PHOTO SET #1 of 4

1953: Visiting Pompeii with my parents

These photos, taken by my mother, show me at age seven on my first visit to Pompeii. I told my parents that day that I had been there before. It was all very familiar, and that sense of déjà vu has never left me. I feel it whenever I go back to Pompeii, Herculaneum, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum. I don’t believe in reincarnation, but…

As an adult, I’ve returned to those places and visited others featured in my books, such as the Etruscan necropolis at Caere (now Cerveteri, Italy), which was already 1,000 years old at the time of my novels; plus Athens and the ancient ports of Piraeus and Itanos (both in Greece). See personal photos of those places below.

In my teens, I devoured classic fiction on the Roman Empire: The Last Days of Pompeii, Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Blood of the Martyrs, and The Robe.

Since then, I’ve read newer novels set in the time period and places included in my trilogy—Italy, Sicily, Greece, Syria, Judea, Egypt—and studied their histories and cultures.

PHOTO SET #2 of 4

In 1990, even though it was my second visit to Pompeii, it was my first time there as an adult and my husband Bernie’s first time ever. We enjoyed exploring it and Herculaneum, the Colosseum (our second time there together), the Forum, more classic areas of Rome, and an even older Etruscan necropolis near the coast. These places play roles as settings, both major and minor, in two of my novels: Rubies of the Viper and The Ruby Ring.

1973 & 1990: THE COLOSSEUM IN ROME

In 1973, during our first European trip together, Bernie and I wandered off the street into the Colosseum and had fun exploring it on our own. The folks behind us in the photo below had done that, too.

In 1990 , it was still uncrowded enough that we did exactly the same thing. Nowadays, you hardly can get in without being part of a tour group.

1990: ROME

I photographed Bernie looking out over Rome from the Mausoleum of Hadrian (Castel Sant’Angelo). In the distance is Gianicolo Hill (Janiculum), famous for its spectacular sunset views, which is mentioned in The Ruby Ring.

After that, he “shot” me beside the Tiber River.

1990: ROMAN FORUM & PALATINE HILL

We had a blast roaming the Forum ruins.

And on historic Palatine Hill, I sat cross-legged on the ground, communing with the spirits of long-dead Romans amid wildflowers and the crumbling remains of ancient mansions.

1990: THE ETRUSCAN NECROPOLIS NEAR CAERE (NOW CERVETERI)

I photographed Bernie standing beside two of the thousand-plus (yes, there really are over a thousand!) 3,000-year-old “beehive tombs” at the Etruscan necropolis near the modern-day town of Cerveteri, Italy.

These tombs already were 1,000 years old at the time my characters—three invented and one real—took part in two scenes set there in Rubies of the Viper. They knew the nearby town by its historic name, Caere.

This necropolis, now called Banditaccia, is one of Italy’s most significant archaeological sites, filling a 1,000-acre complex built by aristocratic families who sought to perpetuate their high-quality lifestyle after death.

The “beehive tombs” imitate the houses of their occupants: rooms filled with abundant luxury goods, shaped doors and windows, columns and pillars, beamed and coffered ceilings, furnishings, funerary beds, and even food.

The day Bernie and I were there, we and a group of Italian high schoolers on a field trip had the amazing place all to ourselves. As with so many other sites we visited, we were spared loud tour guides and flocks of selfie-takers and thus were able to enjoy that unique experience in peace and at our own pace.

PHOTO SET #3 of 4

1992: Athens

Athens is one of the settings in my novel The Viper Amulet. For a whole lovely week, from our hotel-room balcony, Bernie and I enjoyed this superb view of the Acropolis, which my fictional characters also had relished from a similar inn… two thousand years earlier.

And we noted Bernie’s striking resemblance to a mythic figure in the Acropolis Museum.

One morning, we climbed a steep stone stairway up to the Acropolis and spent hours admiring its classic buildings, including the caryatid (“maidens of Karya”) on the temple known as the Erechtheion (top photo below) and the fifth-century BC Parthenon.

As you can see, there were only a few others “up there” with us, giving us plenty of freedom to explore. We were very lucky in our timing.

PHOTO SET #4 of 4

1992: Crete

On this largest island in Greece, we rented a car and spent a week prowling around, including the archaeological site at the ancient port at Itanos (below), which is one of the settings in Rubies of the Viper and briefly mentioned in The Ruby Ring. This photo is the best I have of that harbor, even though it shows none of the ruins.

So, instead of port ruins, I’ll share a few other experiences as we soaked up the landscape and culture of the mountains, back roads, and villages and a few of the friendly critters and people whom we got to know on Crete.