Lyman County, South Dakota  Genealogy

Floyd C. Borghorst

 
August 13, 1945

I am now in Rome staying in the Excelsior hotel and really enjoying life. I’m just on another eight-day pass. They come around pretty often as you probably can tell. I got here five days ago and for the first three I took in all of the sights that are most important.

Four of us came down here in two jeeps the day before yesterday. We drove to Naples so I got to see Pompeii after all. We also went part way up on Mt. Vesuvius but we did not feel like climbing all the way to the top. I have 12 more pictures here to add to my collection, also a larger one of we four taken at the entrance to the Catacombs.

I won’t be able to tell you the history of anything I’ve seen until I get home, but you know some about all of the pictures I have. We went through part of the Catacombs. It is 40 miles long and is supposed to be the most important. Many of the popes are buried in it.

While there I bought six sets of rosary beads and had them blessed by Pope Pius XII in St. Peter’s. The Vatican is very beautiful. It’s enormous in size and most of the mosaics paintings,  etc., were done by Michelangelo.  I saw St. Peter’s tomb, also Pope Pius XI, where he is buried. Pope Pius XII  looks just like his pictures. He spoke in three different languages.

It’s very odd to see all of the uniforms worn by Swiss guards and the vestments worn by the Cardinals. The Roman Forum is really the original Rome. The ancient Roman road can be seen in it. The coliseum  really looks old. It is scarred up some from age and is very huge in size. Sea battles used to take place inside of it.

The monument of Victor Emanuel is very pretty. You can imagine the size by the people standing on the steps. The tomb of the unknown soldier is there. The rest of the pictures are not so important, so I will end this letter.