Italy

December 2009 / Spring 2016 / Fall 2018

In December 2009, Todd & Donette traveled to Italy and met up with Hanna, who was attending college in Florence. The trio visited Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Venice and a number of smaller Tuscan hill towns such as Civita, Cortona, Monteriggio, Orvieto and Volterra.

In the spring of 2016, Todd spent a week in Rome providing training to Libyan archaeologists. This training was conducted at the American Academy and taught the archaeologists various methods to document archaeological looting.

In the fall of 2018, Todd and Donette began and ended a three-month Balkans road trip in Italy. A few days were spent in Rome, then the pair traveled northeast through numerous Italian towns to Trieste. After climbing and exploring throughout the Balkans, they returned by ferry to Bari, Italy and climbed and visited various sites in southern Italy, eventually returning to Rome. In southern Italy they visited the Amalfi Coast, Pompei and Naples. In Rome, they were lucky enough to do a very early morning tour of the Vatican Museum, opening various doors with the “clavigero,” the key keeper of the Vatican. Donette was given the privilege of unlocking the Sistine Chapel, entering alone and turning on the lights.