Awoke late today. Despite the best efforts of our most hard-working maid, our room is starting to smell funny. Heat. Bananas. Cheese. Bad combo. But it’s raining, which is lovely. A cool drizzle. The Italians are freezing. We are loving it. After breakfast, we spent hours and hours at the Archeological Museum, an amazing collectionof antiquities dating back to the Etruscan era. (Who imagined the Estruscans were so tall?) Giovanni, an extremely helpful museum guard, translated many exhibits for us. (He was the child the teacher used to call on all the time. “What’s the capital of Illinois?” He knew the answer, and now look what he does for a living!) An amazing collection of Etruscan artifacts (until the Gauls came and had to wreck it for everybody), as well as Roman, Greek, and Egyptian treasure. Lunch at McDonald’s (why not?), a bit of window shopping, and then a tour of Bascilica di San Petronio, the massive church that anchors one end of Piazza Maggiore. Construction began in 1390 and ended in the 17th century, yet it was never completed. It contains the largest interior sundial on earth, constructed by the astronomer Cassini. A short stop at the Neputune Fountain so Mike could take a million pictures. Then, a tour of the library, which contains underground Roman ruins visible through glass and cool Italian chairs.

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