Bet you will have lots of chances to see people tossing coins into fountains. Hum. Wonder which types of valuable coins are resting in the bottom of fountains? Ha.
Congratulations, Curtisimo! You're a lucky man to find a woman who's interested in ancient coins—although she may not know it yet.
Was that your cake? Awesome. Ladymarcovan made ours. And my groom's cake, which was decorated with a treasure map, since I was still an active detectorist back then. That was long enough ago, however (1999), that the photos of said cakes and event are not digitized. That "Colosseum" cake with the fondant icing and fancy figurines and such set somebody back a few sestertii, I'll wager, unless a professional baker friend did it. (Ladymarcovan only does the cake thing as a sideline, for friends and family. For a living, she works for the same resort hotel company as I do, only she gets paid more and has more seniority.)
It was amazing and over all too soon thanks for asking! I ended up seeing a lot of things in Italy I haven't seen on previous trips which was great. I think some of the stuff I saw will make it into future post at some point. I still haven't downloaded all my photos from my camera yet (I've had to travel for work to deal with crises since I got back ) but here are a few highlights and tidbits. The Boxer - this is a very rare intact Greek bronze work from the Hellenistic period that might possibly have been used as decoration in the Baths of Constantine and was certainly buried to keep it safe (probably from the sack of Rome in AD 410). It is stunningly impressive in person. Obviously I spent time in every museum display room for coins that I could find Recent archaeological excavations have indicated that this is the exact place where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC... it is now apparently a colony for stray cats I can report back with confidence that the Roman Forum is as fantastic and impressive as ever... ...and that Tuscan wine will still get the job done But most importantly that my new new wife and I had as great of a first few weeks of marriage as could have been hoped for... this was at the Uffizi which I actual found somewhat underwhelming. Haha Don't jinx me man I still haven't got back from my latest work trip!
Good to hear you had a swell time! Now that is cool. Somehow I missed that during my escapades. Glorious. Now I really want to go back and finish exploring the city.