Rome is quite an amazing place and we headed out early from the Port of Civitavecchia to reach the city for a full day of touring. A major unfortunate situation occurred because we arrived on Sunday and so were unable to view the Sistine Chapel or the Vatican Museums. Disappointment aside our colorful tour guide, Joe, gave us our money's worth of information, some of which I can't help sharing here. We went first to the Colosseum and we viewed it from many different angles. It was an interesting place and of course we couldn't avoid comments of Charlton Heston and Ben Hur. As we were leaving we witnessed a march by the Roman Jewish community. They were marching in commemoration of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. It is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the new Israeli state. We learned that most pizza in Italy is square but the Margherita pizza was originated here to celebrate a visit by Queen Margherita. Her special pizza was made round and in the colors of the Italian flag. The green was basil, the red was tomato and the white was mozzarella. And while we are talking about food I will share with you that we stopped for lunch at a great little Italian restaurant. I got to eat pasta in a restaurant for the first time in three years because they prepared gluten free pasta for me (there's your answer, Trudy:). The tomato and basil sauce was heavenly! Thank goodness the Italians have figured out the whole gluten thing so I can continue hoping they will send it over to the states one of these days. Sadly I don't think they are making a gluten free pizza crust but I'll keep asking. Throw three coins over your right shoulder into the Trevi Fountain and you will find true love so the legend goes. Since I have already found my love, I didn't bother trying to push my way through the crowd to try my luck but there were certainly lots of people making wishes and tosses. Our final stop of the day was Saint Peter's Basilica where we saw the famed Pieta sculpture of Mother and Child. It is really amazing what those artists could do with a hammer, a chisel and a big ol' hunk of marble-just beautiful. The Basilica is large and ornate with an abundance of all kinds of art both inside and out. Standing outside the Basilica brought to mind the scenes from a couple of years back when we all watched as one Pope died and another was selected. Over 7 million people from all around the world surrounded the Vatican during those days. I can't even imagine what that must have been like. We're safely back aboard the Summit and about to head for Naples. Ciao for now.