Pompei

No updates on the passport front, but I'm assuming no news is good news. If there had been a problem they would have called the hotel we're staying at as I gave them the number. And the people here are good at passing things along. So if all goes according to plan, I'll pick it up tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, we went to Pompei today, which was a lot of travelling, close to six hours on trains, for about three hours of being able to wander around the site. Cathy liked it a lot because she likes archeology and has seen Discovery Channel specials about the place. As for me, it was interesting, but I suspect I might be reaching my maximum capacity to find really old things interesting, even something as cool as the ruins of a city destroyed by a volcano.

Although I do find it interesting the people who keep building place not just in Pompei and Napoli, but actually on Vesuvius itself. What kind of mindset is involved in building something in an area that you know, for a certainity, will blow up one day. Granted, it could be 100 years from now. Then again, it could be tomorrow.

Other than that, I think we're ready to leave Italy. Just some little things. It's not like I'm anxious to get back to work, but it's always nice to just get back to your home base. Plus, we are desperately sick of our clothes. The temptation to burn them the instant we hit Ottawa is pretty high. Miraculous, we will leave Italy with very little new clothing. A t-shirt for me, a few shaws for Cathy. She even managed to not buy new shoes, all the more impressive since I'm sure it's Italian law that every third store in the country must sell shoes.

Will try and update again before I hit Iqaluit, but we shall see.