Italy on a Zillion Dollars per Day

July 1995

The Lab asked me to be part of a review board for the telecommunications system that will link the Cassini spacecraft to the Huygens atmospheric probe. Cassini launches in October 1997, and once it gets to Saturn, it's to drop the Huygens Probe into the Titanian atmosphere (Titan is Saturn's largest moon).

Well, the review lasted several days, and watching the tension between Alenia-Espazial, Aerospatial, and the European Space Agency (all there for the review) was most interesting. Anyway, our days began fairly early and ended fairly late, but since there was plenty of daylight that time of summer, I always was able to get out into Rome and walk several miles each night to see the sights.

The Colosseum

On the outside of the Colosseum, a graphical depiction of the course of empire for ancient Rome

In Rome, a Roman copy of an Egyptian Pyramid

On Saturday, after the review had completed, I took the train down the coast to Napoli and then to Pompeii to see the ruins there.

Me in front of a great atrium at an ancient Health Club / Gymnasium in Pompeii

And finally, the great actor Ion Adamus on the Stage at Pompeii

Then Monday finally came along and I left Rome for JFK, then to Tampa, Florida to resume plain old regular old business.

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