Rozell letters

Hi there!

It's time for cover letters for all, since it's much cheaper to send them all together than to get each one off separately, and since I'm already spending something past a small fortune on post cards from everywhere for you all, I have to economize where I can, despite the inconvenience especially if Denise is slow in getting these travelogies into the mail once she's read them. Anyway, a cover letter of your very own, to keep and treasure always (as I know you [will?]).

Had quite a surprise the other day in wandering about Calvi and [coming?] upon a store-front which announced that there would be none other than a Baskin Robbins opening there soon (on one of the main streets, directly across from the post office - a pretty good location apparently although not quite in the center of town. It looked real enough, although it was in French, but with all your talk of stable populations big enough to support it and all I was quite surprised to see it in a [rather?] small town. Granted, it's one of the larger towns on the island, but [Ajaccio?] is larger, though not nearly as nice as Calvi. I guess that's what happens when you expand though, although I'm curious as to why I haven't seen any other stores in France and therefore as to where the ice-cream will come as well, but I guess that can all be answered in due time.

We're now on our way back to Nice from Corsica, our plans all having been pushed a day back because this was the only boat out from Calvi on Friday or Saturday [and?] because it then means we have to get some [feasible?] [train?] from Nice to Rome. That will be easier if we manage to make reservations (as it were) at the hostel in Rome so

that we'll know there'll be a place for us if we get in in the evening. Otherwise it's really going to be a pain to get in at a [hum die?] hour that also allows us to easily find a place to stay. We'll see how everything goes at the Nice train station when we get there in a couple of hours. We're hoping we won't have to stay in Nice tonight - the train is much cheaper, especially after Corsica where our rail passes aren't good - but we'll see what happens there too (It'll probably be either later in this letter or in the travelogue with it, I'm just starting this early so it isn't such a monstrous job when I realize I haven't worked on it in 4 or 5 days and it borders on the point of just [punting?] the whole thing until I get home, especially when I keep seeming to be saying the samethings over and over again to different people, boy does that get old fast!

Oh, while I'm thinking about it, could you please find the warranty card for my tape recorder (if it's in my room, try the table or 2nd or 3rd drawer on the right hand side of the thing on the end of my bed. I think it's a year [warranty?] and if so I want to have it fixed under warranty in DC when I get there, I'm really tired of having it broken and it was going to cost me close to what it must have cost to [pay?] to get it fixed in England, so. I know that I already told you that on the phone, this has taken quite awhile to get off so, just a reminder, that's all. If anything else comes to mind I'll add it, otherwise, on to the travelogue.

Vickie

Well [golly?], it's that time again, so pull up a chair, gather round the fire, pop some popcorn and get ready for today's edition of TRAVELS WITH JULES AND VICKIE, brought to you today by all the wonderful food in Italy, none of which is left because the stars of our show have eaten it all. When we left these two, the sun was rising in Corsica [on?]:

DAY 14: (Wed. June 25, 1980) We're in Ajaccio on the island of Corsica and went down to the beach to just relax (the town wasn't all that exciting although it was nice) It started raining, however, and we ran under a somewhat porus shelter to eat out lunch (the usual with watermelon and sard.) Finally walked all the way back to the hotel getting soaked along the way and picked up our stuff and rain gear and headed for the train. Unfortunately we couldn't find the stop (at the port - no train station proper) and got a lot of bad directions so we got even more soaked. Just as we found our [hope?] and cover of course, the rain stopped. Caught the train for a beautiful ride across the island, lots of lush greenery and little tiny towns, rolling hills reminded me a lot of the wet parts of Hawaii. Arrived in Calwi and checked into our hotel and just walked around a little thn came home and read etc. as usual.

DAY 15: We slept in (that's two days in a row) until 9:00 AM! Amazing..HELP! Went down to the beach and got really wonderful matching sunburns on our backs. Had an unusual dinner for a change - a European roasted chicken (you know the ones in the grocery stores already cooked that no one ever buys, well they're common and apparently popular since everyone sells them, so we had one of those and [peaches?] (with some unexpected living guests inside..oh well) and lemonade (about 0.5 flat 7-up), a treat that probably won't be repeated soon.

DAY 16: Got a little more color.. more moderation and on the other side, no burns this time.. but don't know how long it will last, not very probably so we'll have to vouch for each other. Walked in the water of the Mediterranean - clear, vivid blue and really nice. We did a lot of beach people watching, that's always much fun, and beach people seem to be about the same everywhere. Wandered around town one more time and discovered BR Corsica SURPRISE!

DAY 17: (Saturday June 28) Mainly travel. Up early to take the boat back to Nice from Calvi, had MASSIVE amount of ice-cream at Festival de Glace - really great fruit flavors (lemon way [too?] strange though). Wandered around Nice (that place is becoming our second home) and took an 8:30 train out to Rome which we almost missed thanks to a combination of inept and not very honest waiters, HELP!

DAY 18: Arrived early (7:30am) in Rome and found a place to stay. Had breakfast and took a long nap - seem to get the most tired when we've done the least, so what else is new? Ran around seeing mostly scaffolding, but also the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (yes I wished and it's none of you business what .. if I tell you it won't come true) and the famous steps plus sort of tripping over a couple other monuments. Home again for a REAL SHOWER - first one in days, you have to pay extra for them and we finally broke down and spent the money, but over a dollar per is a bit much to afford regularly, but we do our best.

DAY 19: Spent most of the day "finishing up" Rome - as if you

can do that city in a day-and-a half who are we kidding here? Anyway, off EARLY to the Vatical museums. Did over half of [them?] well and ran out of time after the Sistine Chapel (ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Vast difference from pictures even. Just so awesome and unbelievable to believe anyone could paint all that on a ceiling by themselves and have done other things in their lifetime besides) so we skipped and skimmed the rest so we could see St.Peter's itself. That place is really amazing too. It screams BAROQUE with all that gold gilt. The piete is just beautiful.. I know all this sounds crazy. I wish you could see them so you would know what I mean, seeing them just give you so much more of an appreciation of the beauty than a picture could ever give (Denise, did you know he was about your age (23-5) when he did that. And what have you done in your life lately?) Also saw a tomb I'd heard much about in class, that was fun, and really an interesting monument to the Pope in question. Then off quickly to the Colesseum, another place, maybe more awesome that it is in ruins yet seems so solid. Not as big as I'd expected (smaller than LA Colesseum although totally different) but impressive nonetheless. I'm sorry we must leave Rome now, your time is up and your trip on the continent will self destruct in two weeks, so off with you on a train to Florence.

DAY 20: We did much running around today, train reservations, looking for the Pan Am office for Jules, climbed to the top of the dome in the Duomo (cathedral) to the turret on the top for a fantastic view of the red rooftops of Florence. It was a SUPER CLEAR day and we really could see almost forever. We actually found a self-service