It's raining when we leave Sorrento. The lights go out briefly in the breakfast room. We settle into the car with some relief. We're in Filippo's capable hands now.

Filippo is driving us to Rome with a stop at the American cemetery in Anzio. The drive will take several hours. I pull out my iPod and disappear into the music. My mother beams at me and my happy iPod-wearing face. "Give her toys and she's happy," she says, teasing. Word.

We pull up outside the American cemetery at Anzio several hours later. The gates are both beautiful and closed. Since arriving in Italy in the off-season, we've become familiar with everything being closed, chiuso. It's become an in-joke of sorts.

Undaunted, Filippo gets out of the car, opens the gate, pulls the car through, and closes the gate behind us. He gets someone to open the visitors' center so we can use the bathrooms and sign the guestbook. He drives to the soldiers' monument and gets cheerful waves from the groundskeepers. I've become very fond of Filippo.

The gates leading to the rooms on either side of the monument are chiuso. Following Filippo's lead, I push gently on one and it yields, letting me into a large, silent room.

Above me, an inscription reads: Here are recorded the names of Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country and who sleep in unknown graves. Every inch of wall space is covered with names.

I take off my cap and salute them.

I've been to Arlington National Cemetery a few times, but I've never visited a US military cemetery abroad. It's too sad for me: so many men, so far from home.

I would later learn that three Egyptians were arrested in Italy in September with plans to blow up the cemetery at Anzio.

Hail Roma!

Filippo deposits us at our hotel near the Piazza del Popoli, a funky former palazzo with walls upholstered in cream brocade. I'm sorry to see him go, but I'm energized by Rome. Over the next few days, I reinforce what I learned last year: I love Rome.

I've wanted to see Rome since I was in sixth grade, when we studied ancient civilizations in school. We drew diagrams of the multilayer construction of Roman roads and studied the design of the aqueducts. I was fascinated. If I had any math skills at all, I would have ended up a civil engineer. But my proficiency with math ended in with fractions in fourth grade, so I devoured information about the functioning of the city and stories of the ruling gods instead.

Last year, happenstance kept me from the Forum. This year, we spent an afternoon there. Click here for pictures.