"What a piece of work is man" ~ Hamlet, 1996.

Dear Mom:

I love that picture of Marsh.


Yeah. He had a great time with the play, getting to know his fellow cast members better. Every single time he did his part (I personally saw it 5 times) he did it a little different. Now he says he is auditioning for the role of Hamlet. I wish he wouldn't. He'll never get the part, even if he could play it as well as Kenneth Branagh. Most of acting must be disappointment.

Well, the weather here is horrible now. I'm sure it'll snow any day now. Why is it that things are always so much worse when you're cold?

We had our own 'cold snap' here. I bet it was at least 55, but I don't think we shall get snow. Do you have any cold weather gear???? Does the Army provide what you need?

We're going out on a mission for a while in a few days. I didn't see that one coming. Yes, MSG Leslie is back on PSD. We've been busy getting ready to go out.

You have no idea how happy I am to hear MSG Leslie is going to be with you. Did he like what you brought him from Italy?

I don't really want you on the PSD no matter how much tea you get to drink, but it helps more than you will ever, ever know for him to be going with you. When you two make it safely back home to the US of A, I owe him the biggest steak we can find. That and my life.

I STILL have to do laundry.

Hey. I always have laundry to do, war or no war, so you'll get no sympathy from me.

LOL! Marsh said his shoes are almost as sexy as he is. He's so funny.

Yes, he is funny, but he is totally correct. He loved those two shirts almost as much as he loved the shoes. Claims he will be in a 'fashion show' later this week....In between weight lifting and running for his life.

My extra days off were great! All the guys I hang out with came up to BAF the last 2 days I was there, so we got to hang out there for a while.

This was cool. You hadn't been in BAF that much.

It was nice to get back to Gardez and stop living out of a bag. Not much has changed while I was gone.

What? You thought Gardez would suddenly become Santa Monica while you were in Italy?!

We're going out tomorrow where they have good phones, so I'll try to call then.

Things I would like to have:

"the tool"
any movies you can send
hand and body lotion

Roger. I will get your requests out ASAP along with 200 of your Italy pics. I may have to sell either Marsh or Daron to get the rest of them printed. I wonder which one I'd get the better price on?

Over and out.

Mom

"I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light" ~ Annie Hall, 1977.

The city walls

The Appian Way

Our tour group spent a beautiful morning in the ancient city of Ostia Antica, at the mouth of the Tiber River and a few miles outside of Rome. (double click pictures to see them better) In ancient times, the shoreline moved seawards due to silting from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. Ostia is still lying next to the Tiber, but at a distance of some three kilometers from the beach. Ostia is Latin for "mouth", the mouth of the Tiber.

Ostia may not enjoy the media hype of Pompeii, but it is a marvelous view of what Roman life was like for both the rich and the poor.

I enjoyed it for the fact of its peace, tranquility and clean air after the hustle and bustle of a few days in Rome. Not a taxi cab in sight.

Ostia was said to have been founded by Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, in the 7th century BC, however the most ancient archaeological remains so far discovered are no older than the 4th century BC. Although Ostia was probably founded for the sole purpose of military defense — since hostile armies could reach Rome by water through the mouth of the Tiber River — in time the port became a very important commercial harbor. Many of the goods Rome received from its colonies and provinces passed through Ostia, including the essential grain supply to the city of Rome.

In 87 BC, the town was razed by Marius and again in 67 BC it was sacked by pirates. After this second attack, the town was re-built and provided with protective walls by the statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. The town was then further developed during the 1st century AD, mainly under the influence of Tiberius, who ordered the building of the first Forum. The town was also soon enriched by the construction of a new harbor on the northern mouths of the Tiber. The new harbor, not surprisingly called Portus from the Latin for "harbor," was excavated from the ground at the orders of the emperor Claudius; it has a hexagonal form, in order to reduce the erosive forces of the waves. The town was provided with all the services a town of the time could require; in particular, a famous lighthouse. Archaeologists also discovered public latrines with a revolving door, running water and seating for 20. The public latrine must have been the height of civility in its day and also a public meeting place. Ostia had a large theatre, public baths and a firefighting service. The mosaic floors of the baths are still visible near today's entrance to the town.

Ostia grew to 50,000 inhabitants in the 2nd century and in time focused its naval activities on Portus. With the end of the Roman Empire, Ostia fell slowly into decay, and was finally abandoned in the 9th century due to the fall of the Roman Empire in combination with repeated invasions, malaria and sackings by Arab pirates. The inhabitants moved to nearby Gregoriopolis. In the Middle Ages, bricks from buildings in Ostia were taken and used at several other locations. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was entirely built of material originally belonging to Ostia.

A "local sacking" was carried out by baroque architects, who used the remains as a sort of marble store for the palazzos they were building in Rome. Soon after, foreign explorers came in search of ancient statues and objects.

The Papacy started organizing its own investigations with Pope Pius VII and the research still continues today. It has been estimated that two thirds of the ancient town have currently been found.







Ostia was rejuvenated during the fascist era and renamed Lido di Ostia, or Ostia Lido, or Lido di Roma, lido meaning "beach" in Italian. Ostia became the beach resort of Rome, and was connected by a railway before the construction of the airport. The town was re-organized in a pure so-called "fascist architecture," which recalls some colonial, Mediterranean and rationalist styles. During the Fascist period many of the structures of Ancient Ostia were renovated or in some cases reconstructed, however, the fascist renewal was not long enjoyed, due to the imminence of World War II, which arrived when part of the works were still in progress.





Today, tours walk through the city's ruins, along the Appian Way, and think of what might have been.

(Information complied from Wikipedia and other sources)

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid" ~ Star Wars, 1977.

While in Florence, Heidi and I stumbled on what turned out to be one of the most interesting things we saw during our trip to Italy. Though we had already purchased tickets to see the Medici Chapel (highly recommended in every guide book I read), we found it to be somewhat a disappointment since most of the chapel (inside and out) was covered in scaffolding. This was also true of the inside of the Duomo, another disappointment. Note: I think this should be mentioned before one buys a ticket.

So while traversing the streets of Florence, Heidi and I wandered into the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, built in the mid 15th century and an excellent example of Renaissance civil architecture.



There is where we found Apoxyomenos, L’Atleta della Croazia. The ‘Athlete of Croatia’, a large bronze statue of a naked, male athlete, was found in July, 1997, by a Belgian skin-diver, Wouters Kidney, in the waters off the island of Losinj in Dalmatia, on the southern coastal region of the Republic of Croatia.




At first, the Croats were going to leave the statue semiburied in the sand, 45 meters below, where it had been for 2000 years. However, fearing theft, they recovered the statue two years later and transported it to the swimming pool of the Croatian Police Department.

Carbon 14 analysis of organic substances (plant material mostly) found inside the statue dates it to around 50-40 BC, when Caesar was dictator of Rome.

It is the best copy from the Roman period of a Greek statuary type. It is an athlete, possibly a boxer or a wrestler, around the age of 18-22 years old.


The statue is on loan from Croatia in recognition of Italy’s contribution to the four years it took to restore the statue by the Factory of Hard Stones and the Laboratories of Restoration of Florence.

Apoxyomenos, L’Atleta della Croazia is on exhibit at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi until January, 2007.


Yes, I did get in trouble for using flash photography.

"In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, and they had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock" ~ The Third Man, 1949.

We have made it interesting for this Roman guide. Yesterday we spent three or four hours in the Vatican, again, that wonderful world of curiosities. We came very near expressing interest, sometimes--even admiration--it was very hard to keep from it. We succeeded though. Nobody else ever did, in the Vatican museums.

The guide was bewildered-- non-plussed. He walked his legs off, nearly, hunting up extraordinary things, and exhausted all his ingenuity on us, but it was a failure; we never showed any interest in any thing. He had reserved what he considered to be his greatest wonder till the last--a royal Egyptian mummy, the best preserved in the world, perhaps. He took us there. He felt so sure, this time, that some of his old enthusiasm came back to him:

"See, genteelmen!--Mummy! Mummy!"

The eye-glass came up as calmly, as deliberately as ever.
"Ah,--Ferguson--what did I understand you to say the gentleman's name was?"

"Name?--he got no name!--Mummy!--'Gyptian mummy!"

"Yes, yes. Born here?"

"No! 'Gyptian mummy!"

"Ah, just so. Frenchman, I presume?"

"No!--not Frenchman, not Roman!--born in Egypta!"

"Born in Egypta? Never heard of Egypta before. Foreign locality, likely. Mummy--mummy. How calm he is--how self-possessed. Is, ah--is he dead?"

"Oh, sacre bleu, been dead three thousan' year!"

The doctor turned on him savagely: "Here, now, what do you mean by such conduct as this! Playing us for Chinamen because we are strangers and trying to learn! Trying to impose your vile second-hand carcasses on us!--thunder and lightning, I've a notion to--to--if you've got a nice fresh corpse, fetch him out!--or by George we'll brain you!"

from Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain, 1869

One of the best days during our tour of Rome was the day we visited the Vatican Museums. The Museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006. We arrived early and waited over an hour to enter. So totally well worth it.

The Vatican Museums trace their beginning to one marble sculpture, purchased 500 years ago, the sculpture of Laocoön, the priest who, according to Greek mythology, tried to persuade the people of ancient Troy not to accept the Greeks' "gift" of a hollow horse. The statue was discovered January, 1506, in a vineyard near the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (my personal favorite) in Rome. Pope Julius II purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner and put the sculpture of Laocoön and his sons in the grips of a sea serpent on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery. The popes were among the first sovereigns who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting knowledge of art history and culture.

The museum has works of art by painters Michelangelo, Raphael and Fra Angelico, but my favorite part of the museums is the Gregorian Egyptian Museum.

Pope Gregory XVI founded the Gregorian Egyptian Museum in 1839. It houses monuments and artifacts of ancient Egypt. The Popes’ interest in Egypt was connected with the ‘fundamental role attributed to this country by the Sacred Scripture in the History of Salvation’. The Museum occupies nine rooms divided by a large semi-circle towards the terrace of the "Niche of the Fir Cone", in which there are numerous sculptures. The bronze pine-cone which was found in the baths of Agrippa, was a fountain which dripped water with spectacular effects. During the Middle Ages it was located in the hall of the ancient Basilica.

The Egyptian Museum contains objects and works of art from monuments and ancient collections located mainly in the area of Rome and its environment, Villa Adriana. Included are basalt statues of the priests of the seventeenth Dynasty and the big fragment of the seated statue of Ramses II, the Pharaoh who persecuted the Hebrews.

The mummies in their sarcophagi are the real attraction of the Museum, especially that of a princess of the 21st Dynasty, whose hair is dyed with red henné (see above). In the next room, characterized by the starry roof, the Serapeo, with its basalt Roman statues, which imitate the Egyptian ones, has been rebuilt in part. The scene represents the solar awakening of Osiride-Apis, who emerges from a lotus flower, in front of a canal which represents the Nile. Osiride’s face is that of Antinoo, the emperor’s favorite, who died in the Nile.

Other parts of the Vatican Museums and Collections include:

• Near Eastern Antiquities


• Alexandria and Palmyra


• Antiquities from Palestine


• Room of the Assyrian relief sculptures


• Gregorian Etruscan Museum


• Antiquarium romanum


• Collection of vases


• Classical Antiquities (Greek and Roman)


• Pio Christian Museum (with the Christian and Hebrew Lapidary)


• Pinacoteca (picture gallery)


• Tapestries


• Ceramics (18th-19th century)


• Miniature mosaics


• Collection of Modern Religious Art


• Missionary-Ethnological Museum


• Museo Sacro (formerly part of the Vatican Library)


• Gregorian Profane Museum


• Belvedere Palace


• Upper Galleries (Gallery of the Candelabra; of Tapestries and of Maps)


• Apartment of St. Pius V


• Sala delle Dame


• Room of the Immaculate Conception


• Raphael Stanze


• Room of the Chiaroscuri


• Chapel of Nicholas V


• Chapel of Urban VIII


• Sistine Chapel


• Borgia Apartment


• Salone Sistino


• Room of the Aldobrandini Wedding


• Lower Galleries (Urban VIII, Alexandrine, Clementine)

Of course, you can't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel. Well, I guess you could, but it would be as risky as bringing cheese home in your suitcase. You could do it, but a uniformed guard might come to take you away. You can, however, take pictures in some of the other areas of the Museums. During my visit to the Vatican Egyptian Museum, it was mentioned, by a source that will go unnamed by me, The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo would like to have some of their antiquities 'returned'. Italian authorities are apparently 'making excuses and dragging their feet'. I've seen Romans make excuses AND drag their feet.

Getting their artifacts back may take the Egyptians quite some time.

"There's no place like home, there's no place like home..." ~ The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

Heidi with a view of the Seven Hills of Rome in the background.

Though we weren't in Kansas, Toto, or even Florida, Heidi and I had a wonderful time during our stay in Roma and Firenze. We made hundreds of pictures and thousands of memories and honestly, it's going to take me a long time to share them all with you.

The dirty laundry has piled up, the grades have come down and I have never been so happy to be back home in the U S of A.

Heidi's buddies in Gardez saw her off the last day before her trip to Italia. As you can see, some were none too happy she was leaving. Judging by the size of her over-stuffed backpack, I think she took something back for everyone. Probably promised them all a 'surprise' if they behaved while she was gone....

Heidi calls this backpack, the most gi-normous bag I have ever seen, "the teenager", due to the fact she feels like she is carrying one on her back. I, myself, have never seen so much fit into one bag in my entire life. Heidi claims she got her packing skills from me, but she was just being nice.

Note: 'j eye-normous' ~ Webster defines as a combination of giant or gigantic and enormous. Feel free to use the word in a sentence later today.

Though I didn't take a lot of pictures of the first place we stayed in Rome, the Hotel Aberdeen, I did snap some shots of our room in Florence. Heidi said it was her favorite hotel room because it "made her feel more Italian".

Breakfast, served every morning by our host, Ignatio, was extremely strong coffee and croissants. Yes, I know this is Italy and why were we eating croissants? Apparently, the Italians have no 'breakfast foods' of their own. Try asking for biscuits and gravy and see what it gets you.

Ignatio is proprietor at the Hotel Aldobrandini and if you can survive the four flights of stairs (see above) it was worth the price of the room just for his hospitality. As you might remember, I commented on how rude Romans are. Ignatio was the most gracious, helpful, kind, efficient man and made our stay in Firenze fabulous.

These are pictures taken from the window of our room at the hotel.

The view. I believe this would make it a 'room with a view'?

The tiny elevator you may use to haul your luggage up to the Hotel Aldobrandini. Believe it or not, this was NOT the smallest elevator we saw in Italy.

The final flight of stair that led up to our room, number 2. Try doing this with a teenager on your back!

Ignatio will help make your stay in Firenze one you won't soon forget. Tell him Kerri and Heidi sent you.

Next time: Our visit with the Pope or 'Why the Egyptians Will Not Be Sending the Vatican a Christmas Card This Year'

Buono sera.

Having a wonderful time in Rome. Wish you all were here.....

Then you could help me navigate these roads and keep me from getting run over by a moped or a speeding taxi. If I am to die in Rome, let it be somewhere classy like the Sistine Chapel or the Colosseum or better yet, the steps of the Pantheon, not on a busy street surrounded by angry Italians!

Then again, you could also share a gellato with me and a stroll through the cobbled streets or sit at a table in the Campo di Fiori and watch pencil thin Roman women trip by.

Heidi and I ate lunch today in a quaint cafe next to the Pantheon. Imagine. The Pantheon, which I have decided is my favorite so far. We tour the Vatican Museum tomorrow, visit St. Peters and breakfast with the Pope on Wednesday. No lie, this tour guide rocks!

I've walked ten miles today and if Rome is truly built on seven hills, I have stepped foot on every single one of them.

Ciao.

Kerri

Update, Thursday noon, October 18, 2006

Hi Mom:

So hopefully you didn't call the room, because I left shortly after to get my nails and feet done. I will check my e-mail tomorrow morning before I check out to see if you got any info on the B&B.

Remember the perfume 'Earth' that used to be at the Gap? This place smells like that. I went over to the Indian restaurant and they don't open for another 2 hours. I'll hold out for it. I'm craving some serious curry.

The people at the nail place gave me a flower in a can as a gift. They were trying to give me this perfume thing you put sticks in or something and I told them I couldn't take it because I was going back to Afghanistan. I thought they were trying to get me to buy it at first.

The language barrier is funny sometimes. I wanted to tell the lady who did my pedicure I've been wearing boots for 8 months and that's why my feet were so bad looking, but she didn't speak English at all. Oh well, I tried.

I think when you get here, if we have time, we should get facials and massages. I don't want to do all the girly stuff before you get here. Oh, if you get this before you fly, you don't need to bring any big coats. It's not cold at all. At night a sweater or light jacket is enough.

Ok, I'll talk to you later.

Love,

Heidi