Guess Where we are? The answer.

The Rome Temple! (kidding) This is in Paestum, south of Naples.  There are actually 3 standing temples in this area from 600 BC that were built by the Greeks who settled this area.  In 1980 there was an earthquake and b/c the temples were built on water, it acted like they were sitting on pillows and there was no damage to these temples.  The other amazing fact is that these temples were found AS IS.  No restoration here.  The roofs on, everything as you see now.

Our hotel had bikes which we took out both mornings to ride around the temple area as well as the walls.  

This is the Amalfi Coast.  This is where we started the "Guess where we are" game on Marco Polo.  It wasn't fair, because I don't know who has been here anyway.  Dad and I have been here a couple of times.  Always amazed just how gorgeous it is.  I do know that Jake and Mel rode a motorcycle here just before they got engaged.  It's a skinny, dangerous road, with buses regularly taking up the entire road....but hey, a motorcycle must have been a blast!

This is the actual town of Amalfi.  The cool thing about this particular day is that there was a rock slide on the road, so they closed the road.  We parked the car and started walking.  It was magnificent.  No traffic at all.  And we never would have thought to walk the road had it not been closed.  We felt very very lucky.

Every turn was another breath-taking scene.  It's a famous coastline drive.  But walking it was like magic.  You see so much more, rather than white knuckling it through the skinny hairpin turns.

The view in Ravello.  This town was first visited by us in May 1988.  Exactly 30 years ago.   We had lunch at this cafe while enjoying this view.  Gram and Pop and my Mom were taking turns watching the 5 kids back in Virginia.  It was my first time in Europe.  We had no idea whatsoever of what lay ahead.  It was fun to come back and reminisce about the past 30 years!

This is the town of Herculaneum.  I liked this shot because it shows how far below the current city Herculaneum lies.  Herculaneum was a rich, resort area much smaller than Pompeii.  Many beautiful villas with paintings and mosaics and sits right under Vesuvius (as you can see in the photo).  The inhabitants had no idea that Vesuvius was a volcano b/c it hadn't erupted in 800 years.  They thought it was just another mountain.  When the volcano erupted the lava pushed the mud on top of the town.  It was covered in 80 feet of mud.  That's why the town was so preserved, it wasn't burned, it was just encased in mud.

Many of the mosaics and paintings were still intact.  Considering it was 79AD when it was covered in mud, it is nothing short of amazing.

Many of the houses still had furnishings, structures (this might have been a fireplace), and walls and roofs.

This mosaic was beautiful.  

We watched some of the workers as they cleaned up the mud from structures as well as cleaned up paintings on the walls.

Most of the inhabitants got away, but 130 were trapped in the boat houses down by the sea waiting for boats to come and rescue them.  Here are their remains.  They died because their skin was melted by the heat that was generated by the lava.  They were vaporized.

This is a view of Herculaneum towards the sea.  It was quite the experience to walk the streets, and feel the presence of people who lived and breathed and worked in this town....because it is so preserved it felt more alive. Most of the time you have to use more of your imagination.  This felt way too real.

Layers of Rome

Just outside the Orange Garden on the quiet and peaceful Aventine Hill

Mosaics from a medieval church (4th century AD) near the Colosseum.  These churches (we visited 3 on Saturday) were built over houses where the early Christians are know to have met.  How cool is that?

This statue is in the church called "St Peter in Chains....the chains are in a box on display in the church.  This beautiful piece of marble was carved by Michelangelo and is called 'Moses'.  It's incredible to think it was just a block of marble carved into this lifelike, almost breathing piece of art.

Pasticeria in Rome.  The Bocca della Verita made from bread dough.  Art in itself really.

We had the couple in Frankfurt, whom are some of our 'bosses', come to our house on Friday.  They are Steve and Anita Canfield.   We had a good chat and a thorough discussion about the next few months concerning refugee relief.  They are actually moving to Rome next month to launch the Friendship Center for Refugees here in Rome(April 20).  Our responsibilities at that Center will be as much or as little as we choose, it will only be as true volunteers.  We are not responsible for it's success, as they are the ones who will be officially in charge.  Great.
Then as far as our projects are concerned.  We will continue to process projects that come to us, but we no longer seek new partners.  That phase of refugee relief is coming to a slow close.  We will also process requests from the 10 Stakes in Italy for their projects.  Those will now all be activities in which there is member/refugee interaction.  No more 'hygiene kits' but interactive projects such as dinners, sharing of talents and skills in classes, sharing music/dance events, etc.  So the Stakes will have to be more creative in their activities as the hygiene kits were an 'easy' activity so to speak.  If funding is needed, it will still be the same process as before but the funding will only be approved if the activities meet that criteria.
Lastly, our partners in the North of Italy will have a small gap of 'leadership' as we wait for a new couple to be called and sent there.  We will continue to service those partners and maintain their projects until the end of our mission and tidy everything up as much as we can for the interim between when we leave and they arrive.  The hope is that the couple will arrive by Sept or Oct.  This couple will handle the projects as well as launch another Friendship Center which will open in Milan.
So our job morphs into two jobs for two couples:  A Friendship Center in both Rome and Milan as well as servicing the 10 Stakes in Italy and the partners that have been established.
Hey, when you see it all written out in black/white it does look pretty good.  Sometimes you do have to stop and take stock to see your progress.