Greece!

This is Igomentsa. we stayed on the ferry down to Patras and disembarked there. interestingly enough we watched some young fellows climbing on top of the axles of a truck to stoy away on a ship to somewhere else. pretty amazing to actually see. Since its pouring down rain we got a hotel for the night. We'll take off in the morning (or when its done raining) for Delphi. Greece looks pretty darn hilly, luckily we've been riding for the last 2-months to get ourselves in shape!

we rode this thing across the Adriatic Sea. We were joined by maybe 150 semis and their associated drivers. pretty impressive boat!

best graffiti of the trip. Ancona

Heather almost got pinched for riding wheelies in the parking lot!

Ancona Italy, our port of departure. pretty rough seas

passed a full on shanty-town right in Rome! something most people don't see from their tour busses. sad that in one of the biggest tourist attractions in Italy some people live in shacks

Rome to Greece.

We did some serious traveling to leave Rome and arrive in Greece.
10 miles riding a piece of crap bike trail into the heart of Rome in the rain. then 4-hours on a train. then 21-hours on a boat. now we're in Greece!

Biggest church in the world, St Peter's was the real deal!

The last judgement. so much to look at here its almost overwhelming

ceiling of the Sistine chapel. the incessant "no foto" wasn't really working on the gigantic crowd so we snapped away while appreciating the paintings.

Rapheal anyone? these guys could really paint! very impressive works throughout the Vatican with the cresendo coming in the Raphael rooms and the Sistine chapel.

the inspiration of the knights who say nigh.

there were some serious mosaiced floors in the Vatican.... lifted from Roman and Etrusciaon archeological sites through history.

The Vatican

We checked out the Vatican for a day. Didn't hang out with the Pope but we did tour St. Peter's and the Vatican museum with an insanely large crowd of people. We paid five extra bucks to skip the line and it still took 2 hours to get in. I don't even want to know how long some folks waited to enter the museum... in the rain!

Heather with a nice old-school Citroen

the ceiling of the Pantheon. the largest concrete dome ever raised. impressive because it was over 2000 years ago they built this thing!

yup, the big daddy of all tourist attractions, the Colosseum. pretty incredible spot especially when you consider the things the Romans did to each other inside the walls!

Here's Heather with a nice random chunk of marble in the Roman Forum. pretty cool spot

Thought I better post a few pictures of some of the highlights from our days in Rome. this is a photo of the Font de Trevi. out of the frame are roughly 5,000 people eating gelato and taking photos!

Roma

we're currently in Roma, having a great time. heading  the Vatican today. perfect thing to do on a rainy day!

bad internet connection so i can't do much with the blog, but many pictures added here: http://picasaweb.google.com/wacksmans

one more day in Roma, then onto the train back across Italy and then on a 24-hour ferry to Greece. only took about 6-hours to get the dam tickets booked, hopefully the travel is smoother than that!