Sunday, April 17th: Delfi
We hit the road early this morning as we had a long drive to get to Delphi, home of the Oracle of Apollo. Well, Helen threw a big hissy fit and would not find any satellite signals, nor would she find small places like Delphi or big places like Athens. Basically she was a no-show.
So, heading out in what I felt was the right direction, off we went. I made it into Athens, but somehow could not find the highway leading up to Delphi. Instead, I found an obscure mountain pass going up and down, back and forth, through and around the mountains (after I narrowly escaped with my life from the drivers of Athens).
Well, after we played musical chairs trying to keep Kayla and Megan from getting too car sick and an extra hour or so later due to the road we took, we finished our five hour drive to Delphi. It was worth every moment of harrowing driving we had experienced and those yet to be experienced.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is easy to see why the ancient Greeks thought this was a holy place. It was. And it was absolutely stunning. I LOVED it.
It was rainy again today as we drove up, but stopped while we visited the ruins. It allowed us to see them in the cool mountain air with the clouds still swirling around the mountain tops and adding a lot of charm and beauty to this place. Don't come her in July. April is a wonderful time. The flowers are blooming everywhere and it is so green.
The ruins are built into the side of the mountain and you climb 700 feet in elevation to see all of the ruins. Did I mention the travel tip of: *Don't wait to you are retired to travel!* If not, take it to heart and travel now. You (and I) are not getting any younger.
We had an absolutely wonderful time going through the ruins and then the museum afterwards. We had a nice Greek lunch in the town of Delphi (which was moved from the site 150 years ago to a location about 15 minutes away. How do you move a whole town?) and it was a super cute town. After our lunch and short walk, I barely squeezed our car out of the parking lot (don't ask!) and we headed down the mountains to Athens....and it started to rain.
Anne and I got the car turned in without a single scratch! Helen begrudgingly helped us into Athens, if not to the airport itself, where we gladly dumped her and the car and then made our way to our hostel.
It is a studio apartment with a living room, kitchenette, bathroom, and a bedroom with bunk beds that is only for the five of us. It is a fabulous location (basically at the Acropolis metro station and the Acropolis itself and we are quite pleased with it.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Ancient Sites.....
Saturday, April 16th: Epivardos and Mycenae
Today was a wonderful day. We drove to the town of Epivardos and along the way, stopped to take a look at an old bridge from the Mycenaean age. Right after we finished, along came a man with with his herd of goats down the road. Now the roads are barely wide enough to handle two way traffic and are very curvy with steep embankments on the down-hill side. So it was with quite some amazement that we watched this herd of goats meandering down the road. After the man got to a bit of a wide spot, he herded the goats off to the side and let all the buses and cars go by before he took them into the street again to make their way to...better pastures? :~) Anyway, we were charmed.
Next was the ancient theater of Epivardos, the largest intact theater in Greece from the Classical Age. It was huge! It has perfect acoustics, kind of like the pyramids at Chitzen Itza, so that if you stand in the center you can be heard all the way to the top. I tried to get my girls to say a poem or something, but they wouldn't. With no other choice, I climbed down to call for Megan's sweet Romeo...."Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo!" After all, how often does one get to perform at an ancient greek theater in Greece?
Next we went on to the ruins of Mycenae. This is when we started to have problems with our GPS unit. We had, unfortunately, decided to be cute and name our GPS Helen, as in Helen of Troy. Well, Helen apparently did NOT want to go to Mycenae. Whether it was Menelaus or Agamemnon she did not want to see, we are not sure, but go, she would not.
Well, after asking for directions a couple of times, we eventually got close enough to follow the signs to the site. It was really great. I loved the ruins, the famous lion gate (did you know that they think the heads probably faced out towards the visitors and may have been of gold or some other metal as there are rust marks on the marble), and the landscape of the area. It was just special to see something that we have studied in person like that. Of course that has been true of most of the trip, but this made it really seem like Greece to me.
Unfortunately, they closed the site early and we did not get to go to the museum, but the site was the best part anyway. The funniest part was when we climbed down 99 steps to the water cistern in the dark. Anne, Kayla, and Lauren really wanted nothing to do with this, but Megan and I kept encouraging them on. None of us really knew exactly what to expect when we got to the bottom, but all the way down Anne kept saying that this was a "really bad idea". And honestly, from a practical point it was. It was pitch black, stone steps, wet steps, wet walls, slippery steps, uneven steps....well, you get the picture. But Megan and I were in it for the adventure and down we plunged leaving the others little chance to turn around and still save face.
So it was with some horror that Megan and I flashed our camera (our light source) down the steps and what showed up was a stone wall. Yep. A stone wall. I was not quite sure what to say to Anne, since we had essentially forced her to risk her neck on this adventure, but before I could figure out something to say, Megan happily piped in that there was nothing down there. Well, the cat was out of the bag and the rest was not pretty,....so I will move on......
The weather today has been rainy. I was quite worried that we would be too hot here, but that was not something I should have worried about. However, I am not complaining about the rain. It rained on the drive to each place, stopped long enough for us to tour the site, then started raining again on the way to the next stop. After we got back to our hotel, it really rained, but we had left overs, so we just stayed in and got a little extra rest.
Oh, and just to let you know, Helen was happy to leave Mycenae and happily took us back to Nafplio..... hmmm......
Today was a wonderful day. We drove to the town of Epivardos and along the way, stopped to take a look at an old bridge from the Mycenaean age. Right after we finished, along came a man with with his herd of goats down the road. Now the roads are barely wide enough to handle two way traffic and are very curvy with steep embankments on the down-hill side. So it was with quite some amazement that we watched this herd of goats meandering down the road. After the man got to a bit of a wide spot, he herded the goats off to the side and let all the buses and cars go by before he took them into the street again to make their way to...better pastures? :~) Anyway, we were charmed.
Next was the ancient theater of Epivardos, the largest intact theater in Greece from the Classical Age. It was huge! It has perfect acoustics, kind of like the pyramids at Chitzen Itza, so that if you stand in the center you can be heard all the way to the top. I tried to get my girls to say a poem or something, but they wouldn't. With no other choice, I climbed down to call for Megan's sweet Romeo...."Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo!" After all, how often does one get to perform at an ancient greek theater in Greece?
Next we went on to the ruins of Mycenae. This is when we started to have problems with our GPS unit. We had, unfortunately, decided to be cute and name our GPS Helen, as in Helen of Troy. Well, Helen apparently did NOT want to go to Mycenae. Whether it was Menelaus or Agamemnon she did not want to see, we are not sure, but go, she would not.
Well, after asking for directions a couple of times, we eventually got close enough to follow the signs to the site. It was really great. I loved the ruins, the famous lion gate (did you know that they think the heads probably faced out towards the visitors and may have been of gold or some other metal as there are rust marks on the marble), and the landscape of the area. It was just special to see something that we have studied in person like that. Of course that has been true of most of the trip, but this made it really seem like Greece to me.
Unfortunately, they closed the site early and we did not get to go to the museum, but the site was the best part anyway. The funniest part was when we climbed down 99 steps to the water cistern in the dark. Anne, Kayla, and Lauren really wanted nothing to do with this, but Megan and I kept encouraging them on. None of us really knew exactly what to expect when we got to the bottom, but all the way down Anne kept saying that this was a "really bad idea". And honestly, from a practical point it was. It was pitch black, stone steps, wet steps, wet walls, slippery steps, uneven steps....well, you get the picture. But Megan and I were in it for the adventure and down we plunged leaving the others little chance to turn around and still save face.
So it was with some horror that Megan and I flashed our camera (our light source) down the steps and what showed up was a stone wall. Yep. A stone wall. I was not quite sure what to say to Anne, since we had essentially forced her to risk her neck on this adventure, but before I could figure out something to say, Megan happily piped in that there was nothing down there. Well, the cat was out of the bag and the rest was not pretty,....so I will move on......
The weather today has been rainy. I was quite worried that we would be too hot here, but that was not something I should have worried about. However, I am not complaining about the rain. It rained on the drive to each place, stopped long enough for us to tour the site, then started raining again on the way to the next stop. After we got back to our hotel, it really rained, but we had left overs, so we just stayed in and got a little extra rest.
Oh, and just to let you know, Helen was happy to leave Mycenae and happily took us back to Nafplio..... hmmm......
Friday
Friday, April 15th: Greece
Ahhh....Greece. I cannot believe I am in Greece. After a hectic evening last night, a very early flight this morning, a little trepidation about driving here, we made it to Nafplio, a small coastal town that is SO cute and so...so....well, Greek!
Greece looks (so far) just how we thought it would. Rocky hills and mountains, green grass and olive trees, white houses with red tile roofs and lots of flowers blooming everywhere. Pretty much anywhere these plants can get their roots in, they grow like mad!
Our hotel is Fabulous! It is a quaint little place; a two bedroom apartment with 3 sleeping upstairs and Anne and I downstairs. (Kayla's very good friend from college, Lauren, joined us this morning in Athens.) The hotel is built into the hillside. From the large patio, we have a beautiful view of the sea and over look the town below. Behind us are the ruins of an old fortress, part of which was built in the 3rd century b.c.e. It was heavenly with all the flowers and vines climbing over the ruins.
The town is super cute with lots of tiny restaurants and shops. Kayla, Lauren, and Megan climbed up to the top of another fortress on the hill for two gorgeous views of the sea on either side and the town below. It was around 850-1,000 steps. Anne and I took a nap instead! (Little did they know that we can actually *drive* up there! LOL!!!!
I do not think I realized how tired of Italy I was until I got here. The art, food, history, and wine are wonderful. So is most of the landscape. But the people were not very warm and in the cities, there is a lot of people pushing or cutting you off to get to where they want to go, motorcycles and cars zipping everywhere, large lines and crowds, etc., and that gets tiring. I honestly think it would be miserable in the summer heat (it is plenty warm now) and the increased crowds (again, more that I would wish for). I would never come here in the summer!
Greece so far has been quite pleasant. We were greeted by our host, shown our room, he drove our car for us to the parking area (thank goodness as the streets are so narrow where the hotel is!) and then offered us some freshly squeezed lemon-aid from their lemon trees while we overlooked the sea from the patio. How is that for service? :~) The people in town are happy to go out of their way to show you where something is and actually seem to like us. I feel like Italians as a whole are kind of like the French, without the polish that the French believe that they have. I do know that part of that is that people in cities do not seem as nice as their less rushed, rural counterparts, but overall that is my feeling on Italians from this visit.
If I was doing this trip again or just a trip to Italy, I would fly into Rome, see the major sights and then get out and spend a lot more time in Tuscany and Venice with a few days in Florence to see all of the art. Might as well finish up with the charm of Venice! :~)
Ahhh....Greece. I cannot believe I am in Greece. After a hectic evening last night, a very early flight this morning, a little trepidation about driving here, we made it to Nafplio, a small coastal town that is SO cute and so...so....well, Greek!
Greece looks (so far) just how we thought it would. Rocky hills and mountains, green grass and olive trees, white houses with red tile roofs and lots of flowers blooming everywhere. Pretty much anywhere these plants can get their roots in, they grow like mad!
Our hotel is Fabulous! It is a quaint little place; a two bedroom apartment with 3 sleeping upstairs and Anne and I downstairs. (Kayla's very good friend from college, Lauren, joined us this morning in Athens.) The hotel is built into the hillside. From the large patio, we have a beautiful view of the sea and over look the town below. Behind us are the ruins of an old fortress, part of which was built in the 3rd century b.c.e. It was heavenly with all the flowers and vines climbing over the ruins.
The town is super cute with lots of tiny restaurants and shops. Kayla, Lauren, and Megan climbed up to the top of another fortress on the hill for two gorgeous views of the sea on either side and the town below. It was around 850-1,000 steps. Anne and I took a nap instead! (Little did they know that we can actually *drive* up there! LOL!!!!
I do not think I realized how tired of Italy I was until I got here. The art, food, history, and wine are wonderful. So is most of the landscape. But the people were not very warm and in the cities, there is a lot of people pushing or cutting you off to get to where they want to go, motorcycles and cars zipping everywhere, large lines and crowds, etc., and that gets tiring. I honestly think it would be miserable in the summer heat (it is plenty warm now) and the increased crowds (again, more that I would wish for). I would never come here in the summer!
Greece so far has been quite pleasant. We were greeted by our host, shown our room, he drove our car for us to the parking area (thank goodness as the streets are so narrow where the hotel is!) and then offered us some freshly squeezed lemon-aid from their lemon trees while we overlooked the sea from the patio. How is that for service? :~) The people in town are happy to go out of their way to show you where something is and actually seem to like us. I feel like Italians as a whole are kind of like the French, without the polish that the French believe that they have. I do know that part of that is that people in cities do not seem as nice as their less rushed, rural counterparts, but overall that is my feeling on Italians from this visit.
If I was doing this trip again or just a trip to Italy, I would fly into Rome, see the major sights and then get out and spend a lot more time in Tuscany and Venice with a few days in Florence to see all of the art. Might as well finish up with the charm of Venice! :~)
The Vatican.......
Thursday, April 13th--A Day at the Vatican.
Today was our visit to the world's smallest country, Vatican City. We started outside the city at Castel Sant'Angelo. This castle started off as a tomb for Emperor Hadrian and later became a prison and then a fortress for the pope. It was built around 139 c.e. and in 590 c.e. the Archangel Michael appeared over the mausoleum to Pope Gregory the Great and it became know as Holy Angel.
As Rome was sacked at different times, it became a wonderful fortress for the popes and eventually they built an elevated walkway from it to the Vatican.
Next we went for our tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We were all *very* glad that we had booked a tour as the lines were tremendous. A guy at the airport said that he did not get in because the line was a five hour wait! Yikes! Regardless of whether it was that long, the amount of people was astounding.
Our tour was very good. It really took us to a lot of places in the Vatican although I think it would take days to see it all. The overall of effect of it all was incredibly rich; full of masterpieces and rare collectables, so many in fact, that they almost looked like they were crammed in and should be spaced out more....
The most important parts of the museum to me were seeing the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael rooms. The Sistine Chapel ceiling that Michelangelo painted was a surprise to me as I was able to see the paintings very clearly and I really expected them to look quite small. We also saw his Last Judgement which was quite amazing as well.
A couple of interesting notes are that when the pope died, the new pope thought that the Last Judgement was very inappropriate because of all of the nudes. So, he hired another painter to come in and paint drapery to cover certain parts of the anatomy.
Also, Michelangelo had a bit of a sense of humor. One of the saints had been martyred by being skinned. So that saint is holding his skin which has the face of a gruesome looking Michelangelo. Another scene has the gate keeper of hell with the face of one of Michelangelo's critics, who was unhappy with the nudity. So Michelangelo made sure the privates of this man were covered----by the head of a huge snake about to take a big bite there!!!!!
Also, this room was restored about 10-15 years ago. They took off all of the soot and dirt from the many years of use, especially from all of the candles. They left one tiny square the color that things used to be and I am SO glad that they did the cleaning, even though it was quite controversial. The difference in colors was astounding--kind of like the difference between black and white and color. It was really dark!
Also this is the room where they pick the new popes in, so we got to see where the famous chimney goes during their conclave.
Raphael's School of Athen's, one of my favorite paintings, was also great to see in person. This was frescoed onto the walls of the pope's apartments (he has a new palace now) and was quite large and extremely impressive. :~)
We saw a model of Vatican City, and that was very helpful. It showed the layout of all of the buildings and gardens, the helicopter pad and train station (now closed due to security). The gardens are quite extensive. Our guide explained that Vatican City was not officially its own country for about 50 years after the Unification of Italy in 1861. Seemed kind of funny to me since it has been its own power for 1,600 years.....
Because it is its own country, they have their own mail system (which is WAY better than Italy's), own euro (each country gets to mark the euros the way they want to), own police force, etc. There are special guards for the Pope, called the Swiss guard and they still wear the same uniforms that Michelangelo designed. (Poor guy! All he really wanted to do was sculpt and people kept making him do other projects like painting and architecture. And, speaking of which, Michelangelo played a big part in the building of St. Peter's Basilica's dome!)
After the museum, we were taken down into the first church of St. Peter, where the popes are interned, unless they are beatified like Pope John Paul II is about to be. Then they are interned in the church above, St. Peter's Basilica.
It is said that Peter was crucified (upside down) on the very hill that the church is built on. Early Christians buried St. Peter there and then started to use the hill as a cemetery. Then when Christianity was legalized in the 400's by Constantine, Constantine built the first Church OVER the cemetery, where St. Peter was buried. (St. Peter apparently got moved around a bit because his remains were at least temporarily at a couple of other places, including out on Apian way at the catacombs, before he got buried again in the cemetery.) In the 1500's, the pope decided to build the largest Christian church anywhere in the world, so he built the new St. Peter's Basilica OVER the old church. So, if you are following this, we are not down in the cemetery level where St. Peter is buried, (that takes a special permit) but in the level above it where the popes' tombs are now.) You can actually look above you and see people walking over the grates above. After viewing these tombs, we ascended into St. Peter's Basilica. On the floor, just in case you didn't realize that it is the biggest church in the world, it has markers showing how far St. Paul's in London would fit, etc. It is amazingly opulent. The best part to me was Michelangelo's Pieta. It is magnificent. :~)
Today was our visit to the world's smallest country, Vatican City. We started outside the city at Castel Sant'Angelo. This castle started off as a tomb for Emperor Hadrian and later became a prison and then a fortress for the pope. It was built around 139 c.e. and in 590 c.e. the Archangel Michael appeared over the mausoleum to Pope Gregory the Great and it became know as Holy Angel.
As Rome was sacked at different times, it became a wonderful fortress for the popes and eventually they built an elevated walkway from it to the Vatican.
Next we went for our tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We were all *very* glad that we had booked a tour as the lines were tremendous. A guy at the airport said that he did not get in because the line was a five hour wait! Yikes! Regardless of whether it was that long, the amount of people was astounding.
Our tour was very good. It really took us to a lot of places in the Vatican although I think it would take days to see it all. The overall of effect of it all was incredibly rich; full of masterpieces and rare collectables, so many in fact, that they almost looked like they were crammed in and should be spaced out more....
The most important parts of the museum to me were seeing the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael rooms. The Sistine Chapel ceiling that Michelangelo painted was a surprise to me as I was able to see the paintings very clearly and I really expected them to look quite small. We also saw his Last Judgement which was quite amazing as well.
A couple of interesting notes are that when the pope died, the new pope thought that the Last Judgement was very inappropriate because of all of the nudes. So, he hired another painter to come in and paint drapery to cover certain parts of the anatomy.
Also, Michelangelo had a bit of a sense of humor. One of the saints had been martyred by being skinned. So that saint is holding his skin which has the face of a gruesome looking Michelangelo. Another scene has the gate keeper of hell with the face of one of Michelangelo's critics, who was unhappy with the nudity. So Michelangelo made sure the privates of this man were covered----by the head of a huge snake about to take a big bite there!!!!!
Also, this room was restored about 10-15 years ago. They took off all of the soot and dirt from the many years of use, especially from all of the candles. They left one tiny square the color that things used to be and I am SO glad that they did the cleaning, even though it was quite controversial. The difference in colors was astounding--kind of like the difference between black and white and color. It was really dark!
Also this is the room where they pick the new popes in, so we got to see where the famous chimney goes during their conclave.
Raphael's School of Athen's, one of my favorite paintings, was also great to see in person. This was frescoed onto the walls of the pope's apartments (he has a new palace now) and was quite large and extremely impressive. :~)
We saw a model of Vatican City, and that was very helpful. It showed the layout of all of the buildings and gardens, the helicopter pad and train station (now closed due to security). The gardens are quite extensive. Our guide explained that Vatican City was not officially its own country for about 50 years after the Unification of Italy in 1861. Seemed kind of funny to me since it has been its own power for 1,600 years.....
Because it is its own country, they have their own mail system (which is WAY better than Italy's), own euro (each country gets to mark the euros the way they want to), own police force, etc. There are special guards for the Pope, called the Swiss guard and they still wear the same uniforms that Michelangelo designed. (Poor guy! All he really wanted to do was sculpt and people kept making him do other projects like painting and architecture. And, speaking of which, Michelangelo played a big part in the building of St. Peter's Basilica's dome!)
After the museum, we were taken down into the first church of St. Peter, where the popes are interned, unless they are beatified like Pope John Paul II is about to be. Then they are interned in the church above, St. Peter's Basilica.
It is said that Peter was crucified (upside down) on the very hill that the church is built on. Early Christians buried St. Peter there and then started to use the hill as a cemetery. Then when Christianity was legalized in the 400's by Constantine, Constantine built the first Church OVER the cemetery, where St. Peter was buried. (St. Peter apparently got moved around a bit because his remains were at least temporarily at a couple of other places, including out on Apian way at the catacombs, before he got buried again in the cemetery.) In the 1500's, the pope decided to build the largest Christian church anywhere in the world, so he built the new St. Peter's Basilica OVER the old church. So, if you are following this, we are not down in the cemetery level where St. Peter is buried, (that takes a special permit) but in the level above it where the popes' tombs are now.) You can actually look above you and see people walking over the grates above. After viewing these tombs, we ascended into St. Peter's Basilica. On the floor, just in case you didn't realize that it is the biggest church in the world, it has markers showing how far St. Paul's in London would fit, etc. It is amazingly opulent. The best part to me was Michelangelo's Pieta. It is magnificent. :~)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Rome continued......
April 11th and 12th
Tuesday we started our morning at the Borghese Galleria. It was formally Cardinal Borghese's home and was and continues to be a show-case of beautiful art. There are three pieces there by Bernini that are magnificent--truly, truly magnificent. They are the Apollo and Daphne sculpture, the Pluto and Persephone sculpture, and Bernini's David. I could not fathom *how* Bernini was able to carve the marble so thin and yet still strong enough to stand out perpendicular to the floor without breaking. The Apallo and Daphne sculpture is my favorite. It is phenomenal! Look it up since I cannot send you a picture of it. One of the things that they found out when the restored it a couple of years ago is that the leaves ring like crystal if you strike them. Why anyone would strike them, I do not know but it is still interesting.
We walked around the outside of an old Roman bath that would hold up to 3,000 bathers at one time. Wow! Last was the National Museum of Rome. It was full of old Greek statues and Roman copies of these statues. The best part though was the upstairs where they had whole rooms done up with old frescoes to give you an idea of what a room would feel like. They were amazing. One was a garden scene and you could just feel yourself relaxing in the peaceful atmosphere of the "garden". This really helped me understand what their homes must have been like. I want frescoes in my house!!!!!!
The afternoon was mostly free time. We went grocery shopping, had a big lunch and made it to an internet cafe. I cannot believe how hard it has been to get internet here. I got to finally talk to Mark and that was the highlight of my day!
Wednesday- Appian Way and St. Peter of the Chains.
Today we took a wonderful tour of the Appian way. This is the area of Rome where people were buried, both Christians and Romans. It was against the law even for emperors to be buried in the city walls, so tombs and mausoleums were built along Appian Way. We started by seeing some of the larger mausoleums and taking a tour of a catacomb. Romans preferred cremation while Christians wanted to be buried. Apparently it was a myth that they buried the Christians in secret as there were Roman seals in different parts of the catacombs and the Christian catacombs were connected to the Roman's cemetery.
It was quite interesting. The ground here is made of a type of volcanic rock called tuff that is very soft and easy to dig into, but that hardens to stone when it is exposed to air. The Christian graves were stacked on top of each other like very, very, shallow bunk beds and over 100,000 graves were in this catacomb alone. They estimated that there were over 27 of these sites at one time but only a few still remain.
They are built layer under layer and at least 3 levels deep. After they wrapped the body in linen, (like Christ) they put it into the side of the wall and then covered it with marble or stone, usually with their name and the name of the emperor at that time.
At the other end of the upper level, was the Roman cemetery. It was interesting because they had quite elaborate rooms with a gate closing off the tomb. Inside were several levels that all held the urns of different family members. You could fit hundreds of family members in these different rooms and then just keep digging down if you needed to.
It was quite the contrast to the Christian ones. They were small, cramped places (not even sure how they got the bodies in such tight spaces) to hold a full body whereas the Romans had spacious rooms to hold their urns. I guess bodies just take up a lot more space! Anyway, Anne and I like the idea of a family crypt. ;~)
Tuesday we started our morning at the Borghese Galleria. It was formally Cardinal Borghese's home and was and continues to be a show-case of beautiful art. There are three pieces there by Bernini that are magnificent--truly, truly magnificent. They are the Apollo and Daphne sculpture, the Pluto and Persephone sculpture, and Bernini's David. I could not fathom *how* Bernini was able to carve the marble so thin and yet still strong enough to stand out perpendicular to the floor without breaking. The Apallo and Daphne sculpture is my favorite. It is phenomenal! Look it up since I cannot send you a picture of it. One of the things that they found out when the restored it a couple of years ago is that the leaves ring like crystal if you strike them. Why anyone would strike them, I do not know but it is still interesting.
We walked around the outside of an old Roman bath that would hold up to 3,000 bathers at one time. Wow! Last was the National Museum of Rome. It was full of old Greek statues and Roman copies of these statues. The best part though was the upstairs where they had whole rooms done up with old frescoes to give you an idea of what a room would feel like. They were amazing. One was a garden scene and you could just feel yourself relaxing in the peaceful atmosphere of the "garden". This really helped me understand what their homes must have been like. I want frescoes in my house!!!!!!
The afternoon was mostly free time. We went grocery shopping, had a big lunch and made it to an internet cafe. I cannot believe how hard it has been to get internet here. I got to finally talk to Mark and that was the highlight of my day!
Wednesday- Appian Way and St. Peter of the Chains.
Today we took a wonderful tour of the Appian way. This is the area of Rome where people were buried, both Christians and Romans. It was against the law even for emperors to be buried in the city walls, so tombs and mausoleums were built along Appian Way. We started by seeing some of the larger mausoleums and taking a tour of a catacomb. Romans preferred cremation while Christians wanted to be buried. Apparently it was a myth that they buried the Christians in secret as there were Roman seals in different parts of the catacombs and the Christian catacombs were connected to the Roman's cemetery.
It was quite interesting. The ground here is made of a type of volcanic rock called tuff that is very soft and easy to dig into, but that hardens to stone when it is exposed to air. The Christian graves were stacked on top of each other like very, very, shallow bunk beds and over 100,000 graves were in this catacomb alone. They estimated that there were over 27 of these sites at one time but only a few still remain.
They are built layer under layer and at least 3 levels deep. After they wrapped the body in linen, (like Christ) they put it into the side of the wall and then covered it with marble or stone, usually with their name and the name of the emperor at that time.
At the other end of the upper level, was the Roman cemetery. It was interesting because they had quite elaborate rooms with a gate closing off the tomb. Inside were several levels that all held the urns of different family members. You could fit hundreds of family members in these different rooms and then just keep digging down if you needed to.
It was quite the contrast to the Christian ones. They were small, cramped places (not even sure how they got the bodies in such tight spaces) to hold a full body whereas the Romans had spacious rooms to hold their urns. I guess bodies just take up a lot more space! Anyway, Anne and I like the idea of a family crypt. ;~)
Friday, April 15, 2011
Ancient Rome
Monday, April 11th---Ancient Rome
Today was our first real day in Rome. First, let me start out by saying that we totally lucked out with our trip here. It is cultural week here and almost all of the attractions are free! The other great thing about this is that it makes the lines much shorter as no one has to buy tickets.
So our first stop was the Colosseum or Coliseum in English. I really enjoyed it. There was a lot more to it than I had thought there would be. I had expected more of just a shell, but we went in and up the stairs to be able to look down on the different levels. At the ground level were the seats for important people and as you went up, the seats were cheaper. Expensive seats had your family name engraved in the marble.
There was a canvas awning that covered about 1/3 of the seats, the cheap seats actually. So the common man sat comfortably in the shade while the emperor roasted in the sun.
Speaking of which, we are having lovely weather on our trip. A couple a cool mornings, some hot afternoons, but overall, very nice. I would NOT want to come here in the summer. I have heard so many people say that they were here last time in the summer and how miserable it was. One lady will not go back to Venice because she was so miserable. It is not hard to see though, as air-conditioning is rare here. So are dryers. People have washers, but no dryers. The laundry just hangs out the windows.
Back to the Colosseum.... They are building a floor right now over part of the arena to give people an idea of what it looked like back then. The rest is open to the elements but you can see the maze of tunnels that held animals, prisoners, and gladiators.
They had about 80 trap doors in the floor allowing them to use elevators to bring people and animals up to the stadium at almost any point. You were never sure where your threat was coming from. They used these games to execute their prisoners. Often the prisoner would have to act out a play in which the death of the character was their own death.
Next we climbed to the top of Palatine Hill where the emperor's palace used to be. This is one of the seven hills that Rome was founded on. The ruins were interesting to see but what I thought was the most interesting is that basically where we stood, was about 25 ft. above ground level at that time. That is true of most of the city. As parts got old, they just built on top of it. Another interesting fact to me was that the ceiling of the throne room was seven stories tall. That must have been quite impressive!
After Palatine HIll was the Roman Forum. The Forum was the political, economical, and religious center of the city. We saw the ruins of temples, triumphal arches, and even the place where Julius Caesar was cremated and Marc Anthony gave his speech. Generals would return from victorious battle and parade through this area. What astounded me the most is that there is SO much marble just laying around that people are free to use it as a bench to sit upon. Somehow it felt a little wrong to me, but as I was hot and tired, that cool marble under the tree felt very nice. :~)
After the forum, we decided we need a cold drink and a bite to eat. After looking around a bit and seeing there were no other options, we got 3 sandwiches and 4 sodas from a vending cart. Imagine our surprise when the man said we owed him 33 euro (about $50). While feeling like I just got robbed, I had to admire his entrepreneurship! The good news is that we have been grocery shopping and eating fairly cheaply AND we had just saved 48 euro on tickets, so we did not take it very hard. ;~)
Feeling refreshed, we climbed up to Capitoline Hill, another of the 7 hills of Rome and the center of government for 2,500 years. We saw a replica of the wolf with Romulus and Remus, and the ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. Michelangelo was responsible for giving this area a face lift and making it more modern. He did a great job. :~)
Next was the Victor Emmanuel Monument. All I can say is WOW! It was built for the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy and it is magnificent.
We continued on to see the Pantheon, which has been constantly in use since ancient times. Once honoring all of the gods, it now only worships the Christian God. It is a magnificent building. It is all marble and the dome of the ceiling if continued down as in a globe would fit perfectly so that the bottom of the sphere just touched the bottom of the floor. A perfect circle within a perfect square and you have the perfection of the universe.
Next were a couple of minor stops in churches to see art. First was Michelangelo's Christ Baring The Cross and the other was a false dome painted on the ceiling of a church. Apparently they ran out of the money that they needed to build the dome, so instead, they painted an optical illusion to look like the dome. It does to some degree, but it was dark, and with our modern lighting, it did not look quite right.
We had dinner in Campo de Fiori, a market square, and then took an evening walking tour. First was the Four Rivers fountain. It was designed by Bernini, one of my favorite sculptors and it depicts four of the major rivers known at that time. One thing neat about it is that the river Nile's head is covered as they did not know yet where the head of that river was.
The next stop was Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely AMAZING. I truly loved it.. It had 27 different fountains of water pouring out of it in all different directions. The fountain is the width of the building behind it. Our last stop was the Spanish Steps--not so much to look at in my opinion, but then after Trevi, it would have been hard to impress me.
It was a long, long day, but it was great to do Ancient Rome today
Today was our first real day in Rome. First, let me start out by saying that we totally lucked out with our trip here. It is cultural week here and almost all of the attractions are free! The other great thing about this is that it makes the lines much shorter as no one has to buy tickets.
So our first stop was the Colosseum or Coliseum in English. I really enjoyed it. There was a lot more to it than I had thought there would be. I had expected more of just a shell, but we went in and up the stairs to be able to look down on the different levels. At the ground level were the seats for important people and as you went up, the seats were cheaper. Expensive seats had your family name engraved in the marble.
There was a canvas awning that covered about 1/3 of the seats, the cheap seats actually. So the common man sat comfortably in the shade while the emperor roasted in the sun.
Speaking of which, we are having lovely weather on our trip. A couple a cool mornings, some hot afternoons, but overall, very nice. I would NOT want to come here in the summer. I have heard so many people say that they were here last time in the summer and how miserable it was. One lady will not go back to Venice because she was so miserable. It is not hard to see though, as air-conditioning is rare here. So are dryers. People have washers, but no dryers. The laundry just hangs out the windows.
Back to the Colosseum.... They are building a floor right now over part of the arena to give people an idea of what it looked like back then. The rest is open to the elements but you can see the maze of tunnels that held animals, prisoners, and gladiators.
They had about 80 trap doors in the floor allowing them to use elevators to bring people and animals up to the stadium at almost any point. You were never sure where your threat was coming from. They used these games to execute their prisoners. Often the prisoner would have to act out a play in which the death of the character was their own death.
Next we climbed to the top of Palatine Hill where the emperor's palace used to be. This is one of the seven hills that Rome was founded on. The ruins were interesting to see but what I thought was the most interesting is that basically where we stood, was about 25 ft. above ground level at that time. That is true of most of the city. As parts got old, they just built on top of it. Another interesting fact to me was that the ceiling of the throne room was seven stories tall. That must have been quite impressive!
After Palatine HIll was the Roman Forum. The Forum was the political, economical, and religious center of the city. We saw the ruins of temples, triumphal arches, and even the place where Julius Caesar was cremated and Marc Anthony gave his speech. Generals would return from victorious battle and parade through this area. What astounded me the most is that there is SO much marble just laying around that people are free to use it as a bench to sit upon. Somehow it felt a little wrong to me, but as I was hot and tired, that cool marble under the tree felt very nice. :~)
After the forum, we decided we need a cold drink and a bite to eat. After looking around a bit and seeing there were no other options, we got 3 sandwiches and 4 sodas from a vending cart. Imagine our surprise when the man said we owed him 33 euro (about $50). While feeling like I just got robbed, I had to admire his entrepreneurship! The good news is that we have been grocery shopping and eating fairly cheaply AND we had just saved 48 euro on tickets, so we did not take it very hard. ;~)
Feeling refreshed, we climbed up to Capitoline Hill, another of the 7 hills of Rome and the center of government for 2,500 years. We saw a replica of the wolf with Romulus and Remus, and the ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. Michelangelo was responsible for giving this area a face lift and making it more modern. He did a great job. :~)
Next was the Victor Emmanuel Monument. All I can say is WOW! It was built for the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy and it is magnificent.
We continued on to see the Pantheon, which has been constantly in use since ancient times. Once honoring all of the gods, it now only worships the Christian God. It is a magnificent building. It is all marble and the dome of the ceiling if continued down as in a globe would fit perfectly so that the bottom of the sphere just touched the bottom of the floor. A perfect circle within a perfect square and you have the perfection of the universe.
Next were a couple of minor stops in churches to see art. First was Michelangelo's Christ Baring The Cross and the other was a false dome painted on the ceiling of a church. Apparently they ran out of the money that they needed to build the dome, so instead, they painted an optical illusion to look like the dome. It does to some degree, but it was dark, and with our modern lighting, it did not look quite right.
We had dinner in Campo de Fiori, a market square, and then took an evening walking tour. First was the Four Rivers fountain. It was designed by Bernini, one of my favorite sculptors and it depicts four of the major rivers known at that time. One thing neat about it is that the river Nile's head is covered as they did not know yet where the head of that river was.
The next stop was Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely AMAZING. I truly loved it.. It had 27 different fountains of water pouring out of it in all different directions. The fountain is the width of the building behind it. Our last stop was the Spanish Steps--not so much to look at in my opinion, but then after Trevi, it would have been hard to impress me.
It was a long, long day, but it was great to do Ancient Rome today
Pompeii
Sunday, April 10th- Pompeii
Well, I do not think I am going to be able to post pictures as the internet is so sporadic and slow over here. I will just have to add them in when I get back.....sorry!
Today we took a day trip to Pompeii. Pompeii is huge! I was not expecting it to be so large and to have so much of it excavated. It was a town of 20,000 people and most had escaped before the town was buried in lava from Mt. Vesuvius. The town just went on and on and on! Some of the highlights were walking through some of the homes, a bath house, tavern, theater, and brothel.
The brothel was probably the funniest to me. When you walked in, there were three small rooms on each side with a stone bed and a stone pillow (hopefully they put a mattress on top?) Along the top of the ceiling were frescoes showing different ummm...positions--a menu of sorts! It totally cracked me up!
The homes were great to walk through. Front rooms held the family's business goods, next room was the office and then a center courtyard with the family wing all around it. The rooms were frescoed, and though most have been moved to a museum, you could still see enough to get a glimpse into what they might have looked like.
Another interesting place was the Roman styled bath house. It had the cold room, warm water room and the steaming hot room. They build rivets along the barrel of the ceiling so that the condensation would not drip on them and would instead, just run harmlessly back to the floor. The whole thing looked quite lavish with statues and reliefs decorating it.
Apparently, Romans did not really like to cook, and they ate fast food a lot!!!! Outside of all the places where people would gather, like the bath house, you would find little stands with round basins in them. These held the different soups and dishes that customers would eat. Who knew?
The roads were also very interesting. They would have pedestrian only streets, one way traffic, two lane traffic, and major streets. The streets were quite a bit lower than the side walks because each day they would flood the streets and wash the debris away. To cross the street during these times, large stones were put at the intersections. One stone was a one way street, two stones for two lanes, and three for the major roads. The stone were high enough that a cart's axis would clear them and spaced perfectly for the uniform width of Roman carts.
One thing that was fascinating to me were the casts made of the humans who had been buried alive. When the archeologists were excavating, they would come across cavities where a body had been and had since rotted away. So in some of these cavities, they poured plaster into them and then the shape of that person could be excavated intact with some of the bones as well. It was fascinating and sad all at the same time. What a horrible way to die. One of them had his arms up as if protecting himself from the lava....
After Pompeii we went back to Naples to see the Archeological Museum which holds all of the treasures from Pompeii. Getting to the museum was a bit of an adventure. We got a bit lost wandering the winding streets and they were not pretty. I have never seen so much garbage everywhere. It is as if someone would rip open garbage bags and just scatter the garbage everywhere. It was disgusting. I was SO glad to get to the museum and although the museum was worth that quick stop in Naples, I would take the metro instead of walking. It was the only place we have felt a little unsafe.
After we found the museum, we had a very nice lunch and the most delicious pepperoni pizza I have ever had. Apparently, in Italy their pepperoni is usually vegetarian but I ordered the pork one. Yummy! Pizza and a nice glass of wine--as I had totally had it by the time we had wandered all over Naples-- and I was ready to conquer the museum.
There were lots a Greek and Roman statues, mosaics, frescoes, jewelry, pottery, etc. What astounded me the most was the beautiful glass bowls and cups. The glass was so thin it was transparent even though the glass itself was a beautiful green. I just kept wondering how something SO fragile had survived.
After the museum we took the metro to the train station to travel back to Rome. It had been a long, but extremely interesting day.
Well, I do not think I am going to be able to post pictures as the internet is so sporadic and slow over here. I will just have to add them in when I get back.....sorry!
Today we took a day trip to Pompeii. Pompeii is huge! I was not expecting it to be so large and to have so much of it excavated. It was a town of 20,000 people and most had escaped before the town was buried in lava from Mt. Vesuvius. The town just went on and on and on! Some of the highlights were walking through some of the homes, a bath house, tavern, theater, and brothel.
The brothel was probably the funniest to me. When you walked in, there were three small rooms on each side with a stone bed and a stone pillow (hopefully they put a mattress on top?) Along the top of the ceiling were frescoes showing different ummm...positions--a menu of sorts! It totally cracked me up!
The homes were great to walk through. Front rooms held the family's business goods, next room was the office and then a center courtyard with the family wing all around it. The rooms were frescoed, and though most have been moved to a museum, you could still see enough to get a glimpse into what they might have looked like.
Another interesting place was the Roman styled bath house. It had the cold room, warm water room and the steaming hot room. They build rivets along the barrel of the ceiling so that the condensation would not drip on them and would instead, just run harmlessly back to the floor. The whole thing looked quite lavish with statues and reliefs decorating it.
Apparently, Romans did not really like to cook, and they ate fast food a lot!!!! Outside of all the places where people would gather, like the bath house, you would find little stands with round basins in them. These held the different soups and dishes that customers would eat. Who knew?
The roads were also very interesting. They would have pedestrian only streets, one way traffic, two lane traffic, and major streets. The streets were quite a bit lower than the side walks because each day they would flood the streets and wash the debris away. To cross the street during these times, large stones were put at the intersections. One stone was a one way street, two stones for two lanes, and three for the major roads. The stone were high enough that a cart's axis would clear them and spaced perfectly for the uniform width of Roman carts.
One thing that was fascinating to me were the casts made of the humans who had been buried alive. When the archeologists were excavating, they would come across cavities where a body had been and had since rotted away. So in some of these cavities, they poured plaster into them and then the shape of that person could be excavated intact with some of the bones as well. It was fascinating and sad all at the same time. What a horrible way to die. One of them had his arms up as if protecting himself from the lava....
After Pompeii we went back to Naples to see the Archeological Museum which holds all of the treasures from Pompeii. Getting to the museum was a bit of an adventure. We got a bit lost wandering the winding streets and they were not pretty. I have never seen so much garbage everywhere. It is as if someone would rip open garbage bags and just scatter the garbage everywhere. It was disgusting. I was SO glad to get to the museum and although the museum was worth that quick stop in Naples, I would take the metro instead of walking. It was the only place we have felt a little unsafe.
After we found the museum, we had a very nice lunch and the most delicious pepperoni pizza I have ever had. Apparently, in Italy their pepperoni is usually vegetarian but I ordered the pork one. Yummy! Pizza and a nice glass of wine--as I had totally had it by the time we had wandered all over Naples-- and I was ready to conquer the museum.
There were lots a Greek and Roman statues, mosaics, frescoes, jewelry, pottery, etc. What astounded me the most was the beautiful glass bowls and cups. The glass was so thin it was transparent even though the glass itself was a beautiful green. I just kept wondering how something SO fragile had survived.
After the museum we took the metro to the train station to travel back to Rome. It had been a long, but extremely interesting day.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Saturday, April 9th.....Rome
As we were checking out of the monastery, we ran into Mother Superior again. I told her that I was sorry that I could not remember my French and that I could only come up with Spanish words. She got quite excited and said that Italian and Spanish were so close and then started talking to me in Spanish with some Italian thrown in for good measure. Happily I understood the gist of the conversation and could throw in a few appropriate responses. She asked where we were going next and when we told her Roma, she was so excited. She says Rome is paradise. I guess we will find out soon as that is where we will be spending the next 6 nights.....
Our car trip back to Florence was a nightmare. We were so impressed with the road signs when we went into San Gimignano. What a great system these Italians have, we thought. NOT! So this town is only about 10 km from the main highway into Florence. Having experienced all the signs to San Gimignano we *knew* there had to be lots of signs to such a major city as Florence. But alas, no. There were NO signs. None. Zero. Zip. So let's stop at a gas station and ask directions.....right? Well, no one spoke any English but through gestures we got headed in the right direction. It sounded easy! It wasn't. Another gas station, another Italian only speaking place, more "easy" directions and this time, although the directions were not exactly what we thought, we made it to the freeway. What should have taken 10-15 minutes had taken 50 and now we were going to be late turning in the car and possibly even late for the train. Well, Anne was up to the challenge. Flying down the freeway, she went Italian on us, and got us to Florence in record time. We turned in the car and managed to make it to the train station before our train even had a platform assigned. All in a good day's work for Annie Andretti!!!
We are now in our apartment in Roma. It is a real apartment building with regular folks and we have been serenaded by piano lessons, treated to great views of laundry hanging out the windows of the court yard, and the sounds of people talking as they go about preparing their dinners. On one hand, the noise is a bit much, but on the other, it is real and that makes it a great experience. Since we will hardly be here except to sleep it should be fine.
One funny thing I should mention is that the apartment we rented was advertised as a queen bed and two singles. We were quite surprised to find out it had a third bedroom. Unfortunately, there were no sheets on this bed and when we went to inquire about sheets with our landlord upstairs, we were told the apartment was appropriately prepared to sleep 4 people. When we asked if we couldn't use the third bed since it was there, we were told she had no sheets and perhaps the cleaning ladies could bring some to us on Monday. So, I guess Anne and I are spooning tonight. Oh boy!
Well, one of the neighbors is now playing the accordion so I must go to enjoy the concert! Ciao!
Our car trip back to Florence was a nightmare. We were so impressed with the road signs when we went into San Gimignano. What a great system these Italians have, we thought. NOT! So this town is only about 10 km from the main highway into Florence. Having experienced all the signs to San Gimignano we *knew* there had to be lots of signs to such a major city as Florence. But alas, no. There were NO signs. None. Zero. Zip. So let's stop at a gas station and ask directions.....right? Well, no one spoke any English but through gestures we got headed in the right direction. It sounded easy! It wasn't. Another gas station, another Italian only speaking place, more "easy" directions and this time, although the directions were not exactly what we thought, we made it to the freeway. What should have taken 10-15 minutes had taken 50 and now we were going to be late turning in the car and possibly even late for the train. Well, Anne was up to the challenge. Flying down the freeway, she went Italian on us, and got us to Florence in record time. We turned in the car and managed to make it to the train station before our train even had a platform assigned. All in a good day's work for Annie Andretti!!!
We are now in our apartment in Roma. It is a real apartment building with regular folks and we have been serenaded by piano lessons, treated to great views of laundry hanging out the windows of the court yard, and the sounds of people talking as they go about preparing their dinners. On one hand, the noise is a bit much, but on the other, it is real and that makes it a great experience. Since we will hardly be here except to sleep it should be fine.
One funny thing I should mention is that the apartment we rented was advertised as a queen bed and two singles. We were quite surprised to find out it had a third bedroom. Unfortunately, there were no sheets on this bed and when we went to inquire about sheets with our landlord upstairs, we were told the apartment was appropriately prepared to sleep 4 people. When we asked if we couldn't use the third bed since it was there, we were told she had no sheets and perhaps the cleaning ladies could bring some to us on Monday. So, I guess Anne and I are spooning tonight. Oh boy!
Well, one of the neighbors is now playing the accordion so I must go to enjoy the concert! Ciao!
Friday, April 8th, Volterra and Pisa
Today we got up and I got my chance to brush up on driving a stick. It really came back quickly except for the part of pushing in the clutch as you start it so that you do not lurch forward. So being quite clever, I put it in reverse when I parked at the edge of the cliff so that if I forgot, at least we would not go over. I forgot. :~(
Volterra is another Hill Town, but it did not seem to have the charm of San Gimignano, although there were definitely less people there. Fans of Twilight will recognize this town as the home of the Volturi. We made sure to wear garlic and get out quick to avoid any hungry vampires.
Next we decided to drive to Pisa. I was kind of iffy on whether I wanted to go there as it is time consuming, nothing to see except the tower, and a supposed nightmare to drive through. But I think we were all concerned that we would be sorry if we did not see it, so we went. It was not a pretty drive, Pisa is a dirty, grimy city, driving through the city was a nightmare with no signs and insane drivers, and I sighed a great sigh of relief when I saw a sign for public parking. I really had no idea where we were in the city, but I did not care. Happily we found a bus station just 1 block away and we took the bus the rest of the way. In fact, we were only 2 blocks away from the train station where I was hoping to park, so we came close. Did I mention it was a nightmare?
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was actually more impressive that I thought it would be. It was made from very pretty white marble and the ramp to climb to the top spiraled around the outside. It was definitely leaning more than I was expecting. It was quite obvious that at the 4th story that they corrected the lean by building a lean back in the opposite direction. The bell tower is also built back as another correction.
We had a lot of fun shooting funny pictures and enjoying the sunshine. We were all quite impressed with the HUGE crowd of people. It was totally packed with lots of tacky souvenir shops. Still the white marble of the church and baptistry with the bell tower (the Leaning Tower) all looked very pretty with the large green lawn.
We managed to get on the right bus back and find our car. Getting out of Pisa was not so easy but with a slight detour, we made it and headed back to San Gimignano. After dinner we all split up and went different directions and just had a quiet peaceful evening
Today we got up and I got my chance to brush up on driving a stick. It really came back quickly except for the part of pushing in the clutch as you start it so that you do not lurch forward. So being quite clever, I put it in reverse when I parked at the edge of the cliff so that if I forgot, at least we would not go over. I forgot. :~(
Volterra is another Hill Town, but it did not seem to have the charm of San Gimignano, although there were definitely less people there. Fans of Twilight will recognize this town as the home of the Volturi. We made sure to wear garlic and get out quick to avoid any hungry vampires.
Next we decided to drive to Pisa. I was kind of iffy on whether I wanted to go there as it is time consuming, nothing to see except the tower, and a supposed nightmare to drive through. But I think we were all concerned that we would be sorry if we did not see it, so we went. It was not a pretty drive, Pisa is a dirty, grimy city, driving through the city was a nightmare with no signs and insane drivers, and I sighed a great sigh of relief when I saw a sign for public parking. I really had no idea where we were in the city, but I did not care. Happily we found a bus station just 1 block away and we took the bus the rest of the way. In fact, we were only 2 blocks away from the train station where I was hoping to park, so we came close. Did I mention it was a nightmare?
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was actually more impressive that I thought it would be. It was made from very pretty white marble and the ramp to climb to the top spiraled around the outside. It was definitely leaning more than I was expecting. It was quite obvious that at the 4th story that they corrected the lean by building a lean back in the opposite direction. The bell tower is also built back as another correction.
We had a lot of fun shooting funny pictures and enjoying the sunshine. We were all quite impressed with the HUGE crowd of people. It was totally packed with lots of tacky souvenir shops. Still the white marble of the church and baptistry with the bell tower (the Leaning Tower) all looked very pretty with the large green lawn.
We managed to get on the right bus back and find our car. Getting out of Pisa was not so easy but with a slight detour, we made it and headed back to San Gimignano. After dinner we all split up and went different directions and just had a quiet peaceful evening
Thursday, April 7th- Tuscany
Our last day in Florence was a little hectic. We saw Dante's and Michelangelo's homes from the outside. Dante's was neat but Michelangelo's was not. Then we went to Pitti Palace which was very interesting, but because we had a time limit, was also a little frustrating. It is Humongous!! And the Gardens are extensive. It would probably take about 1/2 hour to walk from end to end.
One thing of interest to me is that the Medici Family (pronounced MEH dah chee) had a special walkway built from Pitti Palace, across the Ponte Vecchio bridge, all the way to the Uffizzi, which means office in Italian. It was closed in and totally decorated and therefore if the crowds were a little restless or the weather not so nice, they could still have a lovely commute to work!
At noon, we rented our car and headed into the Tuscany countryside. It was quite gorgeous. Anne drove us out of Florence and to our town of San Gimignano. I thought she was extremely brave. We decided she should drive since she had the most recent experience with a stick shift. It had only been about 13 years for her vs. my 20 years! However, the driving of a manual car came back easily to us both.
I swear that Anne actually glowed as we got further away from the city and into the beautiful area of Tuscany. She was have *a lot* of fun with the stick shift and I think I see a red ferrari in her future! She was also quite amazed with what good gas mileage looks like! LOL!!!!
The town of San Gimignano is incredibly cute. We all gave it 10's on our rating scale. We are having fun rating each site and city and experience.
San Gimignano is one of the "hill towns" that are sprinkled all over this area. They are towns built on top of mountain tops with city walls around them. Each was basically its own country or city-state. San Gimignano ticked off bigger Florence and Florence basically assumed it and moved the trade routs away from this town, to decrease their wealth and power. This left the towns in a time warp from the 14th century and are part of the reason they are such popular tourist destinations today.
We enjoyed exploring the town and the beautiful grotto that is in the old fortress. We decided to splurge a bit and had a nice dinner out. It was delicious.
Here in San Gimignano, we are staying in a monastery. Kayla really wanted to stay in a monastery here in Italy, so this was our chance. We were checked in by Mother Superior who spoke Italian and French, but no English. I could not for the life of me think of how to talk in French. I think I have suppressed it so much in order to learn Spanish and to not get the two languages confused, that it is tightly locked up. We had a small problem with the bill that we eventually figured out (she was not taking the deposit into account) and made it to our rooms.
Kayla says it is a good monastery experience as the beds are very hard. We did experience a miracle there though. We witnessed another Great Flood. Actually it was a loose shower head combined with amazingly strong water pressure that allowed the spray to soak the bathroom not once, but twice! I dubbed it the Great Flood as not only were the walls sink, toilet, towels, cosmetics, etc., soaked, there was a huge flowing puddle of water flowing from the bathroom into the bedroom. With many towels though, we were able to divert total disaster.
One thing of interest to me is that the Medici Family (pronounced MEH dah chee) had a special walkway built from Pitti Palace, across the Ponte Vecchio bridge, all the way to the Uffizzi, which means office in Italian. It was closed in and totally decorated and therefore if the crowds were a little restless or the weather not so nice, they could still have a lovely commute to work!
At noon, we rented our car and headed into the Tuscany countryside. It was quite gorgeous. Anne drove us out of Florence and to our town of San Gimignano. I thought she was extremely brave. We decided she should drive since she had the most recent experience with a stick shift. It had only been about 13 years for her vs. my 20 years! However, the driving of a manual car came back easily to us both.
I swear that Anne actually glowed as we got further away from the city and into the beautiful area of Tuscany. She was have *a lot* of fun with the stick shift and I think I see a red ferrari in her future! She was also quite amazed with what good gas mileage looks like! LOL!!!!
The town of San Gimignano is incredibly cute. We all gave it 10's on our rating scale. We are having fun rating each site and city and experience.
San Gimignano is one of the "hill towns" that are sprinkled all over this area. They are towns built on top of mountain tops with city walls around them. Each was basically its own country or city-state. San Gimignano ticked off bigger Florence and Florence basically assumed it and moved the trade routs away from this town, to decrease their wealth and power. This left the towns in a time warp from the 14th century and are part of the reason they are such popular tourist destinations today.
We enjoyed exploring the town and the beautiful grotto that is in the old fortress. We decided to splurge a bit and had a nice dinner out. It was delicious.
Here in San Gimignano, we are staying in a monastery. Kayla really wanted to stay in a monastery here in Italy, so this was our chance. We were checked in by Mother Superior who spoke Italian and French, but no English. I could not for the life of me think of how to talk in French. I think I have suppressed it so much in order to learn Spanish and to not get the two languages confused, that it is tightly locked up. We had a small problem with the bill that we eventually figured out (she was not taking the deposit into account) and made it to our rooms.
Kayla says it is a good monastery experience as the beds are very hard. We did experience a miracle there though. We witnessed another Great Flood. Actually it was a loose shower head combined with amazingly strong water pressure that allowed the spray to soak the bathroom not once, but twice! I dubbed it the Great Flood as not only were the walls sink, toilet, towels, cosmetics, etc., soaked, there was a huge flowing puddle of water flowing from the bathroom into the bedroom. With many towels though, we were able to divert total disaster.
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 5th and 6th.
I think there is too much to tell you about Florence! It has been two long days going to different museums and sites, but we have seen most of the important art of the Renaissance.
We started at the San Marco Museum which was quite fascinating. It is really an old monastery that has frescos all over the courtyards and in each one of the monk's cells by Fra Angelico. They were quite beautiful and I am really enjoying seeing art in-situ or in the situation that it was designed for.
Next was the Medici Palace and then their chapel, which is actually where their tombs are. They were very extravagant. but not as much as the Doge Palace. The Medici Chapel was especially interesting as it had tons of different kinds of marble that made beautiful patterns. The chamber that was for Lorenzo the Magnificent was designed by Michelangelo and had 9 of his sculptures in there. He does a beautiful male nude, but his females are a little lacking. A not so kind commentary on them is that they are masculine figures with bulging muscles and coconut shelled breasts. He obviously had not studied female nudes.... Still, his work is fabulous and amazing. It was fun for me to go to these places as I had read a lot about them in the book, The Agony and the Ecstasy--a must read before coming to Italy, in my opinion.
Our last stop was The Accademia, the museum which houses Michelangelo's David. It is magnificent. I can certainly see why the people of Florence loved it so much that they never put it on the top of the Duomo. Instead, they put it in the main square of town. It became of representation of Florence itself. The statue itself is huge at 17 ft. tall. Michelangelo sculpted it from a piece of marble that had been abandoned as too difficult to carve, and too flawed as another sculptor had cut too deeply into it. So Michelangelo used that deep cut area at David's waist. Michelangelo was only 26 when he carved it. How amazing is that!
I think there is too much to tell you about Florence! It has been two long days going to different museums and sites, but we have seen most of the important art of the Renaissance.
We started at the San Marco Museum which was quite fascinating. It is really an old monastery that has frescos all over the courtyards and in each one of the monk's cells by Fra Angelico. They were quite beautiful and I am really enjoying seeing art in-situ or in the situation that it was designed for.
Next was the Medici Palace and then their chapel, which is actually where their tombs are. They were very extravagant. but not as much as the Doge Palace. The Medici Chapel was especially interesting as it had tons of different kinds of marble that made beautiful patterns. The chamber that was for Lorenzo the Magnificent was designed by Michelangelo and had 9 of his sculptures in there. He does a beautiful male nude, but his females are a little lacking. A not so kind commentary on them is that they are masculine figures with bulging muscles and coconut shelled breasts. He obviously had not studied female nudes.... Still, his work is fabulous and amazing. It was fun for me to go to these places as I had read a lot about them in the book, The Agony and the Ecstasy--a must read before coming to Italy, in my opinion.
Our last stop was The Accademia, the museum which houses Michelangelo's David. It is magnificent. I can certainly see why the people of Florence loved it so much that they never put it on the top of the Duomo. Instead, they put it in the main square of town. It became of representation of Florence itself. The statue itself is huge at 17 ft. tall. Michelangelo sculpted it from a piece of marble that had been abandoned as too difficult to carve, and too flawed as another sculptor had cut too deeply into it. So Michelangelo used that deep cut area at David's waist. Michelangelo was only 26 when he carved it. How amazing is that!
Monday, April 4th, Venice
I forgot to tell you how wonderful our "hostel" is here. We have private rooms sleeping two people each. This is a nice improvement from our hostel in Milan which slept 6, so we had two roommates with us. It was fine for us, but I felt bad for them as we had early morning departures that I am sure disturbed their sleep.
The Milan hostel was huge, stark white, and very clean. I had no problems showering or using the bathrooms there--I can be kind of germ phobic, a result of many years of using sterile technique and germ awareness as a nurse. However, the hostel seemed very spartan.
In contrast, our room here actually had centuries old frescos on the wall, two balconies- as we had a corner room- that opened out to views of the canal and the beautiful roof garden across from us. We were in heaven. :~) Kayla and Meg shared the other room, which we thought would be right next door. But no. They had a very special room up a narrow staircase right above us. Their room was very cute and had two balconies as well. We really just kept pinching ourselves.
My philosophy about traveling is that where you sleep is only that, where you sleep and you should spend your money on staying longer! I only require that they are clean and safe. I really did not have grand expectations for this place, although it came recommended, and it was one of the cheapest place I could find in Venice. Venice is a VERY expensive city and our hostel rooms cost us twice as much as the rooms in Milan. They were worth it though!
Today, we went to San Marco Square. It is named San Marco because way back when in 830 AD, the Venetians stole the remains of St. Mark and brought them here. We started off at the Doge's palace. Doge means duke, and for city states like Venice, they were effectively the kings.
The palace was spectacular! I want to be Doge when I grow up! Or maybe his daughter so that I don't have to work and can simply enjoy the luxury around me. There was room after room after room of exquisite painting, statues, gilded ceilings, carved wood trim, etc. This was defiantly a spoiled monarch and Queen Elizabeth has nothing on him. So, I guess seeing one palace does not mean you have seen them all. And these rooms had no furniture and much of the painting and gilding had worn off.
The Doge was *extremely* powerful as Venice was so powerful and important. In fact, St. Mark's Basilica was originally the Doge's personal family chapel. He had a door that opened directly into the basilica and he had his own pulpit that he could climb the stairs to and then address the public during any public services. It was only somewhat lower than the priest's pulpit.
I decided at St. Mark's that if I were to become a Christian, I would rather be the Orthodox version rather than the Latin version. They both build their churches in cross shapes, but the Orthodox version has all four sides equal in length and the whole design is built with perfect circles and squares. This is to celebrate the beauty, wonder, and perfection of the world God created. The Latin cross, in contrast, symbolizes the sins of mankind and Jesus dying to save us from those sins.
The Basilica was a wonderful mix of East and West, Europe and the Byzantine Empire. They combined the architecture and decorations of both the Muslim and Christian traditions. I liked that. There were tons of mosaics with gold mosaic backgrounds. The overall effect was quite stunning. To give you an idea, the basilica has 4,750 square *yards* of mosaics.
After we toured the church, we went up to the museum. It is most famous for having the bronze horses that were originally on top of San Marco. They were made around 400 BCE, during the time of Alexander the Great. The Venetians confiscated them from Constantinople and are quite proud of them. The view from the balcony of the basilica was fabulous.
After we stopped and had lunch, we wandered around the crooked streets of Venice. What a treat. If you only stay in the touristy area, you will miss the real Venice. We decided we had gotten away from the touristy area when we passed a funeral store. It so was lovely and really, only pictures can do it any justice. Megan and Kayla retired to the hostel early to have a little down time and Anne and I kept exploring. We thought about our mom as we explored and how this was just the thing that she liked to do the most-- get off the beaten path and see more of the authentic parts where the people actually live.
We finished off our day with another Vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal. One thing that I learned on our Grand Canal cruise is that the reason the buildings here are four stories is very simple. The ground floor is where the cargo would go. The first floor would be the business offices. The second floor was where the family would live and they had the largest windows and balconies. The top floor was for the servants where it would be cold in the winter and sweltering in the summer with their small windows....
I will be sad to leave Venice tomorrow. If we had one more day, I probably would have taken a boat to two of the smaller islands to see where they make lace and blow glass--two of the things that Venice is known for!
The Milan hostel was huge, stark white, and very clean. I had no problems showering or using the bathrooms there--I can be kind of germ phobic, a result of many years of using sterile technique and germ awareness as a nurse. However, the hostel seemed very spartan.
In contrast, our room here actually had centuries old frescos on the wall, two balconies- as we had a corner room- that opened out to views of the canal and the beautiful roof garden across from us. We were in heaven. :~) Kayla and Meg shared the other room, which we thought would be right next door. But no. They had a very special room up a narrow staircase right above us. Their room was very cute and had two balconies as well. We really just kept pinching ourselves.
My philosophy about traveling is that where you sleep is only that, where you sleep and you should spend your money on staying longer! I only require that they are clean and safe. I really did not have grand expectations for this place, although it came recommended, and it was one of the cheapest place I could find in Venice. Venice is a VERY expensive city and our hostel rooms cost us twice as much as the rooms in Milan. They were worth it though!
Today, we went to San Marco Square. It is named San Marco because way back when in 830 AD, the Venetians stole the remains of St. Mark and brought them here. We started off at the Doge's palace. Doge means duke, and for city states like Venice, they were effectively the kings.
The palace was spectacular! I want to be Doge when I grow up! Or maybe his daughter so that I don't have to work and can simply enjoy the luxury around me. There was room after room after room of exquisite painting, statues, gilded ceilings, carved wood trim, etc. This was defiantly a spoiled monarch and Queen Elizabeth has nothing on him. So, I guess seeing one palace does not mean you have seen them all. And these rooms had no furniture and much of the painting and gilding had worn off.
The Doge was *extremely* powerful as Venice was so powerful and important. In fact, St. Mark's Basilica was originally the Doge's personal family chapel. He had a door that opened directly into the basilica and he had his own pulpit that he could climb the stairs to and then address the public during any public services. It was only somewhat lower than the priest's pulpit.
I decided at St. Mark's that if I were to become a Christian, I would rather be the Orthodox version rather than the Latin version. They both build their churches in cross shapes, but the Orthodox version has all four sides equal in length and the whole design is built with perfect circles and squares. This is to celebrate the beauty, wonder, and perfection of the world God created. The Latin cross, in contrast, symbolizes the sins of mankind and Jesus dying to save us from those sins.
The Basilica was a wonderful mix of East and West, Europe and the Byzantine Empire. They combined the architecture and decorations of both the Muslim and Christian traditions. I liked that. There were tons of mosaics with gold mosaic backgrounds. The overall effect was quite stunning. To give you an idea, the basilica has 4,750 square *yards* of mosaics.
After we toured the church, we went up to the museum. It is most famous for having the bronze horses that were originally on top of San Marco. They were made around 400 BCE, during the time of Alexander the Great. The Venetians confiscated them from Constantinople and are quite proud of them. The view from the balcony of the basilica was fabulous.
After we stopped and had lunch, we wandered around the crooked streets of Venice. What a treat. If you only stay in the touristy area, you will miss the real Venice. We decided we had gotten away from the touristy area when we passed a funeral store. It so was lovely and really, only pictures can do it any justice. Megan and Kayla retired to the hostel early to have a little down time and Anne and I kept exploring. We thought about our mom as we explored and how this was just the thing that she liked to do the most-- get off the beaten path and see more of the authentic parts where the people actually live.
We finished off our day with another Vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal. One thing that I learned on our Grand Canal cruise is that the reason the buildings here are four stories is very simple. The ground floor is where the cargo would go. The first floor would be the business offices. The second floor was where the family would live and they had the largest windows and balconies. The top floor was for the servants where it would be cold in the winter and sweltering in the summer with their small windows....
I will be sad to leave Venice tomorrow. If we had one more day, I probably would have taken a boat to two of the smaller islands to see where they make lace and blow glass--two of the things that Venice is known for!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Sunday, April 3rd-- Venice
I LOVE Venice. It was all that I hoped for and more. It is hard to describe but I will try....
The buildings are old and the plaster has fallen off many of the buildings, leaving the brick structure underneath peaking through. So much prettier than either of coverings alone. There are balconies everywhere with flowers boxes and ivy hanging from them. The streets are very narrow, only enough room for for two people across, usually in opposite directions. They wind around, up and down over the canals, with side streets randomly shooting out. The building are all about 4 stories tall, so there is a uniform height overall. Canals are *everywhere* with steps going up and coming back down in a graceful arch across the water.
Going through the canals are, of course, the gondolas, but also motor boats here and there. There is no driving here so the canals are their roads. We saw boats carrying wine, fresh fruit and vegetables, lumber, and even cranes. There are garbage boats carting away many black bags, police boats with officers using their radar guns to give speeding tickets, fire boats, and even traffic lights. Perhaps most interesting to me, were the construction boats with cranes and power tools on them. We actually got to see one working. Each time it got a load, the boat would tip somewhat precariously with the weight. When is dropped its load, the boat would tip way back the other way. Talk about motion sickness!
I think a two or three day trip to Venice is great. I felt sorry for all the people that were day tripping it here--they missed the best part of Venice. Its ambiance. On our first day here we started at the Friari Church. It was wonderful to see great artwork in the setting that it was designed for. I did not realize what a big difference that could make. My favorite was The Assumption of Mary, by Titian. Absolutely gorgeous!
After the Friari, we went to the Academia, an art gallery of Venetian artists. It was nice, but I would not highly recommend it. This is different than its more famous cousin, The Academia in Florence.
After these two stops, we decided to try gelato. Big mistake. It is wonderful! I was very surprised as I had tried gelato in the U.S. before and found it nothing to write home about. Italian gelato IS worth writing home about. I won't go into the details and tease you, but we all decided we would rather skip a meal and use the money for more gelato. It will be a daily treat for sure.
Last on our list was a cruise on the Grand Canal. Now that sounds romantic, but in reality, we used the public bus, which is the Vaporeto boat. Tip: definitely buy all day passes. The tickets are about $9 one way. A 48 hour pass cost us $30. We used it a lot!
Being quite clever, we took the Vaporetto one stop past the train station and then got on another one going the opposite direction and took the lovely seats outside of the boat that get filled at the train station. We listened to our audio tour from our ipods that we downloaded from Rick Steves. (If you are ever coming to Europe, buy his books. They are fabulous, save you a lot of money, and give you great insider tips for touring.)
The audio tour was fabulous and well timed with the boat ride. It described the history of Venice, what the beautiful buildings along the canal had been used for and how the canal had worked as the major trading center of Europe. Venice was so important that the Adriatic Sea was simply called the Venetian Sea.
The weather on our trip has been lovely. Warm and sunny, perfect. I definitely would not want to tour Venice in the rain. It would lose so much of its charm. Because the weather was so nice, we stayed on the boat all the way to the island of Lido and then back to the Academia.
We finished our day eating pizza along the canal at a super cute cafe. It is nice to eat here as the waiters will not bring you the check until you ask for it. Once you are seated, the seat is yours for as long as you want. It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day. I truly feel like I am in Italy now. :~)
I LOVE Venice. It was all that I hoped for and more. It is hard to describe but I will try....
The buildings are old and the plaster has fallen off many of the buildings, leaving the brick structure underneath peaking through. So much prettier than either of coverings alone. There are balconies everywhere with flowers boxes and ivy hanging from them. The streets are very narrow, only enough room for for two people across, usually in opposite directions. They wind around, up and down over the canals, with side streets randomly shooting out. The building are all about 4 stories tall, so there is a uniform height overall. Canals are *everywhere* with steps going up and coming back down in a graceful arch across the water.
Going through the canals are, of course, the gondolas, but also motor boats here and there. There is no driving here so the canals are their roads. We saw boats carrying wine, fresh fruit and vegetables, lumber, and even cranes. There are garbage boats carting away many black bags, police boats with officers using their radar guns to give speeding tickets, fire boats, and even traffic lights. Perhaps most interesting to me, were the construction boats with cranes and power tools on them. We actually got to see one working. Each time it got a load, the boat would tip somewhat precariously with the weight. When is dropped its load, the boat would tip way back the other way. Talk about motion sickness!
I think a two or three day trip to Venice is great. I felt sorry for all the people that were day tripping it here--they missed the best part of Venice. Its ambiance. On our first day here we started at the Friari Church. It was wonderful to see great artwork in the setting that it was designed for. I did not realize what a big difference that could make. My favorite was The Assumption of Mary, by Titian. Absolutely gorgeous!
After the Friari, we went to the Academia, an art gallery of Venetian artists. It was nice, but I would not highly recommend it. This is different than its more famous cousin, The Academia in Florence.
After these two stops, we decided to try gelato. Big mistake. It is wonderful! I was very surprised as I had tried gelato in the U.S. before and found it nothing to write home about. Italian gelato IS worth writing home about. I won't go into the details and tease you, but we all decided we would rather skip a meal and use the money for more gelato. It will be a daily treat for sure.
Last on our list was a cruise on the Grand Canal. Now that sounds romantic, but in reality, we used the public bus, which is the Vaporeto boat. Tip: definitely buy all day passes. The tickets are about $9 one way. A 48 hour pass cost us $30. We used it a lot!
Being quite clever, we took the Vaporetto one stop past the train station and then got on another one going the opposite direction and took the lovely seats outside of the boat that get filled at the train station. We listened to our audio tour from our ipods that we downloaded from Rick Steves. (If you are ever coming to Europe, buy his books. They are fabulous, save you a lot of money, and give you great insider tips for touring.)
The audio tour was fabulous and well timed with the boat ride. It described the history of Venice, what the beautiful buildings along the canal had been used for and how the canal had worked as the major trading center of Europe. Venice was so important that the Adriatic Sea was simply called the Venetian Sea.
The weather on our trip has been lovely. Warm and sunny, perfect. I definitely would not want to tour Venice in the rain. It would lose so much of its charm. Because the weather was so nice, we stayed on the boat all the way to the island of Lido and then back to the Academia.
We finished our day eating pizza along the canal at a super cute cafe. It is nice to eat here as the waiters will not bring you the check until you ask for it. Once you are seated, the seat is yours for as long as you want. It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day. I truly feel like I am in Italy now. :~)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
It Begins....
Saturday, April 2nd
Today is our first full day in Italy! I can't believe that we are really here! Last night we decided to take the the metro from our hostel to have dinner and were surprised when we got to the metro stop and it was gated up. Strike. Happily, it was only during certain times and it was totally fine for us today. Hopefully tomorrow it will be fine as well as we are taking an early train to Venice in the morning.
But back to today.... We started our day with another tour, which is something we don't usually do very often on our trips. However, in this case, we needed to take the tour so that we could see the Last Supper by Leonardo Di Vinci. I had spent about 3 weeks trying to make phone reservations (the only way you can make reservations) without being able to speak to a real person. So in desperation, I booked a tour that included the Last Supper. I am so glad that I did. I also should say that I have enjoyed riding around and seeing the city more. Might try to do that with public buses here and there instead of always taking the metro.
Our tour started with a bus ride around Milan which was interesting. They have beautiful buildings here with lots of plant covered balconies and garden roof tops. Our first stop was the Scala Opera House. It is quite famous and it is GORGEOUS inside. Unfortunately, there is no photography inside, but imagine a huge opera house with many rows of red velvet box seats, gold trim and fabulous chandeliers.
Next we went to the Duomo, which is the Italian name for church. Milan's duomo is 4th largest in the Western world, after Seville, St. Paul's, and the Vatican. It has amazing gothic architecture! Kayla's professor here described it as a wedding cake on steroids. The entire thing is made from marble. It was very pretty inside as well and especially nice as they were doing a service at the time and the priest looked splendid in his purple robes against all of the gold gilding. Lori, I lit a candle here for you! I got it right this time! :~)
Next was Sforza Castle, home to the Duke of Milan who ruled the city-state of Milan. Not much to look at really, but we did not have much time here.
Last was the Last Supper. Totally worth it. It is huge and very magnificent, even in its crumbling state. Leonardo used an experimental technique to paint this and it started chipping and fading within just a few years of its completion. We decided that Dan Brown had it correct and that "St. John" IS really Mary Magdeline. She really is the only feminine "disciple". Unfortunately, there was no photography here either.... Sorry!
Our last stop of the day was the roof-top of the Duomo. It was Fabulous!! I will just post pictures as they will tell the story better than I can. As you look at them, keep in mind that every post and carving is different.....
Milan was a great stop to see the Duomo and Last Supper. It is also a great place to get over your jet lag as it is not a demanding site-seeing destination.
***I am not able to post pictures right now--hopefully when we have better internet!*****
Today is our first full day in Italy! I can't believe that we are really here! Last night we decided to take the the metro from our hostel to have dinner and were surprised when we got to the metro stop and it was gated up. Strike. Happily, it was only during certain times and it was totally fine for us today. Hopefully tomorrow it will be fine as well as we are taking an early train to Venice in the morning.
But back to today.... We started our day with another tour, which is something we don't usually do very often on our trips. However, in this case, we needed to take the tour so that we could see the Last Supper by Leonardo Di Vinci. I had spent about 3 weeks trying to make phone reservations (the only way you can make reservations) without being able to speak to a real person. So in desperation, I booked a tour that included the Last Supper. I am so glad that I did. I also should say that I have enjoyed riding around and seeing the city more. Might try to do that with public buses here and there instead of always taking the metro.
Our tour started with a bus ride around Milan which was interesting. They have beautiful buildings here with lots of plant covered balconies and garden roof tops. Our first stop was the Scala Opera House. It is quite famous and it is GORGEOUS inside. Unfortunately, there is no photography inside, but imagine a huge opera house with many rows of red velvet box seats, gold trim and fabulous chandeliers.
Next we went to the Duomo, which is the Italian name for church. Milan's duomo is 4th largest in the Western world, after Seville, St. Paul's, and the Vatican. It has amazing gothic architecture! Kayla's professor here described it as a wedding cake on steroids. The entire thing is made from marble. It was very pretty inside as well and especially nice as they were doing a service at the time and the priest looked splendid in his purple robes against all of the gold gilding. Lori, I lit a candle here for you! I got it right this time! :~)
Next was Sforza Castle, home to the Duke of Milan who ruled the city-state of Milan. Not much to look at really, but we did not have much time here.
Last was the Last Supper. Totally worth it. It is huge and very magnificent, even in its crumbling state. Leonardo used an experimental technique to paint this and it started chipping and fading within just a few years of its completion. We decided that Dan Brown had it correct and that "St. John" IS really Mary Magdeline. She really is the only feminine "disciple". Unfortunately, there was no photography here either.... Sorry!
Our last stop of the day was the roof-top of the Duomo. It was Fabulous!! I will just post pictures as they will tell the story better than I can. As you look at them, keep in mind that every post and carving is different.....
Milan was a great stop to see the Duomo and Last Supper. It is also a great place to get over your jet lag as it is not a demanding site-seeing destination.
***I am not able to post pictures right now--hopefully when we have better internet!*****
Saturday, April 2, 2011
A Matter of Time
Well, it is with some irony that I am getting to my first post as we are preparing to leave London. I have been having a difficult time getting my internet to work and in addition, have not had much down time.
We arrived in London on Tuesday morning and headed straight to the hostel for a short nap. Before falling asleep, we set the alarm. I had set my watch for Amsterdam time but could not remember if I had changed it back the one hour. Sure enough, it was an hour off of the ipad so we set the alarm so we would wake up in plenty of time to meet Kayla at 5:30 for dinner.
Imagine my surprise when we arrived at 5:20 and she said, "about time!" Apparently I had set the watch back and the ipad did not have the right time as I did not realize it was not connected to the internet. So, lesson learned, right?
Well, not quite. That night I woke up at 3:15 with a little anxiety about whether we had changed the alarm clock to the correct time since we had an early (and expensive) morning tour that I did not want to miss. So turning on my little light, I checked the watch and then checked the alarm. Unfortunately, they were an hour off. So, had we actually changed the watch? Was it the alarm clock that was off. Meg and I decided to see which one was different from the ipad and come to find out, they both were!!! (Still no internet) So, I got dressed, went down to the lobby to double check the time. The watch was correct, the alarm was not. Thank you guardian angel for waking me, but it might of been better overall if you had swept away my foggy brain. Jet lag is not pretty! (and yes, I am blaming it. And for the fact that the shirt I put on to go downstairs was inside out. Yep. Classy.)
Our day tour was very good. We started at Windsor castle which was nice, but I kept thinking that if you have seen one spoiled monarch's home, then you have seen them all-- and Louis XIV had them all beat with Versaille!
Next was Stonehenge, which I had low expectations for. I had seen the pictures that showed how far away you had to stand behind the ropes from the stones. Instead I was very pleasantly surprised. We were quite close to the stones and although I would have preferred to walk among them, I was still very impressed and pleased. It is definitely more majestic in person.
Our last stop was in the city of Bath. It was quite pretty. We toured the old Roman baths which were really neat to get to see. When they "re-did" the town a couple of hundred years ago, they used and rebuilt the new baths over the old one. Today you cannot get in them, but they were still very beautiful.
Lastly, because Megan was feeling a little peaked, we went up to the Pump Room to partake of the healing waters. Our guide said that they tasted awful but to me, they just tasted like warm mineral water. Unfortunately there was no immediate cure, but she has slowly recovered the last few days and I feel certain it was a direct result of our sips of water. :~)
The next day we slept in a bit (as the cure had not kicked in yet) and then went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Can I say, "WOW!" It is magnificent. We had not been able to see it during our last visit to London, as it was closed for repairs, and I am especially glad we got to see it this time. They offered an audio guide tour, which we did, and it was very informative. Then we climbed 530 some stairs to the the balcony that goes around the outside of the dome. The view was beautiful. The dome is 365 ft. tall, one foot for each day of the year. The church was built by Christopher Wren and considered his masterpiece. I agree.
I lit a candle for Lori as she is always lighting candles for me and for my family....then I realized it was not a Catholic church but Anglican. I think I got confused because was so intricated than therefore looked like a Catholic church and they were serving the Eucharist. But I think the candle should still count! :~)
After St. Paul's we met Kayla at Westminster Cathedral. They also offered a tour and it was a lot of fun to see the tombs of so many famous people. Queen Mary and Queen ELizabeth are buried together although Elizabeth is on top and the marble figure on the tomb is only of her. Hmmmm...... Not to be outdone is the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scotts, who is buried directly across with orders by her son that her tomb should be nicer than Queen Elizabeth's. Her son was chosen to be king since Queen Elizabeth did not have children and I don't think he seemed very grateful.....
That takes us to today and we are on our way to Milano. I will try to post pictures later... so check back. :~)
Well, it is with some irony that I am getting to my first post as we are preparing to leave London. I have been having a difficult time getting my internet to work and in addition, have not had much down time.
We arrived in London on Tuesday morning and headed straight to the hostel for a short nap. Before falling asleep, we set the alarm. I had set my watch for Amsterdam time but could not remember if I had changed it back the one hour. Sure enough, it was an hour off of the ipad so we set the alarm so we would wake up in plenty of time to meet Kayla at 5:30 for dinner.
Imagine my surprise when we arrived at 5:20 and she said, "about time!" Apparently I had set the watch back and the ipad did not have the right time as I did not realize it was not connected to the internet. So, lesson learned, right?
Well, not quite. That night I woke up at 3:15 with a little anxiety about whether we had changed the alarm clock to the correct time since we had an early (and expensive) morning tour that I did not want to miss. So turning on my little light, I checked the watch and then checked the alarm. Unfortunately, they were an hour off. So, had we actually changed the watch? Was it the alarm clock that was off. Meg and I decided to see which one was different from the ipad and come to find out, they both were!!! (Still no internet) So, I got dressed, went down to the lobby to double check the time. The watch was correct, the alarm was not. Thank you guardian angel for waking me, but it might of been better overall if you had swept away my foggy brain. Jet lag is not pretty! (and yes, I am blaming it. And for the fact that the shirt I put on to go downstairs was inside out. Yep. Classy.)
Our day tour was very good. We started at Windsor castle which was nice, but I kept thinking that if you have seen one spoiled monarch's home, then you have seen them all-- and Louis XIV had them all beat with Versaille!
Next was Stonehenge, which I had low expectations for. I had seen the pictures that showed how far away you had to stand behind the ropes from the stones. Instead I was very pleasantly surprised. We were quite close to the stones and although I would have preferred to walk among them, I was still very impressed and pleased. It is definitely more majestic in person.
Our last stop was in the city of Bath. It was quite pretty. We toured the old Roman baths which were really neat to get to see. When they "re-did" the town a couple of hundred years ago, they used and rebuilt the new baths over the old one. Today you cannot get in them, but they were still very beautiful.
Lastly, because Megan was feeling a little peaked, we went up to the Pump Room to partake of the healing waters. Our guide said that they tasted awful but to me, they just tasted like warm mineral water. Unfortunately there was no immediate cure, but she has slowly recovered the last few days and I feel certain it was a direct result of our sips of water. :~)
The next day we slept in a bit (as the cure had not kicked in yet) and then went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Can I say, "WOW!" It is magnificent. We had not been able to see it during our last visit to London, as it was closed for repairs, and I am especially glad we got to see it this time. They offered an audio guide tour, which we did, and it was very informative. Then we climbed 530 some stairs to the the balcony that goes around the outside of the dome. The view was beautiful. The dome is 365 ft. tall, one foot for each day of the year. The church was built by Christopher Wren and considered his masterpiece. I agree.
I lit a candle for Lori as she is always lighting candles for me and for my family....then I realized it was not a Catholic church but Anglican. I think I got confused because was so intricated than therefore looked like a Catholic church and they were serving the Eucharist. But I think the candle should still count! :~)
After St. Paul's we met Kayla at Westminster Cathedral. They also offered a tour and it was a lot of fun to see the tombs of so many famous people. Queen Mary and Queen ELizabeth are buried together although Elizabeth is on top and the marble figure on the tomb is only of her. Hmmmm...... Not to be outdone is the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scotts, who is buried directly across with orders by her son that her tomb should be nicer than Queen Elizabeth's. Her son was chosen to be king since Queen Elizabeth did not have children and I don't think he seemed very grateful.....
That takes us to today and we are on our way to Milano. I will try to post pictures later... so check back. :~)
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