

After Naples, we headed to Capri, hoping for a nice island vacation to end our spring break... but as soon as we got on the ferry it started to pour!

Our first view of Capri!

The view from our hotel. That would be a mountain, but all we could see was cloud. In fact, the whole time we were there it seemed as if the entire island was inside a cloud - it was so wet and cold and foggy! But, just like in Pompeii, we had a great time despite the weather!

Just like the Poet Sandal-maker in Athens, a very similar sandal-maker had set up shop in Capri. We ducked into his shop to take a break from the rain and Becky, Hannah, and Marlee all ended up getting great pairs of handmade leather sandals. The owner of the shop sat and made the sandals right in front of us - Becky even helped!

The sun came out for a few brief minutes - just long enough for us to see the Mediterranean - but it didn't last long. Apparently, on Capri, when it rains, it really, really, really pours! We got sufficiently soaked and then caught a ferry back to Naples. We made it to our train back to Rome, had dinner with a few other Crusaders who were visiting, and then everyone went their separate ways - Christine and I back to the J-Force, Becky and Hannah back to America! I can't believe they were here and are gone already... and I can't wait to see them again in Worcester!