Shift is labelled Maiusc

Ok, so I'm not so smart. I just figured out I was picking names from the Frequently Mailed List on GMail, not from my All Addresses list. So if you haven't gotten two previous updates and want to know, send me a message and I'll get you the "back issues" (no charge, they aren't that exciting).

Today was pretty cool. We went out of Rome to the historic port city of Ostia Antica (founded about 620 BC). A sunny day, two subways and a transfer to a "train" (really just an above ground subway) and we were within walking distance of the site. There's been a ton of restoration done, and our guide book kept us focused on the main stuff. It'd be easy to spend many hours wandering among the shells of brick buildings. The long story short is this was the first "colony" of the Roman Empire. Rome, on the Tiber River but for all intensive purposes land locked, needed a port. Ostica Antica is at the mouth of the Tiber river and facing the Mediterranean Sea. Sea going ships would offload here, and cargo could be transferred to river ships. Everything was going along smoothly until the Roman Empire collapsed, Ostica was abandoned, silt built up and the city was buried. Oh, and of course as anyone who's flown over a river knows, they change course. The river curved away from the buried city and everything just sat there, waiting for an interested archaeologist to dig it up.

The city center has an amphitheater (seats 4,000) that is still used today. It is currently set up for some sort of Summer International Concert Series. Perhaps some of the money helps pay for the restoration projects? No Black Eyed Peas on the agenda but we saw a changing room (think ice fishing house set beside a 2,000 year old curved stone open air theater) labelled James Taylor Quartet- not sure if that does anything for you all, but there doesn't seem to be a bad seat in the house.

We're modifying our schedule a bit and dropping the trip to Pompeii. There's plenty to do here and we're enjoying the slower pace of Italy permeating our schedule. We just go with the flow and don't really rush anywhere. We see people running through the subway trying to catch trains and we just don't really care, there's another one coming. We start the day pretty slow, enjoying the morning breeze on the terrace and updating journals. After touring whatever and when we get hungry we find some food. The little snack place at Ostia Antica has great pasta salad with mozzarella and tomatoes by the way. Then in the evening we've been stopping by this Internet Cafe, after which we'll head back towards the hotel. Yesterday we walked by an interesting looking Pizza shop (not quite a ristorante but more than a snack bar) so we popped in and had dinner.

The other tourists are a mixed bag, imagine a place in the world and there's a small contingent of tourists from there here. We were informed that we'd be easily identified as American's by wearing tennis shoes everywhere, maybe-maybe not. Lots of tennys in this town. The only people we've seen broadcasting where they are from are Canadians (easy to spot Canadian flags on bags and hats). Presumably they don't want to be thought to be Americans, the premise of a Daily Show segment. Whatever. No one seems to care where were from, and everyone has been friendly and helpful.

Settle a debate for me. Tina is convinced the (overpriced) cans of pop here are smaller than there. We buy plastic water bottles from street vendors on our way out on our outings, so it isn't a big deal, just a curiosity. They say 330 ml on the side, is that the same as what is on a 12 oz can there?

Tidbit of the day: a Euro style keyboard has extra characters on the right after the letters and numbers but before you get to the backspace, return key, and shift (labelled Maiusc) on your keyboard. This can be a pinky stretcher getting over there to hit return.