Videos you don't want to miss!

Just to get you thinking about some of the things I will be seeing I am linking to two videos. Wow!
The first one is about over 600 caves that have been found under Naples:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8030348.stm

And the second about new technologies being used at the Catacombs in Rome:







Paintings which have not been seen in nearly 2,000 years are now visible

More news about the trip

My husband just sent me this info about something we will be doing on the trip.

Nicola Denzey Lewis will be taking us down underground to a couple of the early Christian catacombs (2nd-4th centuries). No one knows how many miles of underground tombs there are around Rome from that time period. There are burials for all kinds of people, not just Christians. Because these tombs were underground, they were hidden and preserved. So wall and ceiling paintings in the
(the image is from amazon.com and links to the listing)

Christian tombs provide us with some of the earliest examples of Christian art. Nicola is the author of *The Bone Gatherers: The Lost Worlds of Early Christian Women*. Since women were often in charge of burial and mourning, the catacombs also provide us with important evidence for the activities of women in the early churches.

Welcome Second Follower

This is really fun! I just checked and we have a new follower, Selina Eshragi. If you are following you may want to add a marker to our map to show where you are from. I hope I will hear a lot from them when the trip starts.

Plans are moving along. This week we heard from several of the people in Italy and Israel who are getting permission for the group to visit various places. It looks like we will be learning from some world renowned experts. One person we will be learning from is Dr. John R. Clarke. You may want to check out his book called Roman Life. Inside is a CD which lets you walk around a Roman Villa in Pompeii virutally and has explanations of the many things that you see. It will be amazing to have people like this showing us Pompeii.

First Follower

This week I received a note from the first followers of the Odyssey! They are a 4th grade year round school in Maplewood, Minnesota. They are using the Q-matrix to help them learn to ask questions and you will be seeing their comments on the blog when I travel.

Thanks!