in the circumstances, your decision to stay near Pompeii looks like a winner. I'm glad in a way that we're not the only ones who drive on and on missing perfectly good places because we're past them before we know.

I know what you mean about the way in which the italians seem to neglect their treasures. Their problem is that they have so many of them, that to protect and restore them all is impossible. In fact my italian teacher in Tuscany told me that they gave up putting guards around the sites nearby to where she lives because they lost more things to theft and damage with the guards in situ than when they took them away.

Great report. I'm eagerly awaiting more!

Wonderful jjb! Oh my, annhig--one hates to read of such thefts.