Italy so far

Italy so far has involved lots of wrong turns and getting lost and badly translated directions. My dad decided to rent a car for the trip, which has mostly been a hassle.

That said, Pompeii was pretty awesome. (Although 5 years of Latin and a classical civilization minor might make me a little biased there). Naples, not so awesome. The one thing I really wanted to see in the Naples Archeaological Museum was in the room that was closed for restoration. The rest of Naples that we saw (which, granted, was mostly while we were driving around lost) was pretty underwhelming. Maybe someday I'll go back without my parents and get a better impression of it.

From Naples we drove up to Florence, which has been really nice. Our hotel was right in town, so we've been walking everywhere. We saw Michaelangelo's David at the Accademia and Botticelli's Birth of Venus at the Uffizi Galleries. We saw Brunelleschi's Duomo and Ghiberti's baptistry doors. And we saw an overwhelming amount of other Renaissance art and architecture pulled right from the pages of an art histroy textbook. It was a beautiful city, but I'm not too sad to be leaving since today will be filled with scenic views of Tuscany before finally arriving in Rome, which is one of my favorite cities. More updates from there!