Susan & Russ arrived safely in Rome & called me around 6 pm last night. It was so great to see them. I had walked around earlier in the day to try & find a place for dinner, so we ventured out. The restaurant didn't start serving until 7:30 so we stopped at a cafe for a bit. The restaurant was very good - Gaudi Pizzeria. We started with an appetizer of fried specialties - arancini, mozzarella, etc. Russ & I had a delicious pasta with ham & cheese & Susan had pizza. It was very good, but by the end of the meal Susan was fading fast. The little wine we had may have helped! We were back at the hotel around 9:15.

We are meeting this morning & having breakfast at the little cafe we found last night. Then we're off to the Vatican for the day. We have the Scavi tour that Arlene told us about which first got us interested, & this evening we have the Vatican After Dark tour. This is a small group tour that I had heard about which is suppposed to be amazing since you get to see everything without huge crowds of people around you. We will let you know if it's worth the $$!

Olivia - yes, I'm back to Rome on the 16th as I'm sailing on the RCL Mariner. It's a Seminar at Sea offered by NACTA, a travel agent organization that I joined. The cruise spends 2 days in Israel which was a big selling point, & the price was great. I'm on my own version of CLEO!