Day 7 - March 30th

We ate breakfast at the hotel then it was off to Montalcino. This region is best known for their wine - Brunello di Montalcino (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunello_di_Montalcino) one of Italy's most expensive wines. We arrived there early and found that there wasn't much going on - most stores were closed (not sure if it was because of the time or because it was Sunday) and there weren't many people either. We walked around the castle and window shopped in a few Enotecas (wine stores). On our way out we found a ceramic shop that happened to be open (and busy) where Dawn & I stopped and shopped :-)

We headed south, past Rome to the World War II sites of Anzio and Nettuno. We stopped at a turnpike rest area (AutoGrille) for lunch where Dad & I each had a spinach & ricotta panini and Dawn had pizza. This was surprisingly good for turnpike food.

We arrived in Anzio just before 4pm and went straight to the WWII Anzio Landing museum. It was closed until 430pm so we decided to go to the American Cemetery in Nettuno. This is where the Americans killed during the campaign from Sicily to Rome are buried. We got there in time to get in - the last entrance was at 430pm. This was a really overwhelming and touching place. We weren't there for anyone in particular - just to pay our respects. We spent time at the Landing museum, then continued south with the plan on staying in a hotel as close to Ercolano as possible. We finally found a hotel called the Villa Santa Teresa (http://www.villasantateresa.com/home_eng.htm) and checked in to rooms 10 & 19 (cost for the twin was $72 EUR, not sure about the single).

Dinner was down the street at the Ristorante e Pizzaria da Peppino where I tasted buffalo mozarella for the first time (this region of Italy is known for it). Yummy, especially when it was combined with prosciutto.

This area was not so nice at night - it was ok in the day light, but kind of creepy at night. This was the only night that we called home - first to my mom in Argentina and then my sister/nephew in the US. We found that the flight that Dawn and I had scheduled from Rome to JFK had been cancelled and that we were now flying from Rome to Venice, then to JFK then to Washington.