......... TO CHARMING & ROMANTIC COURTYARDS AND QUAINT COBBLESTONE STREETS......

THIS IS ITALY, AND THIS IS ROME !! WE'RE FINALLY HERE AGAIN!!
ROME *IS* SENZA DUBBIO (WITHOUT DOUBT) ALL THEY SAY IT IS, INCLUDING

*************** THE ETERNAL CITY !! ****************


**WELCOME TO OUR TRIP TO ITALY** ************OCTOBER 2007 ************



PLEASE NOTE: For those who are NOT "avid readers" (because you're dealing with a VERY AVID WRITER, here!) you may want to skip most of the Journal below, and just look at the pictures instead. But for those who have a passion for reading, there is a LOT to read here!! (TOO MUCH!! Someday when I have time, I will try to eliminate anything I may have said more than once.) Again, the writing & photos below cover our 3 - week trip to ROME, NETTUNO, VENICE, & ANZIO (plus visits with our Italian family), and are divided into "CHAPTERS" OF CITIES visited in that order. My writing depicts MY feelings and viewpoints, (and often those of other family members as well). WE ALL LOVE ITALY, please have no doubt about that, but I didn't write ONLY about Italy's charms and beauty. Any honest account of a person's feelings, a trip, a country or anything else necessitates telling much more --(as much of the good as possible, but also some of the negative aspects). I tried to do this as best I could, in my own way, and ALWAYS sincerely, based solely on our experiences during this trip, and our other trips and visits to many various regions of Italy. My writing was made easier also by the insight into Italy I obtained from living 3 years in Rome in the early 1970's. I thought it would be fun to finally share my feelings, views and knowledge about Italy in this format with others, and it was especially interesting for us to see how Italy and Italians have changed through the decades.

PLEASE NOTE that 100 % of what I have written is WITHOUT embellishments of any kind.. They are my own true experiences and my own opinions, in my own words. They are NOT influenced by or taken from any other source. But again, you should know that I'm very opinionated, so if any of my views are different from anyone else's and anyone is offended by that, I sincerely do apologize. Absolutely no offense is intended ever in writing this Journal. Each post on this Blog has a place to comment, if anyone would like to post a message to me. I welcome and appreciate all comments! The only thing I really REGRET is getting carried away and writing SO DARN MUCH!! ...Again, writing a "BOOK" was NOT my intention when I set off on this writing venture, OR ADVENTURE, as it turned out for me! So, to all of you who have made it even this far, THANKS FOR STOPPING BY !! I APPRECIATE YOUR INTEREST!

UPDATE: I would like to thank our lovely daughter Sonia for supplying the FIRST 50 PHOTOS you just saw above. She majored in photography, video and film-making in college, but nowadays is kept SO busy with her career in another field, and traveling for the company she works for that she doesn't have much time to dabble in that hobby. So I wanted to share with you her 50 photos as well as ours, because even though her camera is not the best, she has gotten some really cool and different shots in Italy, which I think really add the PERFECT finishing touch to really show all the many faces and facets of Italy, as well as Sonia's PASSION for photography ---that apparently runs in the family!!

Unfortunately, Sonia sent those photos to us very late, only AFTER I had already completed my ENTIRE Photo-Journal on Italy, which I knew was already WAY over- loaded as it was. Due to certain website limitations and glitches here, as well as lack of time (I had to finish this for Christmas!) I was unable to insert and incorporate her photos within the appropriate "CHAPTERS" of this Journal, so that's why you see them all at the top. Also, since I had to write & post additional comments to frame the pictures above as well, this makes this Blog even MORE MASSIVE THAN BEFORE (and unfortunately resulted also in some repetition) ......AS YOU WILL SEE by the over 200 photos of Italy and "1,000" facts and opinions I've posted below!!
So for those of you who were hoping this was the end, it's NOT....Sorry!! LOL, the major part of my Blog on Italy is just beginning now!


HOW TO USE THIS BLOG: FIRST, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BLOWING UP SOME OF THE PHOTOS BY CLICKING ON THEM. Clicking on the individual pictures will blow them up tremendously. This is when all the beauty and charms of Italy really come to life, in incredibly vivid detail!! You will see it's like stepping into the scenery, and almost being there yourself!! The small pictures cannot do justice to the way we actually saw everything, but the blown up images do. My husband and I took ALL the photos below with a decent digital camera, so they should be high enough quality even when blown up.

THE BEST WAY to see all the photos & commentary SLOWLY and smoothly without missing any, is to scroll using your computer's UP/DOWN KEYS. In addition, using the scroll bar on the far right of your screen will of course allow you to jump quickly from place to place. Also, I experienced a very annoying "glitch" at times on this website with the controls for "TEXT SIZE", (mostly finally corrected) but if the text size you see appears either too large or too small, you can adjust it in your computer's Tool Bar (under VIEW, or something similar).

There is NO need to click on the individual posts with pink lettering on the side bar (unless you want to see only certain pictures or text) because doing that only displays one to several posts at a time. I apologize to all the computer-savvy readers here, but my husband INSISTED that I post these instructions and suggestions, because HE was totally confused about how to use this site when he first saw it! (But then I've found that there is A LOT about surfing the web that Settimio doesn't know ---only because he doesn't do it very often! :-) Also, some members of his own family have only very recently purchased and used a computer for the very FIRST time, so these helpful hints might be useful to them. UPDATE: Settimio is happy that I created this Journal, and proudly told his whole Italian family on Christmas Day about it!!) Now, I just HOPE they'll "approve" of what I've written about their country ! ! ! Most of them can't read it, but some of the younger ones DO understand English!


AND FINALLY.....DID SOMEONE SAY BLOGGING WAS EASY???
AGAIN, PLEASE try to excuse any repetitions, imperfections or technical glitches you may find in my Blog, because I have already gone back and "tweaked" things many times now, (being as 'anal' as I am !! ) In part also because I have been plagued with many different problems, mostly of a technical nature, in creating this "Monster" but I'll spare you most of the details, because I have a big headache now and don't want to give YOU one too!! However, you should know that there is still one "glitch" I don't know how to resolve. And that is a LONG THICK GRAY BAR that runs horizontally across a post or photo in the "Nettuno" Chapter, partially blocking it ---but luckily affects ONLY ONE POST!

ANOTHER EXAMPLE: This isn't a glitch, but because the blogging format here is that all posts get uploaded automatically from bottom to top, I've had to think, recall and write everything in REVERSE ORDER of how it really happened, starting at the bottom of the blog, (where I needed to put the END of the trip) AND GO UP FROM THERE. Trust me, composing and posting everything BACKWARDS in perfect chronological order this way is NOT EASY! Especially since I didn't do a lot of pre-post planning; I just wrote as I went along, but I finally got everything in the proper order I think. As for all the other technical problems I experienced, (not mentioned), I guess I should have read the "Tech Manual" again, but not to worry, I DID eventually correct 99% of the these irregularities, (again, it's the "anal" thing!)
In spite of all the headaches, this Photo Journal has been a "labor of love" for me ---Some days I even had fun writing it!! ;-) I value, appreciate and thank those who provided this online "Blogger" website, which on the whole is fantastic! So I hope that you'll find some interest and a little enjoyment on MY Blog, somewhere in the midst of all the confusion! : -)