Reflections
I need a lot more time to assimilate all we took in for our three weeks in Italy. I can say it was a perfect amount of time -- not too short, not too long -- for an initial trip. The itinerary seemed busy, but it really wasn't. We found we had time to see and experience what we wanted (there is ALWAYS more) and I don't think we could have taken in much more. Sandy and I took time to relax and enjoy the country and to enjoy each other's company. That was very special to me. Our small hotels were all excellent and each had a flavor of its own. They weren't 5 star, but they were clean, pleasant, and all run by very nice and helpful people. I would recommend all of them, particularly the Albergo Marin in Venice (82 Euros a night), the Hotel Duomo in Cremona (85 Euros a night), the Hotel Porta Romana in Siena (110 Euros a night), and the Hotel Due Torri in Rome (about 160 Euros a night). The Cremona hotel was 20 steps from the Duomo piazza and the Rome hotel was in a quiet alley away from the fray. The final bills at these hotels were a little less when we paid in cash & had a Rick Steves discount.
Food was (as we had always heard) fabulous everywhere, even at the gas stops on the expressway. We didn't have one bad thing to eat, except we thought the wine at dinner in Sorrento was watered down. I'm hooked now on good olive oil, balsamic vinegar, prosecco, chianti, and Buffalo mozzarella cheese. I remember Ginny coming home from Italy with the same pensions! Can't wait to share with her! We didn't find it terribly expensive either. Breakfast was included in the hotel and Sandy and I split almost every lunch and dinner and had plenty to eat. She stopped at fish though -- one night I had to have my fresh whole fish! We spent about 15-20 euros on lunch and about 30-35 on dinner for both of us.
Gasoline was expensive but our little Smart Car didn't take much and we were very glad to have that, though I had thought differently before we left. It drove very well, albeit a little bumpy, and you really forgot you didn't have space in back of you until you went to park it. The automatic transmission overdrive worked differently from my car. You could push it in overdrive, then you had to push a button to upshift it again. I used that a lot on the mountainous terrain. Once we learned to touch the brake before we started the car, we had no trouble starting it.
It was easy and smart to limit ourselves to one carry-on bag each. I took a tote bag for the plane to carry my purse, my tablet, a sweater, and noise-cancelling headphones (a must). I also packed a tiny nylon collapsible tote to carry extra items on the way back when I checked my bag and carried the two totes. We didn't want to check anything on the way to Italy because we were taking the train straight to Venice and wouldn't be in Rome in case the bag got lost. I actually packed too much! I didn't need 3 pairs of shoes (tennis shoes were the best on the cobblestone streets) -- tennis shoes & one pair of sandals would have done it. I could have left home a couple of shirts and one pair of pants. I was glad to have packed my hairdryer that had a European plug. Some of the hose dryers are awful. I should have taken a washcloth, but Sandy had two -- thanks Sandy. It was easy to wash out things as we needed to.
People, people, people......I was actually glad to get away from so MANY people everywhere! Of course it was tourist season, but when you get back to the USA you appreciate how spread out we are. I will not complain about traffic here again (ha -- yes, I will!). It's nothing like traffic in Italy with the motor cycles weaving in and out and between very narrow lanes. You do have to travel with a lot of patience. Drivers in Italy are much more trusting of each other. They cut in front of you quickly and very close, they drive pretty fast, and they know exactly how big their cars are. They are generally good drivers -- no room for whimps here. If you are at all nervous about driving, don't drive there! People crowded around Trevi fountain, the Pieta, the Colosseum, etc. You just want to tell them all to get out of the way! It was a relief to get back to the hotel after a day of people.
On Sunday, Sandy and I took a taxi to the Fumicino Airport. It was very deserted & we both got through security in no time. I had to wait a while & staked out a seat near the gate. A man and his wife came over and he plopped in the chair next to me while his wife went shopping. "We're from Alabama" he said in a MAJOR Southern drawl, after our initial niceties. "Ma wife an' I decided tuh go tuh Rome fo' a few days - neva been there 'fore. Had the hardest tahme findin' our way round. All the streets are called VIA -- via this an via that. How d'ya tell the diffrence?"
OK, I'm back home in the South, thankfully not rural Alabama! It's quiet here -- not so many people -- but now I miss Italy! What a fabulous trip and a fabulous country. 'Bye for now!
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
10 hours of sleep!!
We really were tired! Must have
been all the walking, the wine, and the lemoncello yesterday. We dawdled over breakfast, then decided to
tackle the Forum again. The taxi to the
Forum entrance let us out at the Coliseum.
Well, FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. We couldn’t find it! We asked the hotel clerk – it’s here, she pointed on the map. We asked the taxi – it’s there. We asked a guide – it’s over there, follow
the wall, up the hill. We did – no
entrance (yet another hill in Rome!). Go up the hill over there and
you’ll find an entrance. Went up
Palatine Hill – no entrance. Go to the
2nd traffic light and turn left.
No entrance. OK, good overall
views of the Forum (actually, very neat), but we NEVER found an entrance to get
in! We saw people in the Forum and tried to follow the lines, like ants, but couldn't find a beginning or end! There was a lot of construction for
a subway and all the entrances on our maps were closed. The ONE place – WAY back in the other direction
– we didn't try, is probably the only entrance now, but we were completely over
it by that time! We still saw where
Caesar was born, were he spoke, where he was burned and where his funeral was –
from above.
It’s pretty incredible how the city is built above and all
around the ruins. It is continually
being excavated. Even Caesar’s palace on
Palatine Hill is still being unearthed.
I noticed the top of an arch sticking up from the ground, so you know
there is more underneath. To think, ALL of this was covered in marble. How magnificent it must have been and SO HUGE!
We went to San
Clemente church down the road from the Coliseum. That’s a crazy, mixed up church and
fascinating. Inside is a mixture of
Medieval and Baroque. You pay to go down
underneath the church to find an earlier church, then go down ANOTHER level to
find the ruins of a pagan “church”.
Creepy down there and very humid and smelly, but amazing that was all found
and protected!
Back to the hotel for a break with fruit, cheese, crackers, and wine,
then out to stroll by the river, only a couple of blocks from the hotel. We crossed the Tiber River (Fiume Tevere) on
the Ponte Umberto directly in front of the Corte de Casserzone (the Palace of
Justice -- national supreme court), went past the very Gothic church Sandy was
so interested in – not open – and crossed back over the river again on Ponte Cavour.
Now we’ve crossed over 3 bridges in Rome.
Too bad we are leaving, now that we are just getting to know the city better!
We have a bottle of wine to consume tonight and some lemoncello. So after a pizza margarita (a popular one here, and boy, is it good!) and Chianti, I’m going to pack and get ready to leave this fascinating country in the morning. Goodbye Italy – hope to see you again soon! This has been the most wonderful trip in every way.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Up again and off to the Vatican, but this time we took a
little time for a quick breakfast and coffee & shared a taxi with another
couple. Daniella from Livitaly Tours was
waiting for us. There were only two
other people, a nice Australian couple, in our group. Daniella rushed us across the street to the
entrance so we would be only the 2nd group in line to enter at 8:00,
a half-hour earlier than anyone else.
While we were waiting to get in she told us about the Sistene Chapel
because once we got in we were only allowed to talk for a few minutes, then had
to be silent. She let us stay in there
to look for 15 minutes. There were
benches along the walls to sit so you could look up easily and only about 20 people in the room. We got there before it got crowded. When we went back through later, the room was PACKED and you could hardly move, let alone see the entire room! What an amazing place! Pictures just don’t do it justice. I’ll have to go back and read The Agony and the Ecstasy now. Daneilla proved to be an excellent guide,
gliding us through the whole Vatican in 3 hours. You could spend days looking at everything,
but this was exhausting enough and my brain would have exploded if it had been
longer. Ginny said to be sure to see
Laocoon by Michelangelo, which was beautiful but missing some parts. Laocoon’s arm was found not many years ago
(after a replacement arm had been put on centuries ago). On
investigation they realized that the found arm matched muscularly to this statue
and that it was in a different pose from the replacement one. I could have stood for a long time looking at Rafael’s School of Athens but we couldn't stay
long. Our guide told us this story: the Pope insisted upon seeing what
Michelangelo was doing in the Sistene (M. never let people see his work until
it was finished), so begrudgingly M. took all the scaffolding down & the
Pope invited Raphael, who was working in another room, the School of Athens room, to come view the chapel with him. Raphael was so awed by M’s work, he started
to change his style of painting to reflect the more muscular attributes of the
body. He paid further homage to M. by
putting M.’s face on the old man in the middle of the School of Athens. He put his own likeness on another figure,
the only way he could actually sign the work, since artists were not allowed to
sign their work. The painting on the
other side of the Raphael room, opposite the School of Athens, was started by
Rafael (left side) and finished by his assistants, with a definite change in
style from left to right. That must have
been the point at which Rafael saw the Sistene.
VERY cool.
We were, by then,
ushered quickly past CROWDS of people, but we got to walk through the hall of
maps, the corridors of papal gifts, incredible tapestries – so much – you could
spend DAYS there! There were marble
tables there which were originally sample slabs used by the Romans to display
the different kinds of marble that were available. Gorgeous.
I think we have seen every kind of marble available at some point, and
that’s A LOT of marble!
After floating through (literally) the contemporary gallery
(Dali, Cezanne, Matisse, etc.), we walked next door to St. Peter’s
Basilica. UNBELIEVABLE. That place is so big it’s inconceivable, even
after seeing all the biggest cathedrals in Italy! First you see the five bronze doors – one of
which, the really old beautiful one, is opened only every 25 years. I think it’s due to be opened in 2025. You enter through a door made in the last ¼
century. To the right directly is
Michelangelo’s Pieta. It was behind plexiglass and very hard to see
because of all the crowds – jillions of people by that time. Apparently some idiot in the 1970’s went up
to it and started beating at it saying “get this out of here” and cracked two
or three parts of the statue. The story
goes (according to our guide) that Michelangelo created the statue and no one
would believe he did it – they were saying someone else did – all kinds of
scandal – so he broke in one night with his chisel and wrote across it “made by
M…..”. Remember, artists weren't allowed
to sign their names to anything. In the
middle of the Basilica was St. Peter’s tomb with the most beautiful (and
contemporary-looking to me) bronze canopy over it made by Bernini with bronze
stolen from the Pantheon. ONLY the Pope
and those permitted by the Pope can speak from that spot. Daniella pointed out the windows of the Pope’s living
quarters and the place where the smoke comes from when a new Pope is elected,
also where the new Pope is introduced to the people. The Pope speaks to the people every Sunday
(all who gather in St. Peter’s Square – about 450,000 people and MANY chairs
were set up too).
Tired! This was a lot
to take in for a relatively short period of time! Back to the hotel to collapse for a while,
then off to the Colosseum in the afternoon. We're NOT walking this time! The taxi dropped us off in front where there were again jillions of
people. We had reserved tickets (the
hotel did it for us) so were got in pretty quickly. The size was impressive but I have to say I’m
glad I saw it, but that’s all I needed. I
don’t need to see or imagine what went on there. The animals and people on elevators, killing, killing,
killing. The fact they could flood the
arena for war games (imagine, WAR games -- better as video games!) and put a canopy over it is pretty
incredible, but, now that I have seen it, that's all I
need. Don’t need a tour. We were pretty tired. We tried to find the entrance to the forum
but to no avail. We asked one of the
“gladiators” (men in costume who wanted $ for a picture) who pointed us up the
street but we couldn’t find an entrance and by now were Romaned out. Maybe tomorrow. Time for dinner and wine. Very early to bed. We've decided to take it easy on our last day in Rome tomorrow. We've seen SO much and need time to assimilate all of it. Not possible!
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Today is Borghese Gallery day. The hotel got us reservations for 1:00 so we took our time getting up and strolled to the park via the Spanish Steps (which I DID climb, by the way). I rather enjoyed standing on the steps and looking over the view that Goethe, Wagner, Keats, and many others would have seen. Keats died in a building next to the steps. The Sinking Boat fountain at the base of the steps was built by Bernini (or his dad?) and Sandy was particularly taken with that. We walked through the old Roman wall to the Central Park of Rome -- the Borghese Gardens -- and wandered through the quiet 3-square mile park, enjoying the lake with the Greek statuary, the many fountains, and the Roman race track. What a lovely break from the hectic city.
The Borghese Gallery is astounding! My all time favorite. The 17th century villa itself is beautiful and the art -- be still my heart! One after another of works that are beyond fabulous. We weren't allowed to stay more than 2 hours and we left enough time to go backwards through it again quickly. I've found that you see so much more than you did the first time if you go back in the other direction. It also serves as a review of what you've seen which is nice. Seeing the Bernini David after seeing Michelangelo's David was really interesting. Michelangelo's David is so perfect, powerful, and graceful and Bernini's is full of action and determination. Many works by Raphael, Rubens, Carivaggio, Bernini, and many others, but not Michelangelo or DaVinci. I guess that is explained by the fact that this was a collection of works chosen to adorn the villa (and the tastes) of the Borghese family, not collected to perpetuate art and demonstrate styles as in a museum. The only downside for me were the steps. Up 4 LONG flights of stairs, then down of course in time! I found a friend in a man and his wife who were about as excited about that as I was and we encouraged each other. Sandy can just fly up but she is very patient with me.
We walked and walked and walked again today -- Sandy's pedometer said about 6 miles. We were pretty exhausted. Back "home" at the hotel, after collapsing on our beds for a while, we asked where we could get a good dinner and the woman recommended a restaurant at a nearby piazza that "is full of local people and not very touristy -- a nice place to people-watch and eat good food". She was right. What a lovely evening sipping wine, eating good food, and enjoying all the people out for an evening on the piazza. When evening rolls around, the tables, chairs, and umbrellas are set up outside (more added for the dinner hours), people socialize around a meal, kids play in the piazza, stores re-open after a mid-day rest, and neighbors are out for a pre-dinner stroll, greeting each other & window shopping. The city seems to calm down, and, at the same time, it comes alive in a different way. Time is taken to retire the busy day and savor the end of it. We've found the Italian people to be very warm and friendly and very proud of their country and its heritage.
Today is Borghese Gallery day. The hotel got us reservations for 1:00 so we took our time getting up and strolled to the park via the Spanish Steps (which I DID climb, by the way). I rather enjoyed standing on the steps and looking over the view that Goethe, Wagner, Keats, and many others would have seen. Keats died in a building next to the steps. The Sinking Boat fountain at the base of the steps was built by Bernini (or his dad?) and Sandy was particularly taken with that. We walked through the old Roman wall to the Central Park of Rome -- the Borghese Gardens -- and wandered through the quiet 3-square mile park, enjoying the lake with the Greek statuary, the many fountains, and the Roman race track. What a lovely break from the hectic city.
The Borghese Gallery is astounding! My all time favorite. The 17th century villa itself is beautiful and the art -- be still my heart! One after another of works that are beyond fabulous. We weren't allowed to stay more than 2 hours and we left enough time to go backwards through it again quickly. I've found that you see so much more than you did the first time if you go back in the other direction. It also serves as a review of what you've seen which is nice. Seeing the Bernini David after seeing Michelangelo's David was really interesting. Michelangelo's David is so perfect, powerful, and graceful and Bernini's is full of action and determination. Many works by Raphael, Rubens, Carivaggio, Bernini, and many others, but not Michelangelo or DaVinci. I guess that is explained by the fact that this was a collection of works chosen to adorn the villa (and the tastes) of the Borghese family, not collected to perpetuate art and demonstrate styles as in a museum. The only downside for me were the steps. Up 4 LONG flights of stairs, then down of course in time! I found a friend in a man and his wife who were about as excited about that as I was and we encouraged each other. Sandy can just fly up but she is very patient with me.
We walked and walked and walked again today -- Sandy's pedometer said about 6 miles. We were pretty exhausted. Back "home" at the hotel, after collapsing on our beds for a while, we asked where we could get a good dinner and the woman recommended a restaurant at a nearby piazza that "is full of local people and not very touristy -- a nice place to people-watch and eat good food". She was right. What a lovely evening sipping wine, eating good food, and enjoying all the people out for an evening on the piazza. When evening rolls around, the tables, chairs, and umbrellas are set up outside (more added for the dinner hours), people socialize around a meal, kids play in the piazza, stores re-open after a mid-day rest, and neighbors are out for a pre-dinner stroll, greeting each other & window shopping. The city seems to calm down, and, at the same time, it comes alive in a different way. Time is taken to retire the busy day and savor the end of it. We've found the Italian people to be very warm and friendly and very proud of their country and its heritage.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
I am a “dumb butt” according to Sandy (and me). We got up at 6:30 and called a taxi that
picked us up at 7:00 to go to the Café Vatican to meet our tour guide by
7:20. Too early for coffee and
breakfast, but we got there just as they were opening the cafe and got some
coffee. We waited until about 7:40 and I
happened to re-check my receipt. It said
FRIDAY, SEPT. 20! Damn!!! I had it in my brain we were taking that tour
the 2nd day we were in Rome.
Of course, we got here a day earlier, so it was the 3rd
day! Sandy was so nice about it but I
was really mad at myself since I was the one in charge of that. So, we walked back to the hotel. It was a long way, but we saw things we might
not have seen otherwise and got back to the hotel in time for breakfast! We got a glimpse of St. Peter’s square from
the street. It didn't look as large as I
expected somehow. I was rather
surprised. Then we walked up to Sant’Angelo
Castle, Hadrian’s tomb turned castle, but we didn't go in – too early. We crossed the Sant’Angelo bridge and saw
all the Bernini statues that lined it.
After a rest, we took off for the nearby
Museo Altemps, associated with the National Museum of Rome which we went to
next. Both specialized in ancient Roman
works, many of them restored in the 16th – 18th
centuries. Seeing these things really
puts perspective on Roman art and how it influenced later artists. Interesting to see the hairstyles of the day,
see fragments of the first Julian calendar, and try to recall some of the myths I've
long forgotten. We got Roman-ed out
though fairly quickly and left to find an interesting nearby church we read
about – Santa Maria della Vittoria.
Bernini’s St. Teresa in Ecstasy
was there. Bernini staged the altar by
sculpting “theater boxes” on either side with statues of men looking down and
commenting on the “main event” (Teresa).) This was very cool and, in some ways, rather
shocking. The interesting thing was that
the men sitting in the boxes were supposed to be of the Cornaro family, likely the same
family who built Sally & Carl’s Villa Cornaro.
Walk, walk, walk and more walk. Past a HUGE building, blocks long, with all
kinds of flags and dressed up guards and guards with guns. Hmm? Turned out to be the President of Italy’s home – the Quirinale. To get back to the hotel we had to go down
the highest of the 7 hills of Rome.
Downstairs, many levels, then downhill.
Time for a dinner stop! We found
a little place in an alley off the main street and had a salad bar (the first we've found here, though we've had some wonderful salads) with all kinds of vegetables and a wonderful spaghetti dish. On the way back home we stopped in again at
the Pantheon and saw the tomb of Raphael.
It’s amazing to think of what the Pantheon must have been like before it
was stripped of all its marble and bronze by those damn Christians! The Pope ordered Bernini (we found out later)
to use the bronze in the Pantheon to make the canopy over St. Peter’s tomb in
the middle of St. Peter’s Basilica. The
canopy is incredible, but REALLY?
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Driving day! Up early & check out. Sandy's turn to now get out of Sorrento the way we came in. So much traffic. It's stop and go, slowly, all the way through the little towns. Thank goodness she is a good driver. I get to look around this time. The view is hazy -- cloudy but not raining ....... yet. Fortunately it rained only slightly once we got on A-1. Vesuvius is more clouded over the top than it has been, and the cliffs have eerie shadows. The navigation on my cell phone is working today and we pretty much breeze to the Chiampino Airport outside of Rome. It didn't take long to find the Auto Europa place, turn in the car (no problem, even though it was a day late and another dropoff point), and take the shuttle to the front of the airport where we got a taxi to our hotel. Well, almost to our hotel. It's on a little side alley, so she left us off and pointed. We did feel a little abandoned, but not for long. The Hotel Due Torri is a nice little hotel on a supposedly quiet (except for the loudmouth dog and his owner) street in the Pantheon district. We found it quickly, rattled our suitcases over the square cobblestoned street and checked in. Up one flight -- not too bad. Elevator if necessary, air conditioning, small but nice room with refrigerator, TV (haven't put one on since we got to Italy!), and a small but nice shower.
We HAD to get something to eat, so we went to nearby Obiko at the suggestion of the woman at the hotel desk. Wonderful and huge salad, bread, and pasta. After a short siesta back at the hotel, we ventured out again. Our map reading prowess proved shaky again as we found our way first to the Pantheon, then Trevi fountain. I was blown away by the size of the Pantheon. I expected big, but this is HUGE! How did the Romans build such a huge dome?? Interesting to see the two rectangular cutouts done by Brunelleshi (by special permission) to discover the materials used so he could build the dome for the Florence cathedral. Ginny says we have to go back and see Rafael's tomb. We will, gladly.
Trevi fountain is a must see, but not when we did! We hit it right at "stroll time" for all the Italians and all the tourists. It was SO crowded! We did manage to get pictures and to admire it and that's all we needed to do. A fellow peddling polaroid pictures of people in front of the fountain took a picture of us with Sandy's camera, then was disgusted when we wouldn't buy one of his pictures.
Speaking of which, there are quite a few people sitting on the steps of buildings with cups for handouts. In Florence we saw several crippled people walking the streets with cups. Then you have the musicians. The ones in Venice who just wouldn't go away while I was on the phone with Ginny. Street corner violinists and accordion players. A couple of musicians on the Ercolano train playing, then passing a cup. A cellist playing Bach in front of the Pantheon.
Off to the Piazza Navona with it's Egyptian obelisk and beautiful fountain. And, of course, its church and all the ones we popped into along the way. Even the most humble of them are works of art.
We've covered enough territory today. After some fruit, cheese, left over lunch, and wine, we are off to read, write, relax, and sleep. We're in ROME!
Driving day! Up early & check out. Sandy's turn to now get out of Sorrento the way we came in. So much traffic. It's stop and go, slowly, all the way through the little towns. Thank goodness she is a good driver. I get to look around this time. The view is hazy -- cloudy but not raining ....... yet. Fortunately it rained only slightly once we got on A-1. Vesuvius is more clouded over the top than it has been, and the cliffs have eerie shadows. The navigation on my cell phone is working today and we pretty much breeze to the Chiampino Airport outside of Rome. It didn't take long to find the Auto Europa place, turn in the car (no problem, even though it was a day late and another dropoff point), and take the shuttle to the front of the airport where we got a taxi to our hotel. Well, almost to our hotel. It's on a little side alley, so she left us off and pointed. We did feel a little abandoned, but not for long. The Hotel Due Torri is a nice little hotel on a supposedly quiet (except for the loudmouth dog and his owner) street in the Pantheon district. We found it quickly, rattled our suitcases over the square cobblestoned street and checked in. Up one flight -- not too bad. Elevator if necessary, air conditioning, small but nice room with refrigerator, TV (haven't put one on since we got to Italy!), and a small but nice shower.
We HAD to get something to eat, so we went to nearby Obiko at the suggestion of the woman at the hotel desk. Wonderful and huge salad, bread, and pasta. After a short siesta back at the hotel, we ventured out again. Our map reading prowess proved shaky again as we found our way first to the Pantheon, then Trevi fountain. I was blown away by the size of the Pantheon. I expected big, but this is HUGE! How did the Romans build such a huge dome?? Interesting to see the two rectangular cutouts done by Brunelleshi (by special permission) to discover the materials used so he could build the dome for the Florence cathedral. Ginny says we have to go back and see Rafael's tomb. We will, gladly.
Trevi fountain is a must see, but not when we did! We hit it right at "stroll time" for all the Italians and all the tourists. It was SO crowded! We did manage to get pictures and to admire it and that's all we needed to do. A fellow peddling polaroid pictures of people in front of the fountain took a picture of us with Sandy's camera, then was disgusted when we wouldn't buy one of his pictures.
Speaking of which, there are quite a few people sitting on the steps of buildings with cups for handouts. In Florence we saw several crippled people walking the streets with cups. Then you have the musicians. The ones in Venice who just wouldn't go away while I was on the phone with Ginny. Street corner violinists and accordion players. A couple of musicians on the Ercolano train playing, then passing a cup. A cellist playing Bach in front of the Pantheon.
Off to the Piazza Navona with it's Egyptian obelisk and beautiful fountain. And, of course, its church and all the ones we popped into along the way. Even the most humble of them are works of art.
We've covered enough territory today. After some fruit, cheese, left over lunch, and wine, we are off to read, write, relax, and sleep. We're in ROME!
Sunday & Monday, September 15 & 16, 2013
I neglected to mention that our room is DOWN 4 flights of stairs! We are supposed to move after tonight, but we have decided to stay only 3 nights in Sorrento and go to Rome earlier so we have 5 nights in Rome. The hotel in Rome had availability. We'll just stay in the room we are in here for two more nights and I'll count stairs like G-ma.
Today was Herculaneum day -- or, rather (as an Italian man corrected me) Er-co-lano. We walked DOWN the mountain for the 20 or 25 minutes to the train station after all the buses passed us up while we were standing at the bus stop by our hotel. No one told us until later that we were supposed to hail them! Getting the train ticket & getting on the train was easy enough and we arrived in Erculano about 50 minutes later after about 10 stops. We sat across from a young couple in their 20's from Australia who were backpacking across Europe, starting in Singapore actually, for 10 months. We had a nice chat until they got off at Pompeii. We've met a lot of Australians and English on this trip.
Yes, now a 20 minute walk DOWN to "Scavi Ercolano" and another 5 to the ticket booth, all the while looking down on the relatively compact area of excavated ruins. I'm glad we chose this and not Pompeii. Later, after talking to people who had done both, everyone seemed to prefer Herculaneum. It was pretty incredible. No, we didn't see dead people. They were all taken to the archeological museum in Naples. We did see bones, but not a close view. But we saw houses, frescoes, and some beautiful marble and mosaics. Amazing that there is so much known about what all this is and I can't imagine how painstaking it must have been an still is to excavate all this. We saw a loaf of bread and timbers and walked through people's homes -- creepy and rather irreverent to me. The most poignant of all was looking from the ruins, up through the poor city of Erculano, with apartment building after apartments building filled with people, and up to Mount Vesuvius, thinking about where these people would go if it ever erupted again?
We got dinner on the way back in Sorrento before we hoofed it again back up the mountain to the hotel, stopping to get wine and lemoncello, our staples. Sandy's pedometer says we walked almost 6 miles today! Yes, I can feel every one of those miles tonight!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Monday
We're tired. We slept late. There was a thunder shower last night -- rather neat. I woke up seeing the lightning in the distance over the mountain. We were sleeping soundly with a fan and the French windows (like French doors) opened up. No bugs. The air was cool and wonderful and smelled of rain. Ah...zzzz. The hand towels are linen towels but the bath towels are terry cloth (last hotel they were linen too). We have had soap and shampoo all along but no wash cloths. Sandy brought two. All the bathrooms had hair dryers, but I had a hard time drying my hair with the last one -- puny. Fortunately I brought one that works directly on this current. Our bathroom is pretty big in Sorrento so we did laundry last night in the tub which has a shower removable shower head in it about knee height. The floors of all the hotel rooms have been tile -- no rugs. So much marble in Italy. No such thing as wall to wall carpeting.
Today we just took it easy, walking downtown after a lazy morning to stroll the old part of town, have some gelato, and look in the shops. Lemons, lemons, lemons. Lemons and olives and mozzarella cheese and fresh tomatoes. Yum. Amazing how much time you can waste when you work at it! What a lovely day. Nice breeze, sunny, not too hot -- no sweater yet except maybe at night. Nice to take time to do much of nothing. Did I mention the incredible view on our mountain walks? The Tyrrhenian Sea way below us and Mt.Vesuvius framed right there in the distance but not far. The little fishing area where we had dinner last night WAY down there. We opted not to take the bus down the other side of the Amalfi coast even though it's supposed to be gorgeous. We have plenty of gorgeous right here. Tomorrow is a driving day & we expect it to be rather stressful. We've decided to leave our little car at the smaller Ciampino airport in Rome and take a taxi to our hotel. Sandy gets to drive us OUT of Sorrento to Rome since I did the long drive IN a few days ago. We are turning in early tonight, of course after our lemoncello (just for me now -- Sandy's tired of it and has gone back to wine).
I neglected to mention that our room is DOWN 4 flights of stairs! We are supposed to move after tonight, but we have decided to stay only 3 nights in Sorrento and go to Rome earlier so we have 5 nights in Rome. The hotel in Rome had availability. We'll just stay in the room we are in here for two more nights and I'll count stairs like G-ma.
Today was Herculaneum day -- or, rather (as an Italian man corrected me) Er-co-lano. We walked DOWN the mountain for the 20 or 25 minutes to the train station after all the buses passed us up while we were standing at the bus stop by our hotel. No one told us until later that we were supposed to hail them! Getting the train ticket & getting on the train was easy enough and we arrived in Erculano about 50 minutes later after about 10 stops. We sat across from a young couple in their 20's from Australia who were backpacking across Europe, starting in Singapore actually, for 10 months. We had a nice chat until they got off at Pompeii. We've met a lot of Australians and English on this trip.
Yes, now a 20 minute walk DOWN to "Scavi Ercolano" and another 5 to the ticket booth, all the while looking down on the relatively compact area of excavated ruins. I'm glad we chose this and not Pompeii. Later, after talking to people who had done both, everyone seemed to prefer Herculaneum. It was pretty incredible. No, we didn't see dead people. They were all taken to the archeological museum in Naples. We did see bones, but not a close view. But we saw houses, frescoes, and some beautiful marble and mosaics. Amazing that there is so much known about what all this is and I can't imagine how painstaking it must have been an still is to excavate all this. We saw a loaf of bread and timbers and walked through people's homes -- creepy and rather irreverent to me. The most poignant of all was looking from the ruins, up through the poor city of Erculano, with apartment building after apartments building filled with people, and up to Mount Vesuvius, thinking about where these people would go if it ever erupted again?
We got dinner on the way back in Sorrento before we hoofed it again back up the mountain to the hotel, stopping to get wine and lemoncello, our staples. Sandy's pedometer says we walked almost 6 miles today! Yes, I can feel every one of those miles tonight!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Monday
We're tired. We slept late. There was a thunder shower last night -- rather neat. I woke up seeing the lightning in the distance over the mountain. We were sleeping soundly with a fan and the French windows (like French doors) opened up. No bugs. The air was cool and wonderful and smelled of rain. Ah...zzzz. The hand towels are linen towels but the bath towels are terry cloth (last hotel they were linen too). We have had soap and shampoo all along but no wash cloths. Sandy brought two. All the bathrooms had hair dryers, but I had a hard time drying my hair with the last one -- puny. Fortunately I brought one that works directly on this current. Our bathroom is pretty big in Sorrento so we did laundry last night in the tub which has a shower removable shower head in it about knee height. The floors of all the hotel rooms have been tile -- no rugs. So much marble in Italy. No such thing as wall to wall carpeting.
Today we just took it easy, walking downtown after a lazy morning to stroll the old part of town, have some gelato, and look in the shops. Lemons, lemons, lemons. Lemons and olives and mozzarella cheese and fresh tomatoes. Yum. Amazing how much time you can waste when you work at it! What a lovely day. Nice breeze, sunny, not too hot -- no sweater yet except maybe at night. Nice to take time to do much of nothing. Did I mention the incredible view on our mountain walks? The Tyrrhenian Sea way below us and Mt.Vesuvius framed right there in the distance but not far. The little fishing area where we had dinner last night WAY down there. We opted not to take the bus down the other side of the Amalfi coast even though it's supposed to be gorgeous. We have plenty of gorgeous right here. Tomorrow is a driving day & we expect it to be rather stressful. We've decided to leave our little car at the smaller Ciampino airport in Rome and take a taxi to our hotel. Sandy gets to drive us OUT of Sorrento to Rome since I did the long drive IN a few days ago. We are turning in early tonight, of course after our lemoncello (just for me now -- Sandy's tired of it and has gone back to wine).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)