May 6 - June 13, 2010
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Stage 13: Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, and S.M.O.M.
We spent the night in France, between Geneva and the Mont Blanc tunnel. The "tunnel" is much more than we had expected ... In addition to the main 7-mile tunnel, there is a long series of additional tunnels and mountain passes going on for some 25 miles.
Thanks to the excellent Italian tollways, by afternoon we were deep in the interior of Italy, following trucks on a detour.
We finally arrived in Citta di Castello in the province of Umbria where we spent the night in the Old Town.
We were a bit late for dinner, the place had no menu, and we did not speak Italian, but that did not stop the cook from whipping up a special dinner just for us.
We toured the central plaza by night before heading off to bed.
A drive through the mountains the next morning brought us to the San Marino, an independent country within Italy.
From there we spent three days going down one side of Italy, nearly to the end of the "boot," and back up the other side to Rome.
We were surprised at one point to encounter "snow" which turned out to be a an explosion of cottonwood seeds on the edge of a pond.
We found a very modern, brand new hotel just outside Rome, near a local train stop.
We spent our last day visiting some of the highlights in Rome ... starting with the Vatican City.
We were delighted that the guard unocked the gate and let us into the Sovereign Military Order of Malta [SMOM], a Roman Catholic order widely considered a sovereign subject of international law. It is no larger than the size of two tennis courts!
We had lunch on the Spanish Steps, and watched some newlyweds on a photo tour.
The next morning we headed home with a brief stop in Toronto, Canada.
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