May 16th- As we were leaving the slip in Amalfi, Aniello (the dock handler of the town wall in Amalfi) came to our boat to give us a bottle of wine and three very large lemons!!! Not only is he one of the best boat handlers we have ever seen, but one of the most generous!!! Along the Amalfi coast, we noticed a few ancient watchtowers on the hilltops refurbished into unique houses overlooking the sea. What a view !!!! May 16th on our way to Procida, we saw a pod of Dolphins. They saw our boat and came swimming to play with our bow wake. They were twisting and turning under the water to get the best advantage to ride the wake and jump from below. They seemed to have smiles on their faces as they flew through the air!!! We anchored in the small harbor of Procida and decided to dinghy into the wall to buy groceries. As we came closer to the wall, about 30 nine to ten year olds started to yell and scream as they waved their hands. We didn't think anything about it. I was directing Rudy as he rowed and as we got closer, the kids started to wave and shout again. I was trying to avoid what I thought was a fish pot and the noise on shore got louder!! Then I realized it was a soccer ball. Rudy thought it would be fun to row right pass the ball.the kids didn't think it was funny!!! We retrieved the ball and threw it on shore!!! Thirty happy kids thanked us!!! We were heroes of the day!!! On Saturday May 17th, Mad River and Pernoll arrived about a half hour after us in the small harbor of Ponza. We all were invite on Pernoll to have a drink for the celebration of Norway's Freedom Day and then went to shore. We bought a few groceries and had a pizza and then went back to the boat. As we rowed back, we could see about 30 plus boats anchored around us!!! On Sunday the 18th, we left Ponza at 5:30 a.m. and started for a marina near Rome. This will be our home until we get back from the states. It is called Techomar and it is on a river a short distance from Rome. After about an hour, a fan belt came off and Rudy had to replace it and a couple of more while he was at it!! Good thing he had the correct sizes!!! An hour later we were on our way again. We had lunch and I was going to start cooking dinner, but the wind started blowing and we were busy with sails. The forecast was for winds of about 10 knots, but they were wrong!!! It got up to about 25-30 and right on our nose with waves about 6-12 feet. (Down below looked like there was an earthquake!! We just weren't prepared for the wind and the waves!!!)) We tacked several times and finally made our destination around 7:30 p.m. after 15 "bloody" hours!!!!! Ross and Wei from Gemini were there to help with the lines. They also served us dinner and dessert that they had started to prepare when they heard about the sea conditions. It was wonderful! We went to sleep leaving the cleanup of our small earthquake for the morning!! May 21st:HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACY!!!! She is half my age today!!! Have a Fantastic decade!!! I am planning to!!! May 22nd, we went to a site about one mile away called Ostia Antica. It is one of the largest sites in Italy and it gives a clear idea of the life in Classical times. It had a Forum, (which houses Ostia's largest temple), and the Capitol, (a restored theatre, which is used today). It also had apartment buildings, which were three floors high. There were shops and a Thermopolium, or snack bar, with marble counter and mosaic paintings advertising food and drink below the apartments. We saw at least three different huge bathhouses (these guys were very clean!!!) and a bakery, which supplied Rome and central Italy with bread and other goodies. Rudy and I spent about four relaxing hours roaming the grounds, trying to experience how the Romans felt in their time. On May 24th, Ross and Wei on Gemini left for Sardinia. They will be going to the UK where Wei will start a two-year college course in Art. We hope to visit them in our travels to and from the states!!!! We will miss their company and our nights of playing cards, dominoes and enjoying traveling with them by car and boat. Deb and Dave on S/V Water Music invited us to their boat in a marina down the river for home made scones. They were delicious!!! It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we enjoyed the food as well as the company. We first met Deb and Dave in Turkey and then in Greece and now here in Italy. It gets to be a small world!!! Today is workday. again!!!!! I did the wash, cleaned the stainless, waxed the hardtop, and scrubbed the deck!!! Rudy worked on the engine and cleaned the bilge.what a messy job that was!!! I was soapsuds from head to toe and he was grease, dirt and grime from head to toe..what a picture!!!!!! On Tuesday, May 27th, we went to Rome with Water Music. We caught two trains which took 40 minutes and cost about 80 cents. We went inside the Colosseum (named after the gilt-bronze statue or the Colossus of Nero) and went on the two floors that were available. It was awesome!!! The immensity of the building was unbelievable. We really enjoyed walking thru the stands where many Romans and Greeks stood rooting for the lions or the Christians..probably for the lions!!!! We then took a bus to the Trevi Fountain in the tiny Piazza di Trevi. Last time we were here it was raining and I wanted to see it in the sunlight!!! We had a lemon slushy and then went to find a small art gallery in the Palazzo Colonna. We found it and it was closed. We did see two other exhibits and then off to see Sant'Ignazio di Loyola. In this church, Andrea Pozzo painted the Baroque ceiling in 1685 to celebrate St. Ignatius and the Jesuit order. It was incredible!!! The work of art reminded me of the Sistine Chapel. It had about nine altars and two had domes with stained glass and two others had marble walls with 3-D marble statutes, which were very impressive!!! It was a great find to say the least!!! We met Deb and Dave for lunch at our favorite restaurant off Cola di Rienzo on Ezio Via. Then Rudy and I went to the movies to see Matrix Reloaded in English!!! It is the first movie we have seen in an Italian theatre. We ththen back to our boat. The next day we went to Gaeta to pick up a couple of things I had ordered. We both got haircuts and ate lunch at the restaurant in Sperlonga where the owner is from Wappinger Falls. We said our final good byes to our winter home and then we were off to our boat again!! The next few days we will be getting the boat ready and visiting with Deb and Dave from Water Music and yes.teaching them to play dominoes!!! We will also be packing for our three-week leave to San Francisco and then Poland. The airlines couldn't get us directly back to Rome. The only way was to go through Poland.so we will visit Warsaw for a few days on our way back to our boat!!!! We will be seeing many of you in San Francisco at our daughter Jaclyn's wedding and we can't wait!!!