60. Claudia from Rome

A postcard Claudia sent her family from Rome, Italy, on Saturday, March 27, 1971.

i’ve decided Italy has to be the most romantic country in the world—I fell in love with Florence. It’s so beautiful and then everywhere you go it’s rolling green hills, vineyards and beautiful trees—it’s just joyful!

You should see our hotel here in Rome—it’s unbelievable! Everything is marble and there are song birds in cages and aquari¬ums with beautiful fish and they even have a cage of monkeys in it! (Boy, those monkeys sure scared me that first night when I went bipping by in the dark—they woke up and started to shake their cages—I just about lost seven years growth—and I can’t afford that!) But everything is really elegant (except the rooms themselves)—they even have a roof garden between the fourth and fifth floors which is a terrace with fountains and statues and foliage all around—it looks out over Rome and it’s so beautiful—especially at night when the stars are out.

Today we had a tour of Vatican City and it was really interesting—we saw the Sistine Chapel—it’s unbelievable! I don’t see how Michelangelo could put so much of his life into doing the ceiling, especially having to lie on his back the whole time! That’s really devotion and unbelievable skills and genius!! We also went to St. Peters which is the church the Pope presides over as bishop and it’s also the largest church in the world—it’s BIG!! And the interesting thing is that it’s never completely done—’cause every time a Pope dies a new one is chosen and more is added—it’s really magnificent to see. I thought I was going to get a stiff neck today, so much to see and so high up! Tomorrow we see ancient Rome.