Ciao, Ciao ragazzi! The battery is nowhere near fully charged, but I’m appreciative of the sleep that I did get last night. I was out like a light, and the alarm this morning hit me like a bag of hammers. I’m sure I can snatch some shut eye, maybe, on the bus ride today. We have an exciting day on tap, which will take us outside of the busy streets of Rome. It is also special for another reason, but I’ll get into that later. After yesterday’s cloudy, chillier weather, the sun is supposed to be back, though with some strong winds that might be worse near the coast. Oh well, still beats March at home!

Okay, so we’re here in Anzio after a beautiful drive south from Rome. This was the site of a major Allied landing in January 1944 during WWII. It was an attempt to outflank the German defences in the area and capture Rome. We have just visited the museum, where they have many artifacts and displays of the Anzio Landings, as well as ones from Roman antiquity. Once we are through, we will head into the town for lunch.

Alright, it’s just after 7:00 and we’re on our way back toward the hotel. What a great, somewhat relaxing day. After the museum, the gentleman who gave us the tour of the museum, Patrizio, walked us down to the beach and pointed out many points of interest. What a beautiful little town! We all grabbed some lunch and then had some time to walk on the beach, some even putting their feet in the water. One even fell in the water! Though it was a little windy (maybe a lot at times), it was sad to leave Anzio behind to pile back on the bus.

We’re all back at the hotel now, decompressing a bit and getting packed up as we leave the hotel tomorrow for Ortona. Our supper tonight was at Obica Parlamento, where we dined on salad, pesto pasta and tiramisu. We also had a little celebration, as two of our travellers had birthdays on the trip, one of which was my son, Ethan, who turns 18. We arranged to have a cake made for them and they could each get a half once we returned to the hotel. Afterwards, the bus stopped at the shopping mall across the road from the hotel so anyone who wanted to could do some power shopping for an hour before it closed.

Anyway, I better mosey on as we have an early morning tomorrow in preparation for our day that will take us first to Monte Cassino and then to a new hotel near Ortona. Fingers crossed I’ll get a good rest tonight. Until then…