Today begins our journey down the Italian peninsula toward Naples. We hadn't realized it when we purchased the seat reservations, but this train passes through about every major Italian city one might want to visit. Beginning in Venice, we then head through Bologna, Florence, and Rome before arriving in Naples - and all that in 5 hours. Praise God for high speed trains!

We're writing this post from our seats (9C & 9D) on car 7 of train 9419. It's a packed car. Nearly every seat is filled, and we haven't even reached Bologna yet...no bologna!

When we left the Splendour of the Seas (our cruise ship) this morning we elected to carry our own luggage and walk to the train station to ensure that we made it with sufficient time. We left the ship at 7:05am and were at the train station by 7:30am...with 3 hours to spare before our 10:25am train to Naples. We were thankful to have walked (and eventually waited) with a couple of friends we made aboard the ship. Their names were Martin and Paula. He is a builder and she a secretary from Tasmania, Australia. They're in their late 40's and have been traveling around Europe for the past 6 weeks. Australians always seem to take the longest holidays! I suppose they must feel the need to justify their 24 hour flight to anywhere in the western world by staying for a long time. They were very nice people and the conversation was a pleasant way to pass the time. I believe we met them at our dinner table on the 2nd night of the cruise.

Anyway, Naples should be a different kind of destination for us. We really are only interested in two things outside of our hotel: Pompeii and the airport. We will fly back to the US from there on Monday. After nearly three weeks away from home, we're excited to come back home. Well, more from Naples later.

Lots of love,
j & s