Ancient Rome

Started off our day walking again, our hotel seems to be 5 km from everything, we figure we are averaging 15 to 20 Kms a day.  Now I know why they can eat so much pasta and red wine. Lol

The streets of Rome themselves are just so beautiful, here are a few pictures that hopefully will give you a feel for the city

Vendors everywhere selling souvenirs, scarfs and bags, fresh fruit including coconut and water.  There are also drinkable water fountains all over Rome that you can fill your bottle up or even just bend over and drink right out of the tap.

Stairs everywhere, go up walk a few 100 yards and go back down.

All around the city there is still excavation going on, they figure they have only uncovered about 30% of the sites.  Now they have to accept that some will never be uncovered because of the city being built on top of so many.  One interesting fact they have now found is that the city was founded by Romulus and Remus, if Romulus hadn't killed Remus, the town would have been called Rema. They were actually real people not just a myth.  

We took Fodors advice and went to the forum first.  12 euos each gets you into both the forum and the colosseum.  Hollywood did a pretty good job of interpreting and bringing  to life the way it was 2000 years ago.  

These were real places with real people living real lives.  There were huge class distinctions, the rich and everyone else and then the slaves.  

The colosseum was so large it just dwarfed you.  

The day started with the beast fights.  It ran with the efficiency of a play.  100s of rooms to keep the beasts, criminals and gladiators in.  They used cages and pulleys to get the beasts up to the floor.  The choreographer was expected to make the hunting and killing into a historical story with props and everything.  Then they stopped for lunch.  The next act was the killing of the criminals and then the gladiators came out.  One figure you hear bandied about is that 30000 gladiators were killed over its history.

Our first subway ride

As we were walking around yesterday I remarked to Jim, "why are there so many cars and vespas when they have such a great public transport system, buses, subways, streetcars", then we took our 1st subway ride.  Wow, felt like I was in Japan at rush hour.  Push shove to get in, don't breath and then push shove to get out.  But everyone was very good natured about it.  Yes, even Jim.  :)

Back for a quick change of clothes and off to piazza del Popolo and a lovely restaurant on the square called Rosati.  

Ciao

The Vatican tour

In our infinite wisdom we decided to walk over for our 230 tour of the Vatican.  There is no option of wearing cute shoes.  I have been wearing my super comfy golf sandals which even now are getting a little wore in.  This time I added a pair of socks into my bag.  Honestly I don't think we have walked on a  blade of grass since we got here.  The whole country is pavement and most of it cobbled.

Walking down the neighbourhood roads there are just people everywhere and this is quiet compared to July and August.  Notice how the vespas don't need to be in a lane.  Lol

The whole town is covered in statues, they are everywhere

And churches in every neighbourhood.  This is the Trinita dei Monti.  This is a 16 th century church at the top of the Spanish Steps.  It has beautiful views over the whole of Rome.

From here we hit the Piazza del Popolo, the people's square.  One of Rome's biggest areas to do some fun people watching.  Always lots of activity.  

An Egyptian obelisk carved for RamsesII in 13 bc is in the centre of the square

Next stop was the Vatican.  After we go through security, our guide, Tiffany starts us on our tour.  This was a Viatour I booked online and well worth the money.  Tiffany is from Indiana and was the top guide for 2012.  

I was expecting a lot of history about the building of Christianity, instead the first few galleries were all about Ancient Rome.  Tiffany quote "if you spent 30 seconds looking at every item on display in the museum, it would take you 12 years to finish".  Below are just 100s of heads etc.  there was another gallery of just animals.  All from ancient Rome.  

Nearly all of the male statues had their male parts removed, possibly by Pope Pius IX.  Tiffany quote " there was a box recently discovered in the archives which was full of male parts which the restorers are now going through to try and figure out which statue they belong too".

This is considered one of the most important statues in the collection.  This is Laocoon, who tried to convince the Trojans to burn down the wooden horse.  Someone either Athena, Poseidon or Apollo sent the serpents to kill him and his 2 sons.  If he hadn't died then the whole history of Rome would have changed. 

This is Nero's bathtub.  It was made from one piece of marble.  How on earth did they transport it back then. 

There were galleries of maps, tapestries, etc.  below are a couple pictures from the Raphael gallery. Pope Julius II refused to sleep in Alexander Borgis (they were arch rivals) apartment so had his own created.  He commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel after Raphael's recommendation and then insisted that Raphael do his apartments.  Raphael was a lover while Michelangelo was a thinker and brooder.  The painting was done fresco style, which meant putting up plaster waiting until it was the perfect temperature and then applying the paint.  Michelangelo did all of this himself.  It took him 4 years to finish the ceiling and he did it all standing up, not lying down.  He even started to sleep up there.  He had never done fresco before and considered himself a sculptor not a painter, but what Julius II wanted, Julius II got, he was considered the warrior pope.

Raphael meanwhile was considered the top fresco painter of his time and the girls loved him, which is probably why he died at 37 of syphlllis.  His paintings were beautiful and delicate.  Michelangelo's were rugged and to the point.  

Both of these pictures are by Raphael, supposedly the one below was painted by him after he snuck in to see what Michelangelo was doing in the Sistine chapel.  As you can see there is some nudity and the bodies are more rugged.  

In this picture he was showing the great masters of history, he put himself, da Vince and Michelangelo  (Bottom right leaning on a desk). 

Michelangelo died at 86 after painting the "last judgement" on the altar wall of the Sistine chapel.  It is quite a startling and scary picture.  There was a cardinal that he didn't get along with and he put his head on one of the bodies being taken to hell.  Eventually one of the popes had all the pictures nudity painted over.  You can't take pics inside the chapel, you aren't even allowed to talk above a whisper.  The pictures are stunning and his vision was ahead of his time.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallery_of_Sistine_Chapel_ceiling

The doors to St. Peter's

Michelangelo did this sculpture when he was 24,  people didn't believe he did it, so he snuck in and 

put his name on a sash across Mary's chest.  In 1972, Laszlo Toth attacked it with a hammer.  He was 

Later declared mentally ill.  He managed to hit it 15 times before being stopped.  The people were more

Interested in stealing the marble.  Luckily they were able to get most  of it back.  It is now behind

Bulletproof glass.

Back home to rest the feet and then we headed around the corner for a wonderful dinner.

Ciao

Rome - first 8 hours

It's  wonderful, it's dirty, it's old, it's ancient, it's new.  Sorrento was 99.9% European and North American.  Rome is so multicultural.  Italians in their smart suits, Pakistanis with Italian accents on every street corner trying to sell something.  

Rome is divided into neighbourhoods. We are staying in the Republica neighbourhood, lots of hotels, restaurants and locals.  

Truth be told it was a little scary when we started walking around yesterday.  Jim thought everyone was a gypsy.  The cars and vespas were everywhere, even up on the sidewalks, and then we went in our first church, Santa Maria degli Angeli.  Part of this church was built by Michelangelo and there is a beautiful Bernini sculpture in it called "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa".  Wrong church it is actually in Santa Maria Della Vittorio.  

  

Right across the road is the Piazza dei republica, built in 1870.  It has a gigantic fountain in the middle and 2 very high class hotels surrounding it.  It is always filled with cars, buses and vespas whipping from one lane to the next, lol I don't think they actually have lanes in Italy.  Btw vespas seem to have only one rule they all wear helmets, they don't follow lanes and they don't stop for red lights.

Our next stop was at the Monument of Vittorio Emanuel II, built in the early 1900s, this was a source of great national pride at the time and includes the eternal flame to the WWI unknown soldier, which has 2 sentinels guarding it everyday.  Present day romans dont like it because of the amount of ancient ruins he had to remove to build it.  It reminds me a little of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  Right beside this was the Foro di Traiano, a huge imperial forum, a city unto itself built by Trajan.  

We walked back to our hotel. Art Deco pronounced "ar tecco". Changed and went for dinner.  Our concierge recommended the Trastevere area, which was full of small cafes and literally 1000s of people wandering around.  Lots of little alleys with little shops all over.  tourists, locals, hawkers all mixed together wandering around with little vespas keeping you on your toes.  Another wonderful meal.  We are shocked at how reasonable it is to eat in Italy. We haven't spent more than 100 euros for dinner including tip.  Most have averaged around 70 euros, including the wine.  

The Tiber river with one of the many bridges in the distance

For some strange reason we decided to walk back to the hotel, we figure we walked about 20 Kms today.  

Ed at 

One of the beautiful tunnels joining up neighbourhoods.

 

Capri, beautiful Capri

Everyday so far has been unbelievable and then we discovered Capri.......  

Our taxi picks us up at the front desk at 930, along with Robert and Karen Bradford from oklahoma and Judith and Tim from England. Sitting on the front of the boat were 6 kids from Calgary and Vancouver.  One of the young couples were on their honeymoon.  The new husband had been playing baseball 2 days before their flight and tore his acl, etc. he was in a cast and not allowed to bend his knee for 5 days. His lucky new bride had to push him all around Rome in a wheelchair.  lol.  Luckily for the boat ride he was finally on crutches.  

Our captain was Mario, he is also a race car driver and according to him and the pictures he showed the single Lianna from Vancouver, an idol in Sicily.  Would recommend him to anyone, he was just charming and a great guide.

Our first stop was the Red Grotto, basically a hole in the cliff where the water is just dazzling.  

Before we get in to the grotto, one of the littler boats from the fleet was towing out one of the bigger boats.  We all look at each other and definitely start thinking, Gilligan.  Mario now informs us that we have to tow the boat around to the Grande Harbour.  So we attach the boat and off we go.  

Thirty minutes later we continue on our way.  The next site are the Fragaliano rocks,  these are three rocks that stick out of the sea with a little passage through them.  

Our tour group are very fun.  Robert used to be a colonel in the American army and is now a federal prosecutor.  He was responsible for the conviction of the man who starved his young son to death.  Needless to say he is used to taking charge and getting everyone yakking and talking about themselves.   He even managed to bring Jim out of his shell.  :)

This is where we went for our first swim.  The water was quite warm, salty and crystal clear.  There were tons of little fish swimming with us. 

Capi is basically a cliff coming out of the sea.

We stop at a small port called Porto Piccolo which means little harbour.  We are given a packed lunch and off we go to explore for 3 hours.  Robert becomes our tour guide and on the local bus we hop, up the mountain, down the mountain,  over the mountain and back up again to Anacapri, a beautiful little town almost at the top of Capri.  

    

Now you get on a tiny chair lift and go to the very top.  My eyes were closed most of the way up,  worse on the way down.  The view was spectacular, you could see the whole island.

On the way down after watching them put around 30 people into this little bus that only had seats for 10, we decided to take a cab down.  A much better way to take all those ess curves and only cost 25 euros for 5 of us.

Back in the boat and off to the green grotto.

We decided to jump in and swim through.  The water was amazing, Jim could be heard all over the island with the wonderful echos lol.  Our boat took off to meet us on the other side.  What fun!!!!  Then Zappa, one little baby jellyfish zaps my right arm.  I start yelling at people that there are jelly fish.  Liana starts hyperventilating, the boat is 30 feet away.  All the people with snorkels take off.  I get thrown a snorkel, put my head under the water and right in front of my eyes another baby jellyfish.  I pop to the surface gulping water, frantically yelling, bring the boat closer.  they are all being so helpful, just swim this way there is onlly one little one, oh no look another one.  i have given jim the snorkels with intense directions to get me back to the boat.  i am holding onto his foot.  he is swimming away from the boat, i start tugging on his foot,  where are you going, i keep tugging, he keeps ignoring me,  zap a bigger jellyfish has now got my right wrist.  My arms are stinging like heck, but I haven't died, yet.  No numbness.  Well to heck with this, I let go of Jim's foot and head back to the boat like a water buffalo trying to get away from a crocodile.  Robert also got zapped.  There was lots of talk about peeing on my arms,  I passed.  Mario had some cream which definitely helped.  So FYI they sting like a wasp bite, just bigger depending on how long the tentacles are, according to the web page NEVER pee on a jellyfish sting.  The sting I could handle, the fear is another story.

Now we are off to the blue grotto.  You have to actually get off the boat onto a little rowboat and duck under the rock to get in.  There are lot of days when it is closed, waves too big, no go in.  The water was fluorescent blue.  Jim and I didn't go in.  I was still recovering, and 25 euros for a 10 minute boat ride, oh yeah don't forget the tip.  Lol

The trip cost 75 euros each, great value, left at 930 back at 6.  Great views, on the water lunch, beer. A must do...

A great ride back to port, a hot bath and we are off to dinner, more pasta please.

Ciao

Pompeii

A new excursion today, a trip on the local train to Pompeii. Quick walk down to the train station and hop on the train, takes about forty minutes to get there.  There is a "dd" (fast) train, which only makes 4 stops but we got on the one that hit all 14 stops.  Cost 8.80 return.  The train stops 100 yards from the entrance to Pompeii. You can see the ruins from the train.  Outside the station the hawkers start their selling game.  Bottles of water, souvenirs, books, tour guides.  They had everything for a price.  

After a great recommendation from a British couple from Nottinghamshire we decided to book the 2 hour guided tour with an English speaking guide.  12 euros each, but well worth the money.  It took them about 45 minutes to get organized and we were off.  Tip:  they had lots of fresh water fountains for water inside, you need it, and there were lots of toilets that didn't cost anything.  

We were her family and she was mamma.  She had a beautiful orange umbrella for us to traipse around behind.

Not only did she know the history of Pompeii, she put a nice touching and funny realism to the tragedy that was Pompeii.  20,000 people died.  They figure 90% of them from the ashes, day turned to night. People were racing around trying to escape and couldn't see a thing.  They died where they were in the middle of the street, in their kitchens.  And then the next day the survivors came back to look for family, they were so devastated that a lot of them thinking they were safe lay down to sleep where they thought their homes were.  And then the gas came, most of the survivors then died from the gases erupting out of Mt Vesuvius.  They found them in sleeping positions.  A lot of these bodies are on display in different museums around the world.  I couldn't take a picture of the bodies, it was still too sad.  It was a little shocking to see the real side of a book and story I had read so long ago.

Pompeii was home to 20,000 people 2000 years ago.  Aurora only had 15,000 people in it when we moved in in 1985.  This was a huge town, with temples, theatre, and a large coliseum.  And mama's favourite spot - the brothel.  A lot of the girls were from other islands and didn't speak the language so they had pictures that the men could point to, to show what they liked.  Some of these pictures were still on the walls. 

The first coliseum

The opera

These were ovens,

The pizza ovens

A house

A mansion, over 10,000 sq feet.

On the way home we needless to say stopped for a drink at a love bar overlooking the harbour. Hotel excelsior vittorio.

Back to the room, off for dinner, a limoncello for Jim in our favourite market cafe and to top it off a huge fireworks display at 11 pm.

Ciao