It's been a while since I've

shared with readers our daughter Mary's adventures in Europe.

For those who came in late,

she is a pianist for the Dortmund Opera company, which means she rehearses

individual singers as well as productions, occasionally performs with

the orchestra, and often accompanies soloists in other venues. In return

for odd hours followed by late nights practicing, she gets an adequate

income, generous health care provisions, and a full month off every summer.

That means lots of time to

travel. But all of Germany and France take vacation in either July or

August, so you may "get away from it all" only to discover that

"it all" came with you, and many of the locals whose land you

want to visit are also on holiday. I picture this gigantic tidal wave

of tourists draining northern Europe creating a vacuum that Americans

fill up instantly and flooding points south.

I've never heard that the Italians

are swept out to sea by it, but Italy, like the western United States,

is inundated with Germans vacating Germany. Last summer, Mary and her

significant other, Rainer, also an opera company musician, packed tent

and camping gear into the boot of his car and were swept south with the

other good Germans, looking for some sun.

Along the way, they visited

friends in Stuttgart and drove past the new Hochschule there, the music

school, where Mary studied on a Fulbright grant in 1984 and 1985. She

found the new school next to Stuttgart's grand museum, the Staatsgalerie,

"quite impressive," then added, "Funny, I never noticed

before how aggressive and impatiently they drive there." (No, she

probably didn't, since she either walked or used public transportation

when she lived there.)

Rainer's brother lives near

Rottweil: "Werner threw a big grill party. His business [as a computer

consultant] is going well enough that he's bought a second car and has

moved his office into town.

"On the way back from

visiting their parents' graves, we saw two foxes in a field. And that

evening, near the compost heap behind the house, we watched a hedgehog

the size of our computer speaker. Later he apparently got in a fight,

because there were horrendous noises, catlike. I didn't know they hissed."

Then on to Italy.

"Italy was hot, but not

unbearable, I would think between 30 and 35 during the day." That

would be 86-95 Fahrenheit.

"And we almost always

had wind at night, including a couple of hefty windstorms, so I only dragged

out the bug stuff once or twice.

"The wind meant we had

ashes on us while waiting for the metro to go into Rome; they burn a lot

down there, and I didn't know till we got back that they were also having

some extensive forest fires right outside the city center.

"In Rome, I saw a few

things I hadn't before, like the Roman Forum and a catacomb. Went through

the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel again. Lots of security and police

in the city, and lots of tour buses with pilgrim tourists. It seems like

such a decadent city to pilgrim to.

"We ate outside once in

the old city after the sun couldn't reach between the buildings anymore,

almost at the end of what appeared to be a dead end, but there was a passageway

big enough for a scooter. Watched a businessman ride through, helmet in

one hand and mobile phone in the other. Pretty funny. They're phone crazy.

"Camped near Naples at

the Phlegrean Fields. That's a volcano crater with sulfur fumes, sort

of like in Yellowstone. Also saw the lake which is the entrance to Hades

birds used to drop dead over it from the gases and Sybille's cave. I guess

I thought all this stuff was in Greece, but then again, I think southern

Italy was part of Greece once.

"Drove to Mt. Vesuvius

and walked up; unfortunately, it wasn't doing anything exciting, although

interesting enough. Then Pompeii, which is surprisingly big, lots of it

not even dug out properly. It remains impressive, despite the fact that

anything of value (mosaics, statues, furniture) has been stolen or moved

to a museum.

"I guess the problem in

Pompeii is that it was discovered quite some time ago (250 years?). It's

been open to the elements and thieves, once they cleared off the lava

dust, and it's truly large, with lots still to be excavated. There's another

city that was similarly buried nearby Herculaneum with better examples

of private houses, but not the temples and amphitheaters of Pompeii.

"Rode down to Sorrento

and then over to the Amalfi coast. It was Sunday, and I knew this was

a mistake, but it was not to be avoided. The way they drive there is truly

amazing. Rainer's car [a 1980-something Citroîn] is too big. He

was good at going with the flow, and nothing bad ever happened, but I

had a roller-coaster feeling because of all the near scrapes.

"Anyway, it was wall-to-wall

summer traffic, until we got over to the south part of the Amalfi coast,

where there weren't any towns or beaches, sort of like Big Sur. In Amalfi,

I wanted to see the cathedral, a Norman-Byzantine mix, but we never found

a place to park so I could go up and into the old city above the marina."

Next week, on to Sicily. ...

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