The travels and adventures out-of-state and abroad from a woman living in the U.S.
I'll be backpacking in the Allegheny National Forest!
This is the email I (restless adventurer) received from Karen on the 5th (with a little editing). Sounds like she's having fun.
Buongiorno from Roma. Good times. Today and yesterday it was sunny! The other days there was a bit of rain, but that didnt stop us from checking out sites. Checked out some of the top sites that i had been to previously such as the Colloseum, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna, etc, but that didnt stop me from taking a lot of photos. plus i have a better camera know which has a wider lens so i can capture more in the photos.
Been drinking espresso and cappuchino and pasta. Checked out a few churches. Quite splendid. The church beside the Pantheon, Santa Maria di Sopra Minerva, I believe, has the tomb of Saint Catherine of Siena, all except for her head which is in Siena. I like gory info like that. Hopefully over the next couple days we will get to an old catacomb or two and check out cave like passages and stacked up bones from the early roman christians. lol. My brother would understand.
The photo to the left is of Santa Maria degli Angeli church in Piazza della Republicca. The priest saying mass in one of the alcoves in this huge church that used to be a roman bathhouse, sauna and massage rooms.
This has nothing to do with Italy but I happened upon these photos of really impressively carved watermelons and had to share. (The first photo cracks me up). Czech Republic holds a yearly watermelon artists festival. The talent is impressive.
The intructions on the label of a supposed "Made in Italy" frying pan I just bought had the following CAUTION words of advice:
For safety, please keep pet birds out of the kitchen. Bird's respiratory systems are sensitive to many kinds of household fumes, including the fumes from extremely overheated non-stick pans. Mmmkayy.
Shawnee State Park, the largest park in Ohio, is located in the Appalachian foothills near the Ohio River.
The forest was once the former hunting grounds of the Shawnee Indians who traded silver. Because of it's rugged terrain it's nickname is "The Little Smokies". This region is said to be the most picturesque in Ohio.
Perfect for autumn backpacking, I'd say.
I headed down from Ohio to West Virginia the last weekend of September. We camp a short distance from Nelson Rocks Preserve, in the Monongahela National Forest. From the campgrounds we had a view of Seneca Rocks, which has over 375 mapped climbing routes.
On Saturday, we caved from about noon to 7:00 PM in New Trout, Hamilton, and Kee Caves. It was quite fun exploring these caves that I had not been in before.
On Sunday (9/28/08), after a previous day of caving, we climbed the Via Ferrata. It has been 2 years since my first climb there. The thrill was still there.
Luckily the rain held out for us and we were able to climb!
Driving along the 105 miles of Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia you can find over 500 miles of hiking trails.
For those who are not into hiking, but like the vistas, there are numerous pull-offs where you can stop and enjoy the view of the fabulous mountains.
I hiked a handful of pretty trails along Skyline Drive and spent a couple days there by camping in one of the campgrounds along the way.
Italy was a delight. At least when I wasn't calling the airport asking where my luggage was. (For four days!)
My Italy experience was filled with train travel, cappuchino, pastries, gelato, vino, wood-stove fired pizza, old churches, old cities, history around every turn, many museums, and a lot of walking.
As you can expect, I took a zillion photos so it's taking me a bit to get them uploaded. I do have a couple day's of photo's and journal up.
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