Gaeta, Italy, part 3

After several days of breakneck tourism, we decided to relax over the next few days in Gaeta. Greg drove us to the Grotto di Tiberio, a seaside grotto very near Gaeta where Emperor Tiberius had a summer retreat. There's a small museum displaying some marble statues from the grotto, and the foundations of the villa are still there to be climbed upon. We walked along the beach, getting our feet wet in the Mediterranean, and Hannah went all the way in for a swim. The afternoon was finished with all of us enjoying some fantastic tiramisu at a beach side restaurant.

Our travels brought us all to the Piana della Orme (Plain of Traces) Historical Exhibition Center, the local museum of, well, everything. It has galleries devoted to toys, hand carved model ships and airplanes, agricultural history, and local history. The town of Latina, where the museum is located, was the site of an extensive earthworks project devised by Il Duce himself, the draining of a swamp to create a planned community. The museum has Mussolini's very own tractor on display. The main exhibition in the museum, however, is a collection of World War II weapons and vehicles in life-size dioramas depicting the Anzio landing and the Battle of Cassino, both of which are nearby. The museum is very well done, and most of the equipment is restored and in excellent condition. Some of it had been used recently in the movies "The English Patient" and "Life is Beautiful."

We also visited the town of Sermoneta, a medieval walled village that is still occupied. The streets are narrow and winding, full of shops and restaurants and private homes. We took a tour of the Castello di Sermoneta and were very impressed. The castle is an ideal image of a medieval fortress and it was in outstanding condition. Our tour was conducted in Italian, but just being inside the castle was a treat.

We visited the Abbey at Monte Cassino to hear the monks chant, and we toured the abbey and enjoyed the view of the surrounding countryside that made the abbey such a prize during World War II.

On our final full day in Gaeta, Greg treated us to a tour of his ship, the USS LaSalle. We got a very thorough look at the life of a Navy Public Affairs Officer, from lunch in the wardroom to his office and stateroom. He led us on a tour of the ship from bow to stern, or, in Greg's naval lingo, "pointy end" to "back." After a walk along the beach, we went back to the Geisens' house, where company was expected after dinner (besides us). Two of Greg's contacts through work, photographers John Gaps (AP) and David Gilkey (Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder) literally just arrived from Albania, where they had been covering the Kosovo conflict. Greg had met them on an earlier trip to Albania that went haywire. John and David had been in Albania for eight weeks, and therefore had a unique insight on the conflict. Their shop talk with Greg was fascinating, and it was a great way for us to learn more about Greg's job.

The next morning, our second wedding anniversary, we bid an early farewell to Greg and Linda (without waking Monique) and headed off through Rome to Pisa.