Dusty: They put course 1" gravel in the amphitheater...
Dusty: arena means sand, people, how else do you clean up the blood and guts?!
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Dusty: Happy Birthday Kent!
17:10 Europe time 08:10 California time
Ray: Happy birthday, Kent! You already climbed a mountain this week
Ray: Whatcha gonna do next, old man?
17:38 Europe time 08:38 California time
Paul: Hope you made it to Pompeii today Dusty
Paul: We didn't have rain there in April, but we did get weather of a different sort!
17:51 Europe time 08:51 California time Kent: Thanks!
I'm planning on smelling some roses and getting a message! It's
the first "cooler" day in slc in a while
Kent: I think high of low 80's
Kent: Just ended a record string of days over 100 of 24 days!
Dusty, did you jump on the circumvisuviana?
18:16 Europe time 09:16 California time
Dusty: We did! Made it to Pompei just after 9am
Dusty: Rome got almost no rain, Pompei wasn't really supposed to
get any, the massive derecho missed us and blew itself out, at least
here
Dusty: Villa of misteries first (I remember pictures if that from
my early childhood somehow, very special to me), then wandered towards
amphitheater
Dusty: Was crazy crowded by around 1030am, plus all tour
groups and people following audioguide were going opposite direction
from us..
Dusty: Robby, an alleged Pink Floyd fan, is not sure he has ever seen Pink Floyd at Pompei
Dusty: I educated him on the opening scene of the amphitheater w
Vesuvio in the background, and told him how in 2012 i jumped a fence to
get the same picture since they have closed off the top of the
amphitheater
Dusty: He was game (which surprised me) but it was way too crowded today to pull that off.
Best part is the new museum at the exit, was very pleased to see one of
the horse casts they discovered in 2018, along with lots of other
awesome stuff
Dusty: Saw maybe 12 human plaster casts, have missed many of them before..
Dusty: museum at the end is WAY too small for that many people, and the
human and horse plaster casts will get destroyed cause someone will
trip and fall on them, they don't have adequate guardrails around them..
Then sit down lunch and cold slushies too cool off right outside the
exit, wait for late slow train back to Napoli but our train had ac
thank god...
Dusty: decided against Ercolano, it was 240pm by the time we got back to that train station; we were done....
in Napoli saw that the entire high speed rail system was basically
down, incoming trains up to almost 3h late, luckily our train back to
Rome was only 15m late...
Dusty: successfully 11h day trip!
18:22 Europe time 09:22 California time
Ray: Sweet
Ray: Yeah, I can't imagine doing Pompeii and Ercolano in the same day
Ray: Cool pix.
18:26 Europe time 09:26 California time
Dusty: In 2003 it was baking hot, i was the only one who spent much
time in Ercolano, that was when i was driving airport shuttle sized
van, wheels rubbed both sides if freeway entrance!
In 2012 Robby skipped Pompei entirely (high school age, all he wanted
to do was sleep in) while the rest of us did it, then I did Ercolano
alone after everyone else burned out after Pompei
18:28 Europe time 09:28 California time
Kent: Awesome Dusty!
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Dusty: Robby wants to see St Peters Basilica tomorrow, we have no reservations for it, that ought to be interesting
18:32 Europe time 09:32 California time
Paul: Just go at opening - almost no lines, then the dome stairs open an hour (?) later and there'll be short lines there too
18:32 Europe time 09:32 California time
Dusty: Very pleased with low light pics with my iPhone 11...
Dusty: I upgraded primarily for the better cameras when they came out
Dusty: I doubt i will be able to talk anyone into an early start tomorrow....
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Paul: When we left there were lines that circled St Peters square nearly 2x
Paul: Ugly
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Dusty: I've made 9am reservations for everything to avoid crowds; Robby is not an early riser..
Dusty: (Also to avoid midday heat)
18:37 Europe time 09:37 California time
Paul: You can't really make reservations to St Peters anyway can you?
(Unless you group tour, which seems miserable and just has a shorter
security line than the regular)?
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Dusty: Kathy and Rob have been impressed we've been able to skip every line since we already had tickets for everything..
Dusty: all it takes is reading Rick Steves nearly cover to cover
several times over the years and obsessing about Europe for decades :)
this year was better prepared, i suspected lots of stuff would sell out....
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Dusty: Don't know; Kathy is researching that now, St Peters apparently opens at 7am????
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Paul: Yes, and Dome climb at 8 I believe
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Paul: We showed up a bit before 8 with the kids when the dome opened and the lines were only like 15 minutes at that point
Paul: Got horrible later when we were leaving though
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Dusty: I wouldn't mind seeing it, but I don't need to wait hours in line for it
Dusty: I doubt any of us would do the dome.
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Dusty: April-August probably huge difference
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Ray: Dome was cool, tho
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Paul: You could recreate your pic of Rob up there when he was 6!
18:42 Europe time 09:42 California time
Dusty: Seen it in 2004 and have cute pics with young kids
18:42 Europe time 09:42 California time
Paul: Ray, the dome Roof Bar was closed in April when we went
Paul: I was sad
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Dusty: Roof bar probably not open at 8am?
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Dusty: We are probably all kinda done climbing stairs...
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Paul: In April the international travel to Italy was just starting to pick back up
Paul: The restaurants were thrilled that we were American
Paul: It was very different than the normal Rome experience
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Paul: Bar was shuttered for refurb
Paul: It's also a coffee bar so it'd be open at 9 otherwise :)
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Thursday August 18, 2022
Borghese Gallary and Pantheon
